Deciphering The Metrics - Part Two: Engagement Metrics

 

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In Part One of this Four Part series, we discussed the Basic Metrics. Those were the foundation for your digital marketing strategy. They're critically important because without them, nothing we discuss from this point forward will mean a thing. Essentially, the eight Basic Metrics we discussed previously are the concrete slab below your house. Not pretty...hard to tell what the rest of the house will look like when starting at it, but even a child can understand it's function.

Now it's time to dig deeper. It's time to start building a structure on top of that foundation. Today, we look at the Engagement Metrics. Just like the name suggests, these metrics measure the "engagement" your customers and prospects have with your company during their visit. There are twelve Engagement Metrics to which your attention should be paid. 

Shares - There are numerous ways to measure this component of engagement but no matter how you do it, it's critical. You could measure total shares of all content across all platforms or get down to a micro-level analytics with shares. The content that gets shared is important, but it's just as important to know why it's being shared. How is it being used when received?

Share Ratio - Always good to know if a piece of content is outperforming expectations. For your company, when just starting, this metric may take some time to produce meaningful data, but when it does....live by it! 

Engagement Rate - On Twitter, your company's Engagement Rate is the total number of followers divided by the number of Social Actions taken from your content. (Retweets, Likes, Comments, etc.) Other platforms have similar calculations so it's important to create and publish content that appeals to all sections of your database. 

Premium Shares - Shares with comments and other means of emphasis are always more highly ranked than generic ones like the ones your mom sends you. Post exciting, visually pleasing content that appeals to a very wide range of prospects. 

Comments - This seems like a no-brainer, but it is one of the most often overlooked segments of effective digital marketing. Control your commenting, folks! If you don't have the staff to monitor all of your social platforms for negative comments, then turn off commenting wherever possible. Respond quickly and professionally to all comments. Don't allow emotion to get ahold of your typing fingers while performing this task. Be genuine. Be up front, but no matter what....don't ignore them. Good or bad, keep up with comments. On the flip side....if you're producing and posting a ton of content, but not generating comments at all....something's wrong. Let's get together!

Bounce Rate - Pay attention to how long people stick around once they find you. If you get lot's of "Window Shoppers" then something is not right. If you're getting traffic to your site through SEO or your own, personal prospecting efforts, but they're just seeing your landing page and leaving without engaging....we need to talk. You're not grabbing them. They're not really engaged, they're just being courteous. Courteous doesn't pay the next Quarterly Tax Bill. 

Time on Site - Much like the bounce rate, the Time on Site metric will help you analyze what content is grabbing their attention and keeping them engaged. If one of your "Completed Project" videos is being watched from start to finish and being shared widely....it may be a good idea to post some relative content in the upcoming days. Figure out what draws their attention and GO!!

Completion Rate - Completion Rate measures the percentage of visitors who complete the form to which you are trying to direct their attention. (Or watched the video all the way through....or played the game.....or completed the survey....or voted....you get it, right?)

Clickthrough Rate - All those links you take the time to put into your content....are they worth it? Are people actually clicking on them? If not, why? Is it the positioning? Is it the relevance? You need to get a handle on this one quickly. This metric is the exact reason that our grandfather's old "half your marketing budget is wasted" philosophy is no longer relevant in today's business world. We can measure almost everything we do for our brand with real-time data. 

Amplification Metrics -  Social Amplification will extend the longevity of your content. In other words, boost that thing! If you're paying to "Boost" your posts, you better see how that spend is working, right? 

Influencer Metrics - Who's in your niche market? If you're in HVAC, has any of your content been shared by any manufacturers or trusted experts in the field? Is it being circulated by people who are popular in the circles in which you desire to be popular? Yes...it sounds like digital high-school because that's essentially what Digital Marketing is....you're just trying to get the cool kids to like you.  Guess what....the cool kids think we're cool! Let us help get you past their bouncers and into the inner-circle.

Feedback - If your content is generating feedback, they're engaged. But what kind of feedback are you receiving? Is it negative? Are you just looking at numbers going up and ignoring the fact that you're going viral for embarrassing reasons? Feedback is the pulse of your audience. Keep your finger on it.

Running an HVAC business or a successful Plumbing Company is hard enough without having to devote hours per day measuring metrics that could be handled by a professional marketing partnership. 

We've looked at the Basics.  Now we've discussed the Engagement Metrics. Next up, we'll discuss the Positioning Metrics that make the Engagement Metrics possible. If they can't find you, they can't engage with you so we'll discuss the metrics to make sure your company is on the right trajectory....one that is Trending Up! (See what we did there?)

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It Starts At The Dinner Table....

Culture is a wonderful thing. Most of the time. There are some cultures that may interest you about as much as sitting atop a bonfire, but for the purpose of this discussion, let's assume we're talking about the kind of cultures most commonly associated with clever commercials and 'fun-to-say' menu items. Corporate culture is just as important to the continued health and relevance of a company as it is to a university or a sports franchise.

You're the owner of the company. You're the one they follow. It's your culture that they are buying into, so you better make sure you have identified it before they do it for you. Or even worse....before failure does it for you. 

That sounds harsh, but success these days requires more than just a clever tagline or a beautiful logo. Your passion has to be their passion. The people who are out there on the streets, entering the homes of your customers...if they aren't bought in....your passion dies before your prospect ever gets a chance to witness it.

Identify your message. What is that you want to say? What is it that you want your brand to say? Don't just be another HVAC company. Give them a reason to choose you over the other guy. You all have the same tools. You're all working on the same machines every day and dealing with the same issues. Culture is what sets you apart.....if you do it right. It can't be forced. It can't be demanded. It is something that others see you exhibiting and they want to emulate it.

So, what is it that goes into building an effective and prosperous culture for your small business? Do people really care if my team is wearing a pressed shirt, or do they just want their A/C fixed? Both! The answer is a resounding "BOTH" but it is delivered in the form of a check being written to the other guy if you doubt the importance of culture. 

Here we go.....

1. Credibility - If they don't believe you have the ability to deliver what they're out there selling for you, you've lost. Not only will a lack of credibility destroy your Sales Force from within, but word travels at warp-speeds within your Market if you can't fulfill your promises. The US Army Infantry Division has a motto - "Deeds Not Words." Think like an infantryman. Show them your work. Don't tell them about it. Besides...have you ever met a soldier who doubted the credibility of his unit?

2. Respect - We've all worked in an environment in which we felt disrespected in some form or another. It sucks. Does your team feel respected? Are their voices heard? If they feel respected at the "dinner table" then they will act with respect when in front of your prospects. Picture a High School for a moment. Picture any group of 20-30 High School aged students. Among them, you will be able to instantly identify those who are raised in homes where respect is a top priority. The ones who feel respected at home portray respect because it's part of their "culture." Use your dinner table wisely. 

3. Fairness - It's called "The Golden Rule" for a reason. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Sounds biblical because it is. The wisdom in that statement has been around, unchallenged, for that long. Don't play favorites. Don't reward groups when an individual achieved the results and vice-versa. Fairness is the piece that makes Win Win Marketing possible. 

4. Pride - Take pride in what you do. Remember what made it possible for your company to hire a team in the first place.,...pride in your work. Remember how proud you were when you won that first contract? As you drove away from that handshake, did the thought of cutting corners or cheating ever cross your mind? Hell NO!! You wanted to do the best job possible and accept the steady string of referrals that was surely to follow, right? Instill that feeling in your team and your brand will stand out among your prospects. Take pride in your brand. From the way you dress to the vehicles in your fleet....display the pride you have in what you do.

5. Teamwork - Nobody wants to be the one who lets his whole team down. If you are able to instill a genuine sense of teamwork among your staff then you work together rather than against one another. Individual goals are great and should be encouraged, nurtured, and even joined....but they should NEVER be allowed to hinder the collective goals of the team. Act as a unit, win as a unit. You get to be the coach who delivers that rousing halftime speech to propel the team to victory. 

6. Customer Focused - Don't put your team in a position where they don't believe you will protect the relationships they're working so hard to build. Sales takes trust, rapport, and a lot of time....if your team feels like you are only in it for the money and not the people who give it to you, they'll start to side with the prospect in situations where they should have supported you. Always identify the  benefit to the customer when implementing new policies. Your team will resist changes a lot less if they feel like the proposed changes will benefit the customer they have to explain it to.

Got questions? You should! Let's get together and discuss them.

www.trendingupdigital.com

800.852.8676

Would You Buy Your Company?

 

Once we get that first sale....or land that first client, our minds tend to get rather laser focused. As business owners, we go from "will this work" to "it worked...now what?" in the blink of an eye. Once the ball gets rolling, we're not stopping to go back and set things up "the right way." We're too busy building upon the success of the first sale to create another. 

At some point, regardless of where you stand today; you're going to part ways with the company you are currently working so hard to build and maintain. Those relationships you are nurturing with the intensity of a first time parent....they're the seeds that will help grow your company into something worthy of all your front-end investment. 

That part about "parting ways" with your company stuck in your brain, didn't it? Much like buying or selling a home....we tend to look at the destination rather than the journey. The new home will be great but first, there's the loan application process, the physical move as well as the nightmare of transferring all the utilities and bills, etc. Those visions of family traditions unfolding in that new home hardly seem worth it when you're loading up the truck, but once all the boxes are gone and the dust has settled....you get the picture. 

Selling your HVAC or Plumbing business will be a similar process when you are ready. In the meantime, there are a number of things you can do to enhance the "curb appeal" of your company. 

First, let's be honest about something. If you don't put the time into maintaining all the components of your business, no one will want to buy it. Your fancy logo....your 50 page website....your 75,000 followers....none of it means a thing unless you have a book of business. The old adage "sales cures everything" is as true today as it was when your Grandfather said it. Get your CRM setup and get familiar with it from the very beginning. Those names are what makes up a significant portion of your future value so treat each one of them like a winning lottery ticket. 

Second, you need brand recognition. Nothing increases your brand like Social Media, but it is a beast. Doing it with any measurable level of success is even more of a beast and quite frankly, it's not one that most business owners have time to do on their own. 

Third, you need to be visible. When people go online and search for "HVAC near me" your company needs to pop up near the top of those results. If they can't find you, they can't hire you. If they don't hire you, they can't leave you five-star reviews. These are all critical in determining how that eventual "parting of ways" goes. Will it be a happy, fortune-filled event, or will it be an enemy you fend off until it finally defeats you? Let's make it a party, okay?

Trending Up builds all of our Win-Win Marketing Strategies around the idea that one day you will be "parting ways" with the company you're currently hiring us to promote. If we do our job correctly, you'll be parting ways with a big check in your pocket. We like big checks as much as you do. What we like even more is watching you build up the value of your future check a little each day. 

Let's go get some wins!

www.trendingupdigital.com

800.852.8676