One of the most important tasks you can take with your business is to communicate with your customers/donors. A communication campaign that includes regular newsletters, blogs, and postings to social networking sites keeps your business at the top of their mind. In order to be successful, you must track the response to your communication with sales/donations.

The first level of tracking is to see how many responses you get from your campaign. Like with other marketing campaigns, you need to determine whether your customers/donors respond to your communication medium. If they do, that is a great method to use for future campaigns. If the do not, you need to find out why. Do they not use that medium, or do they not respond to the contents of the message? If your customers/donors do not use that medium, determine what they use and go with that method the next time. Not responding to the contents of the message requires a little more analysis. Check the tone and phrases used in your message to see why they do not resonate with your audience, and choose a better way of addressing them in the future. Focus groups or asking some of your top clients for their feedback can prove invaluable.

The next level of tracking is to profile your customers/donors. Knowing their spending habits and trends can help you connect with them when you are both ready to engage each other. Notice that both they and you have to be receptive to do business with each other for the transaction to be worthwhile to both parties. To analyze your communication campaigns, you must track the date of each communication with their response, as well as the words and images used in the message with what they purchase/donate.

You can further optimize your communication campaign with practices often used with Search Engine Optimization (SEO). SEO is a way of honing your message for a particular response from your audience. It is a delicate balance between a general outreach to get the broadest customer base, but narrow and specific enough to intrigue them into action. Visit next month for more information on developing the perfect balance between the two.