We’ve known for eons the importance of tracking the ROI on marketing efforts. Unfortunately, there are challenges in tracking that return in an era of ever-improving technologies and tougher markets.

Marketing executives today have a higher aptitude and require more visibility on marketing KPIs with ROI as a popular yardstick, but chances are your staffing company hasn’t tracked marketing ROI in ages.

While the over-emphasis of ROI on its own can yield misleading results, we’ve seen many of our staffing clients successfully use ROI as a measure of where to focus efforts but actually tracking useful data is another story.

Especially with content marketing, it can be hard to measure because it can be intangible and difficult to identify exactly how and when someone converts into a customer.

If you’re competing in tougher markets you can still gain traction and prove your marketing initiatives are paying off by not only focusing your efforts where you can have the most impact but by also using data to your benefit. We’ve outlined five rules to follow when tracking the marketing ROI for your staffing company.

1) Set Realistic Goals

While marketing goals should be grounded in ROI there’s always room to set long-term goals such as increased social followers, more webinar attendees, or an improved website bounce rate even if the effects on leads aren’t immediate. The most attainable goals are those grounded in reality. One technique for setting realistic marketing goals is the S.M.A.R.T. technique.

Use the SMART Technique

Specific – Do you want more leads in general or 5 more leads than the previous month? Be specific.

Measurable – Certain marketing efforts such as PPC ads are easier to track than other methods such as content marketing but it’s still possible to set values and track outcomes.

Attainable – A look at the resources your team has available and what can be accomplished in a certain amount of time is the best way to determine if a campaign goal is attainable.

Realistic – After assessing what is attainable set challenging goals grounded in reality.

Time-bound – Goals should always have a deadline. Without one your team cannot determine the strength and weaknesses of the campaign.

 

2) More Focus

Once you’ve used ROI as a benchmark to determine where you should focus your efforts—track that campaign more closely. For example, if you’ve discovered an email campaign works best don’t stop at tracking leads or sales, use that medium to raise the benchmark and test how you can use it to increase your site’s analytics and grow your overall content strategy. One way to test your content is through A/B testing.

A/B Testing

To perform an A/B test on collateral such as an email newsletter, you modify it to create a second version of the same page. This could mean testing the subject line of the email, the images, or the call to action wording. A/B testing can be used to improve what the user experiences while interacting with content such as a newsletter, improving a single goal like conversion rate over time.

 

3) Utilize an Integrated Software

An all-in-one staffing software that integrates sales and marketing pushes can pull all of your efforts into one place. If you’re sending surveys, emails, text messages, and event invites you can not only track your efforts but decide which specific content endeavor had the best return.

An integrated software also allows you to deliver consistent messaging to your followers and prospective clients. Some even allow the user to create a library of pre-formatted templates that are not only consistent, but time saving.

Once you’ve determined which endeavor had the best outcome (maybe it’s an email newsletter), track that email behavior to determine who is opening your emails and when, who forwarded the message and which links were successful in gaining traction.

4) Identify Your Audience

After you’ve accumulated an engaged audience through a campaign, they can be difficult to profile. One useful feature of an integrated sales and marketing software with built-in tracking such as , which scours multiple sources of reliable online data and brings up-to-date demographics into your CRM records.

Targeted Content

With an identifiable audience it’s possible to create targeted content using data from a web based recruiting software such as 1Staff’s. First create profiles for your audience that will tell you why they want to work with you, the kinds of content they want to see, and the messaging that will help them find your company. Combine insights from tracking tools and customer feedback to create broad descriptions of your ideal clients and candidates to use internally.

 

5) Set Monetary Amounts For Otherwise Untraceable Efforts

It’s true that it is easier to impact what you can measure. Whether you want one sale or 10 leads, there are many ways to add, track and analyze data on thought leadership. Identify a monetary investment in your content, whether it be an eBook, content or webinar.

You can even set a value to an action to track your efforts:

  • Decide what the action your potential client will take. The action could be filling out a contact form on your website.
  • Attach a dollar amount to that action and track.
  • The dollar amount should be represented by how much weight the action has.

To create a conversion action such as this, the easiest way is through Google AdWords. You’ll get a piece of code called a “tag.” To complete the conversion tracking, you’ll add the conversion tag to your website.

Bring It All Together

Using integrated software, a narrowed focus, the right tracking and testing—companies can track both ROI and assign values to otherwise uncertain marketing campaigns. Track your marketing all in one place with 1Staff – 1 solution for your entire team.

Learn more about 1Staff Staffing Software today!

If you’d like to find out more or talk to a specialist get in touch today.

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