Marketing has its March Madness that is almost as crazy and exciting as basketball’s. March is the month that the numbers start to matter: Are we meeting sales projections for the first quarter? Is our PR working? Are our leads real? Are our communities engaged? Has our product launch worked?

At Zer0 to 5ive we work hard to establish metrics for the work we do – it’s in our best interest and our clients. We often use the end of March as the time to evaluate the strategies and tactics that we have implemented. It’s easy to adjust strategy, take advantage of the things that are working and try new ideas. Measurement and flexibility go hand in hand. Ultimately, marketing and communications is about conditioning the environment for sales and customer loyalty. Those are metrics that you can take to the bank!

Here are a few of the things you can measure and some ideas of how you can measure them:

• PR – perception, message pick up, volume/awareness, quality of coverage, leads (occasionally)
• Direct mail – leads
• Email – opens, click-throughs, quality of list, leads
• Advertising – leads, visits to web site or calls
• Social media – re-tweets, volume, engagement, interest, buzz
• SEO – rankings

Michelle Pujadas is the Founder and C0-CEO of Zer0 to 5ive

I was recently asked to answer that question as part of an article that ran in the NY Report — and as you might guess, the answer is “it depends.”

Web sites run the gamut from strictly brochure-ware with little interaction to fully interactive, highly complex data gathering entities. At the heart of every web site development, however, are the questions: what are my objectives and who is my audience.

Check out the article written by my friend and former boss and mentor, Paul McKeon. Also, don’t forget to download our SEO white paper, so that you can get maximum “bang” for your online “buck”!

NY Report: The Cost of a Small Business Website

Post by Zer0 to 5ive CEO Michelle Pujadas