This week’s focus in MMC5006, Introduction to Multimedia Communications, is on Analytics and how the useful data gathered through these various tools can be applied to improving a brand’s IMC strategy.  What follows is my analysis of a hypothetical company’s Facebook and email marketing analytics data as well my recommendations for appropriate action to strengthen marketing endeavors.

Please Note: This post is for educational purposes only.  

 

Synopses and Key Findings of Data Images from Facebook Page Insights

 

 

From this image, we can see that company ABC gained just a handful of likes over the last week (less than 1% of their current total of 880).  The total reach is up by almost 40%, but the number of people actively liking, commenting, or sharing- (Talking About This)- is down by nearly half!  More people are engaging (clicking) with the posts than are talking about it, so perhaps a focus on creating more shareable and meaningful content to encourage virality would be a good goal.  It seems that fans are exceptionally interested on opportunities to interact in person with this business, as is evident by the higher numbers for the “Join us/in…” type posts.

 

 

This particular image above clearly indicates that the largest portion of this company’s target market is women (over 60%).  Of this group, those between the ages of 25 and 34 (28.6%) are most largely represented, followed by women between 35 and 44 (13.5%).  Most of them are English-speaking and are located right in the same city as company ABC (Orlando, Florida). This means that promoting local, company-related events and other relevant information for those in the Central Florida area will be most effective for this business.

 

 

This data regarding reach shows us that company ABC most likely did not engage in any paid reach activity for the last week.  Their organic reach is consistent, but most of their reach is due to vitality.  A plan to generate more of this type of content, as mentioned earlier, will be the most effective goal for this brand.

It is also interesting to note that about half of the people to visit this company’s fan page returned at least once, and some have come back in excess of 20 times!  It seems evident that the brand is creating some loyal customers and/or fans.

 

 

Once again, in the image above, we have evidence that company ABC is bringing back dedicated fans.  Return visitor page views are consistently much higher than unique visits; in some places by more than half.  This means that visitors are coming back to the page at least once more during the week to see what’s going on.

We see that most of these visitors land on, and peruse, the timeline.  This is normal.  The next most interesting aspect of the page to them is photos and images the company has posted. The “About” section gets very little attention, and we will discuss how to perhaps increase focus here later in this post.

Lastly, I would like to note that there are not many outside referrals to this page.  Google brought nine this week.  We will discuss ways to increase this number as well.

 

 

The bar graph on top reiterates the higher level of engagement fro women in the same age groups as mentioned before.  As  expected, women are talking (commenting, liking, and sharing) more than men.  Again, the majority of those talking about the brand are local to Orlando.

The line graphs on bottom show us that the number of those people “Talking About This” directly with the company peaks at about 150, while those talking virally hits at just over 5k!

 

 

Synopsis and Key Findings of Data from Email Campaign

 

 

The information above indicates a healthy email campaign with respect to several elements.  Firstly, the delivery rate of over 99% indicates that company ABC is most likely mindful of keeping a healthy an active email list.  This is critical for a good delivery rate since invalid and old email addresses cause bounces, which reflect negatively on the validity of the sender. Complaints and unsubscribes are low as well, (only 8 total out of over 2600 emails delivered), which is also good for the overall status of the sender’s email account.  It is also a positive because it indicates that subscribers are not adversed to receiving emails from this company.  In fact, a 25% open rate says that recipients probably welcome ABC’s email communication.

One area with room for improvement in this campaign is the click rate.  10.9% is good, but the goal is always to increase numbers indicating success when possible, especially when those numbers may lead to increased conversion rates.  Right now, with 72 clicks, the conversion rate 0%.  This is a concern.  We will explore a couple of ways to potentially increase click-throughs and conversions a little later on as well.

 

 

Improving IMC Strategy: Easy Fixes, Social Media Integration, and Effective Future Content

The following are some suggestions for potentially improving the overall success of company ABC’s Integrated Marketing Plan, especially with regards to its future social media channels’ content and integration as well as email campaigns.

 

1) Remember the call to action!  In social media posts, ask the fans to engage in some way.  Prompt them with verbs such as click, tell, like, share, join, check out, visit, etc….  If companies don’t ask or tell their readers what to do, the readers probably won’t do it.

The call to action is also critical in emails.  I was not able to read the copy of the email used in the campaign for which I reviewed the data, but if there was not a clear and strong call to action, then this could be part of the reason for the lower click-through and conversion rates.

 

2)  Be sure to completely fill out the “About” section of the Facebook, (or any social media channel), page or profile.  Make sure it is:

• Complete with company address and contact information
• Well written with good mechanics and grammar
• Interesting and informative, (and maybe even entertaining)
• Professional and eye-catching in appearance
• Consistent with brand style, personality, voice, and image (including logo usage)
• Optimized with key words and links to other company profiles, websites, and blogs

On this particular Facebook Insights report, the “About” tab received the least attention.  By implementing the above tips, and then promoting and encouraging readers to visit this section, this number should increase.  Along with it, page likes, “Talking About This”, website traffic, and perhaps even conversion rates will likely see a bit of an increase as well.

 

3)  Focus on social media integration and creating more quality links to each social channel profile, (and specifically Facebook in this case).  The number of referrers in this data report could have been higher, and increasing this number will also increase SEO.  Do this by including social media profile links:

• On the company website
• On other social media profiles
• On all correspondence from the company
• On all printed promotional materials such as business cards, flyers, brochures, posters, signage, etc.
• On the company blog and blog posts (when appropriate)
• On guest blog posts on other sites (when permissible)
• On blog and article submissions to content communities and social bookmarking sites
• In email blasts
• In video descriptions on channels like YouTube and Vimeo as well as embedded in the video (when appropriate)
• In content posts across social channels when cross-promoting content
• In television and radio ads (when appropriate)

 

4)  When creating future content and campaigns, keep the focus of virality in mind.  Readers want and share content that is:

• Easily consumable
• Remarkable or interesting in some way
• Valuable to themselves and/or others
• Helpful and easy to use
• Aesthetically pleasing
• Entertaining
• Engaging
• An opportunity for them to look better in the eyes of others by sharing or participating
• Relevant to their interests, goals, and lifestyle
• Convenient / local (when pertaining to nearby brick and mortar businesses)

 

5)  Aside from timeline views, photos were the second most visited section of the Facebook fan page.  Company ABC should take note and take advantage of this opportunity to build brand awareness!  To do so, it should make sure that photos and images for future content are of high-quality and aesthetically pleasing.  Some types of images to consider using for greater success on the fan page might include:

• Behind the scenes peeks at everyday happenings at company ABC
• Staff members enjoying their work or displaying aspects of their personality
• Customers using the company’s products, engaging in its services, or visiting its facility (when applicable)
• Photos of happy customers with their testimonials added to the image as well as in the image description
• Photos taken at classes and events hosted, or attended, by the company
• Photos of the company being actively involved in the community
• Images of the facility, (including the outside for he building for ease of recognition when driving by)
• Images that are relevant to the company’s industry, and therefore, to its fans
• Promotional images

 

The review of the analytics data from company ABC’s Facebook Insights and email marketing campaign has presented greater understanding of the brand’s fans and target market as well areas in communications needing improvement.  This valuable information has then given way to some applicable strategies for creating a more successful IMC plan.