At Conversation Co, we are big analysers of our work. Analysing is as important as the planning and execution process because it can tell us a lot. For example, whether our work is getting to the right audience, the level of impact, what worked well or needs to be improved on, and the trends and predictions that we can tap into.
To make our analysis process easier and more efficient, we ensure that our planning and execution stages are consistent from the get go. This helps ensure that the data and messaging are structured and organised in a way that facilitates interpretation and the extraction of valuable insights.
Here are some ways we establish consistency in our communications for the ease of analysis:
- Document your process: We have a process for almost all the work we do. This helps us keep a detailed record of our work, helping ensure transparency and reproducibility.
- Use analytical tools: Utilise software and tools designed for analysis. Depending on your needs, this might include statistical software, data visualisation tools, or specialised industry-specific software. For us, we utilise Mailchimp to track our monthly email campaigns, and Hootsuite for our social media engagement.
- Organise data: Gather and organise data in a structured manner so that it’s easy to interpret. You might want to determine the relevant parameters and statistics to look out for on a regular basis. With statistics extracted from Mailchimp and Hootsuite on a monthly basis, we put them into our relevant spreadsheets (e.g. email campaigns performance or social media performance) so that we can view and analyse our data easily.
- Use templates: Create templates for commonly used documents, such as performance reports, communications plans, monthly content planning, and social media scheduling. These templates help ensure that key information is consistently included and presented in standard format.
- Review and approval processes: Implement review and approval processes for important communications. At Conversation Co, we have a review process set in place for anything that goes out. Our team takes turns reviewing our monthly newsletters or social media copy, helping to offer a different approach to our work. Revisiting your work with fresh eyes can lead to improved insights and accuracy.
We’ve talked about the ways we establish consistency prior to our analysis. Now what are the parameters that we look out for and why, during our analysis? We break this up into our 3 main areas – Communications, Marketing & Social Media.
Communications: Communications Plans
In our projects, we evaluate how successful our communications is through the:
- Number and diversity of participants: The appropriate stakeholders are well represented at engagement activities and in their feedback responses (e.g. pop-ups, online engagements, online survey).
- Number of responses and feedback received.
- Type of feedback: Comments are well-informed and relevant to the project.
- Quality of feedback received: In-depth feedback and based on personal experiences, i.e. needs, interests and challenges with regards to the project.
Marketing: Email Campaigns
We look at the following statistics to determine how well-received our email campaigns are:
- Opens: The number of subscribers in our mailing list that have opened our email campaign. Only one open is added to this section, no matter how many times the email campaign has been opened by all the recipients who have received it.
- Total opens: The total number of times our email campaign has been opened by all the recipients who have received it.
- Total clicks: The number of clicks recorded for any click made, regardless of whether they were made multiple times by certain subscribers. Due to how total clicks are measured, they are always going to be higher than unique clicks.
- Clicks per unique open: A unique click is measured when a subscriber clicks on our link for the first time. Any further clicks aren’t counted, as it assumes the subscriber has already made an impression. This is a better way to measure engagement as they are restrained to one click per subscriber.
- Click performance: It shows exactly what and where our subscribers are clicking on in our email campaign. This is a great indicator of what our subscribers are interested in within the email campaign, and the exact type of resources we can continue pushing out to feed the demand and interest.
Social Media: Facebook, Instagram & LinkedIn
We monitor and analyse these social media metrics on a monthly basis to ensure an effective online presence:
- Audience demographics: Knowing who is engaging with our content is crucial. Age, location, interests – these data points guide our content customisation. For example, knowing our audience helps us focus our LinkedIn content on our industry friends, and our Facebook content towards the community.
- Engagement rate: Likes, shares, comments, and click-through rates are windows into the audience’s preferences and opinions. By analysing these metrics, we gain understanding into what content sparks interest and resonates with our audience.
- Average post engagement rate: The average engagement rate for posts published to our accounts. This metric helps us understand how our posts are performing and the level of interaction for our audience in comparison to other months.
- Reach: The amount of people that have seen or were exposed to our content. This metric goes hand in hand with the best times for posting as it tells us the times with the highest reach.
- Impressions: The number of times people have seen our content, which includes multiple views from the same person. Due to how impressions are measured, they are always going to be higher than our reach. This is a great indicator of what our audience is interested in, helping us to push out content that interests them.
- Profile Visits: The number of people that visit our social media platforms. This is crucial in helping us understand the interest level of both potential new followers and existing ones.
- Growth rate: The number of followers our social media platform gains over a specific period of time. It helps us analyse whether our platforms are performing well and what needs to be improved on.
- Timing: Analysing when our audience is most active on each platform allows us to schedule posts strategically. It ensures our messages reach our audience when they are most active online.
