How we measure success

How we measure success for our retained marketing clients

Here at CW Marketing, we’re not just about getting beautiful-looking adverts, web pages or social media posts out into the world. Everything we do has a purpose that will benefit that business and we think carefully about the marketing activities we recommend to our clients so that at every point we can measure our success. 

In this article, we wanted to share with you exactly how we look at results, and what we do with that information. 

Understanding your business

When we start the onboarding process for a new client, we want to really get to know you, your staff and your business. We want to know the good, the bad and the ugly, what you like and what you don’t like. This will help us to understand where you are at this point in time, and where you would like to be in the future. 

Knowing your goals 

The next step is to know what your goals are. Now, we have to be realistic here, there’s no point in telling us you want to sell £50k online each month if you’ve only been reporting £2k in sales up until now, but by looking at previous data, your current marketing spend and the trends in your industry, we should be able to come up with some achievable goals. 

Setting KPIs (Key performance indicators) 

This leads us nicely to KPIs, these are a huge part of how we measure success for our retained marketing clients and your Account Manager (AM) will be completely transparent about if these are going in the right direction. We usually like to set KPIs after 1-2 months of marketing has been done, common KPIs may include: 

  • The volume of sales (per month) 
  • Number of conversions (form fills, phone calls etc) 
  • Referrals from specific sources (social, email campaigns etc) 
  • ROAS (return on ad spend) 
  • Google ranking improvements 
  • Social media following and/or engagement 

Being part of your business 

In our opinion, marketing only works if everyone is invested in the same outcome. This is why we like to become part of your business – think of us as just another staff member. 

We will come and meet you and your team, set up a WhatsApp group between your AM and your staff and schedule regular catch-up calls so everyone is kept in the loop.

This also allows the marketing to become more natural, we’re not forcing a relationship and this will reflect in your results.  

Looking at the ROI (Return on Investment) 

Return on investment (ROI) and return on ad spend (ROAS) are huge factors for us in measuring the success of your marketing retainer. There is no point in spending £1000 on Google ads, to receive 5 orders that total £500, you will always be losing if this is the case. 

Yes, it’s important to factor in the awareness activities which won’t necessarily lead to conversions there and then, but these should be combined with other high converting marketing activities. 

We also try to establish what the cost per lead is, for example, if you know that 1 in 5 leads will end up converting and that lead will spend £500 with you, you’ll be able to establish how much you’re happy to spend each month for that 1 lead. 

Monitoring at every stage 

We become slightly figure-obsessed which means we can catch the problem before it gets out of hand. Sometimes, due to factors such as seasonality or stock levels, you may have a quiet month. This is likely for most industries but it’s all about communicating this before it’s an issue. 

We like to be ahead of the game, and monitoring the KPIs for our retained marketing clients allows us to spot trends that might suggest a problem. This allows us to make amends and rectify the situation before a problem even occurs. As your marketing partner, we will keep you informed at every stage of our process; so if we are taking action to resolve a potential issue, you will know what we are doing and why we are doing it.

Detailing our findings

Every client on a marketing retainer with us, however big or small, receives a detailed report each month showing the results in comparison to the KPIs. 

This is a clever live feed which updates in real-time, so we can constantly keep track of how your business is doing. 

Ready to start marketing your business? 

It can be a big decision to take on a digital marketing partner which is why we have 3 levels of retained marketing support available. 

  • Bronze – an entry-level marketing retainer, which will support your business alongside the marketing efforts you are doing internally.  
  • Silver (most popular) – this allows us to cover most bases in terms of your marketing, so you’ll be getting a good level of paid advertising for ‘quick wins’, whilst also supporting the organic efforts to bring you higher on Google. 
  • Gold – our top-level package, ideal for clients who need someone to be there every step of the way, we will be fully invested in every element of your business. 

The CW team have consistently been responsive, transparent and dedicated. They have done a great job in managing our online ad campaigns, and national SEO efforts as well as improving the functionality and user experience of our site generally. I would undoubtedly recommend CW to both local and national companies.

Give us a call on 01202 888200 or email info@cwmarketing.co.uk to discuss your retained marketing with us.