When a new marketing campaign is rolled out, most people’s first instinct is to look at the results. Was it effective? Did it get our brand name out to the public? Did it build awareness? Did we get more sales because of it? The answers to these questions let marketers know if the results of the campaign match the goals.
While there’s nothing wrong with targeting results per se, we at Green Vine have a slightly different philosophy when marketing for any of our clients. Sure, results are important, but overall, we believe there’s more to look at before declaring a marketing strategy a success. These things are built right into the very core of our company’s underlying principles, of which there are three: outcomes come first, transparent tracking, and agile data evolution.
Let’s look at what these three things mean:
Outcomes Come First
With all the talk about results – which are important, and should not be ignored – it’s easy to remember that outcomes are also an important part of the puzzle. In fact, they’re so important we believe they should come first in any campaign.
You might be wondering: aren’t outcomes the same as results? The short answer is no, they aren’t. It’s easy to get the two confused because they are similar; they are both used to see whether a marketing campaign was successful. However, the difference is that “results” focus on short-term effects, and “outcomes” focus on a loner trajectory and a more comprehensive set of changes in the market for your organization. If it helps, you can think of results and outcomes as goals and objectives, respectively.
For example, with a new campaign you might hope that it will result in more sales. But your hoped-for outcome, which is measured long-term, might be for more of those new customers to stay loyal to your brand or to share their experience with a great product or service you provide, and thus solidify and expand your overall base. One has a short-term objective, but the other is focused on long-term growth.
So, when a new campaign is launched, result-based questions include things like “did we get a boost in sales?” or “did we get our brand in front of more eyes?” There’s absolutely nothing wrong with these questions, but they don’t tell the whole story.
On the other hand, outcome-based questions focus on long-term ideas. These questions might include “Has our overall customer base expanded?” or “Has the public perception of our brand changed?” While the result-based questions ask about short-term effects, the outcomes-based questions focus on things that could have a larger, more lasting impact on the company as a whole.
Transparent Tracking
To know whether the outcomes – and yes, the results – of a campaign have been reached, it is important to track the success or failure of the campaign continuously. There’s more to measuring success than just sales, and with the latest in modern advertising technology at our disposal we can literally measure the success of a campaign with a set of realistic and meaningful metrics.
So, while sales are important, what about page views? What about measuring how long eyes stayed on a page? Where they clicked? Where they went afterwards? With transparent tracking we can truly measure just how effective a given campaign is at attracting and keeping customers. Then, it’s easier to determine what your specific needs might be: is it your advertising? Website design? Pricing? Each new metric allows us to more accurately pinpoint where you’re doing well, and – more importantly – where there are opportunities.
With measurements like these, we can help you track and improve your ROI.
Agile Data Evolution
As if it’s not enough to get reports on how your campaigns are doing, we can also use that data to adjust and manage in real time. It used to be that once a campaign was launched you had to sit back, cross your fingers and hope that everything went smoothly. If the campaign had a misfire, by the time it launched it was usually too late to fix it.
Not anymore. With today’s agile data the numbers we receive track performance in real time, which lets us adjust in real time. This is where those questions we asked earlier really come into play. If we can identify opportunities for refinement in your campaign, we can adjust and overcome before they become insurmountable problems. This leads not only to better results in the short-term, but better outcomes overall.
At Green Vine, we believe that each successful campaign should, regardless of how we measure success in the short-term, ultimately aid in your brand’s achieving its long-term outcomes. To do this, we employ the latest in technology to help keep you abreast of your campaigns at all times.
If you are interested in talking to someone about the outcomes you wish to see, give us a call at
