Measuring strategy

Hello class and welcome to my week 8 blog. Our term has winded down very quickly and there is only one more blog posting after this one. This week we will be talking about the measurement of communication strategies, how our body language affects how people see us.

Body Language says alot

First off lets talk about one of the TED videos from Amy Cuddy, who is a social psychologist. She shares and and easy way that anyone can change not only other's perceptions of them, but the way they feel about themselves. I know I find myself being under alot of stress constantly and Amy's research showing adopting the body language associated with dominance for just 120 seconds can increase testosterone by 20% and decrease stress by 25%. I think this could definitely help me when I'm going to job interviews because I like alot of other people get really stressed when you are at a job interview. Nowadays you have more than one person in the room being interviewed and watched by them all at the same time. You have to build trust with people by demonstrating competence and power while also demonstrating your warmth. You must be able to relate to them. Using Obama for a as an example, the president does a great job at being approachable and warm natural smiles even breaking into song with a little bit of Let's Stay Together by Al Green, He comes across as strong without being an over-aggressive alpha. When it's it time to be really powerful non verbally and when it's time to play it down a little bit, he knows how to do it well.

Creating strategy

Marketing demands a new measurement mindset to wrestle with the new kinds of data generated. For years marketers have relied on the pre-post lift analysis of the standard for evaluating a marketing campaign. Some projects now require a more iterative approach to match performance-oriented marketers. So establishing a measurement strategy begins with a drafting a strategy. You can compare that to writing down what you already know. You need to think about role data plays into it. There are four steps to consider when creating a measurement strategy.

First you must Align the plan. Establishing goals and measures at the start of the project ensures ways to evaluate the success of a marketing project. By aiming for an acceptable outcome can inform the subsequent understanding of success. You must draft a measurement plan by linking goals and measures to a measurement plan b ensuring an ability to evaluate progress. The steps include identifying the date sources to be used in inform the goals and measures, defining the parties responsible for capturing and delivering the data, the frequency and method of delivery, the recipients of the data and the decisions the date will inform. Selling the strategy would be the next step. By replacing time-driven conversations about deadlines with conversations around the actions being taken to deliver against results. Position projects with the language of increase instead of talking about launching a website. Simple shifts in language remind the team about performance. Finally, the last step is to revisit the strategy. Always make sure to revisit your measurement strategy at regular intervals to discuss which data is useful, which data is missing, and which data we no longer use to inform the work. Take time to determine if current frequencies fit the current operating rhythm of the team.

Measuring strategy

After developing your strategy plan and having a clear road map designed your next step is to put your plan into action and manage the process as well as the plan's performance. Creating good, solid measures is the next step to developing your performance scorecard. Measures should be relevant to the goal and strategy, placed in context of the target to be reached in an identified time frame, capable of being tracked period after period and owned by the person who's responsible for the goal. Now if you really break it down there are different types of measurement. They are efficiency, outcomes, quality and project measures. Efficiency measures are productivity and cost effectiveness measure as ratio of outputs per inputs. Some examples include turnaround time per application processed and number of students graduating to number of students enrolled Outcomes measures are the end result of whether services meet proposed targets or standards and demonstrate impact and benefit of activities. An example includes the percent increase in internships and the application to enrolled yield rate. Quality measures are gauge effectiveness of expectations and generally show improvement in accuracy reliability, courtesy, competence, responsiveness, and compliance. Examples of this are quality measures including number of audits with no findings or within a range of accuracy. Lastly, project measures show progress against an initiative that has a terminus. It is usually stated as the percent complete. Determining measures can be difficult. You don't have to stand over and finding the best measure. Start with the most obvious and easiest to collect. As you work with your plan you can refine your measures.
Fostering an organizational culture that values data starts with having a plan. The trend towards an increased emphasis on leveraging data will only increase. As budgets tighten and scrutiny increases, marketers can continue to develop strong relationships with their customers in new and exciting ways.

Conclusion

As Strategic communicators, we will encounter a number of things whether it be failures, crisis etc. Our overall success is measured by how we handle these events and situations. I know already I have had my fair share of failures but rather then giving up, I have learned from those mistakes and have become better because of it. There is always so much more to learn about strategic communication and even long after this class is over and we graduate from this program we will continue to learn. It is critical that you measure the results of your content marketing activities so you can continually learn what your audience likes and use that information to continually improve. The result of that will bring happier prospects, happier customers and happier management.