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It’s never perfect in marketing, but marketers strive for perfection. Even when we launch multiple channels at once, organization is a must because so many conversations occur between a brand and various public facing environments at a time.

To be a good marketer is to have a system, or what we like to call a reliable dashboard. The goal of your system should be to keep you focused on the indicators that could effect your goals. Today we will take a look at three major communication buckets that help us: current initiatives, content launching today, and recent stats.

To improve conversations and increase conversions, we must be aware of the current conversations existing out in the world today. Staying close to the numbers and messaging will allow you to notice trends, peaks, and areas of improvement quicker and with ease in time.

Current Initiatives. Not just looking at what is launching today, but tomorrow, and the next week and perhaps the next 30 days. Reviewing the surface-level details, like campaign titles, is a great way to keep yourself up to speed AND to understand the larger conversation/operation occuring. This is a fabulous time to review what is currently live/published. Are there any errors? If so, are they on channels where content is editable? Being aware of your current initiatives gives you a critical frame of reference of what the audience is consuming in real-time. This also helps you understand the rate at which your content is being consumed, and how that effort translates into conversions. If you have time to revisit your own funnel structure, we encourage this. By reviewing, you may only notice that your MOFU approach for instance is off in terms of flow and conversions are low moving users to the bottom of the funnel. This exercise encourages us to take a high-level approach to revising a communication schedule. Once you know the big picture, you can focus on the smaller details!

Launching Today. All channels, not just Ads and Web Pages, but Emails, Story content, Tweets, and Other Social Posts too (not to mention collabs but that is a for a different blog post) are important to review one last final time before hitting the publish button. Now that you have reviewed all current initiatives it is time to dive deep on content launching today. Focus first on the Where and When so you know which environments your content will circulate in and at what time. Are there any extra spaces or typos? Is the content approved by multiple people or has a checklist been processed to make sure strategy is in line with initial inception? These are great questions to ask yourself while also keeping in mind how specific channels function. To do this we think about editable vs non-editable channels.  

• • Editable Channels: Ads, Web Pages, and Social Posts are typically editable which means in case of a typo or need for a quick change, it is not a huge deal or ask. This does not mean they are any less important though. Ads with typos won’t perform as well, you will still be charged for every click, and this ultimately affects a brand’s reputation. The nice thing is, if you catch an error quickly, you can fix it. Same thing for landing page errors, ready buyers may bounce due to a typo, button error, or incomplete web page. Why? Because trust is diminished through errors like this. For an exchange to occur between a user and brand, a sense of trust must be established, and marketing usually establishes this trust through communication. Careless mistakes diminish trust and we should all strive to make less of them, but we are human and they happen. 

• • Non-Editable Channels: Email, Story Content, and Tweets are typically not editable, which means once they are published/launched there is no way to edit or change messaging specifics. You either have to accept what has been published, delete and re-publish, or re-send a campaign. First impressions are everything though, so we try to avoid mistakes on channels like these at all costs because the stakes are higher.  Nevertheless, all channels are important. You will never regret learning how content circulates in different environments. Knowing which channels are good for getting quick pieces of information out versus where you will publish a longer piece is critical for putting your best foot forward. 

Latest Stats. What are the trends such average click rate, traffic volume, average conversion rate, and average cost per acquisition. We need to understand this baseline to know when the needle moves up or down and whether or not that can be tied to a specific piece of content, time of year, occasion etc. This is where we answer the questions: “Why is it working?” and “Why is it not working?”. The only way to answer these questions is to understand these key metrics in tandem with the content that was published and whether or not the initiative translated to a bump or dip in sales or goal-outcome. 

Don’t be afraid to discover your brand or initiative’s shortcomings. Discovering areas of improvement, are just that, a place to improve, which is a win in the end. We can’t improve our marketing strategies efficiently without knowing the general road map of the current operation. Next time you are swirling or overwhelmed with a content calendar or launch day, focus on these three things and you will succeed. We hope you enjoyed this piece. Written and originated by Adelle Grogg, Founder of AC Media Solutions.