Measuring Social Media Marketing Impact Difficult

News Now
January 17, 2012 | COMMENTS

More than ever, credit unions are using Twitter, Facebook, and other forms of social media to reach consumers, as evidenced in part by the success of Bank Transfer Day. A new study indicates that while executives expect the success of every marketing campaign to be measured, it is more difficult to quantify electronic marketing.

About 82% of executives surveyed said they expect every campaign to be measured according to the "2011 State of Marketing Measurement Report," a survey professionals conducted by Ifbyphone (eMarketer, December 16).

Yet, in breaking down the different marketing types, only 47% of U.S. marketers believe they can effectively measure the return on investment (ROI) of e-mail marketing. Other types of marketing saw even smaller percentages. For social media marketing, only 26% of marketers think they can effectively measure ROI.

About 62% said they track an overall net increase in sales to measure the success of marketing programs. Also, 57% look at the number of new customers acquired, 39% track the number of new leads generated, 33% look for an increase in customer retention, and 33% measure a quantified increase in awareness.

The tools they used to measure marketing campaigns include Web analytics, cited by 48% of respondents; e-mail marketing software analytics (47%); leads from contact forms (38%); and social media monitoring (30%).

Among the marketing types for which respondents believe they can effectively measure ROI:

• E-mail marketing (47% of respondents)
• Direct mail (41%)
• Online ads (40%)
• Print ads (34%)
• Trade shows (28%)
• Social media (26%)
• Search engine optimization (24%)
• Public relations (18%)

Measuring which keywords drive either the most clicks (40%), the most online conversations (40%), and the most phone calls (37%) were cited by marketers as challenges.

Published by CUNA News Now at www.cuna.org/newsnow.