Tracking your marketing results

Now that you’ve begun to build your flawless author foundation, it’s time to track your results. All the work you put into building and growing your author platform won’t matter if you’re not monitoring your metrics. Failing to track means you’ll fail to understand what’s working and what’s not working.

Don’t be a pantser.

Flying by the seat of your pants, aka being a pantser, might work when it comes to weekend plans, but it’s not the best approach when it comes to marketing.  Algorithms and marketing trends change constantly on social media, are you sure you’re keeping up?  People and their interests change. If you’ve ever found that a marketing tactic that always worked no longer works, you know what I mean.

As a creative, you might sometimes feel that this is personal. But it’s not. It’s business. Sometimes, you can be too close to your work. You think you know what your reader wants or how to find them. But are you sure? This can potentially make you your worst enemy. Monitoring your metrics can help prevent this from happening.

Keep it simple.

If tracking your numbers is new to you, I suggest you start with the minimum and create a monthly habit monitoring just the basics: sales, reviews, and social media followers. You can use a spreadsheet or a notebook. The method doesn’t matter, creating a habit of tracking historical data matters. If you begin with pen and paper, you can always graduate to spreadsheets. Using the best method for your skills is important because if it’s too difficult or too much effort is required, you’ll fail to follow through.

Sales and reviews

It’s a good idea to track sales and reviews by format and platform. That means hardcover, paperback, eBook, and audiobook on IngramSpark, KDP, ACX, FindawayVoices, etc. Understanding your readers’ favorite format and retailer will help you understand on what and where to focus your future marketing efforts. If your readers love picking up your paperback on Amazon, then so be it. Meet them where they are for future marketing. Promote that paperback through links to Amazon on social media and Amazon ads more than other outlets and formats.

Social media analytics

Individually, each of your social media platforms have many different analytics to track. It can be a little overwhelming to navigate, but very satisfying and telling once you do. To start, track how many followers you gain each month. While I don’t believe it’s the most important number when it comes to social media analytics, it is a good indicator of your more popular platforms. There are a few reasons why one platform would be more popular than another – you spend more time on that platform or this is where your readers prefer to look for you. Diving a little deeper into your analytics I like to look for engagement. This means followers who reacted to clicked or shared your posts. There are many other variables to consider but master the basics first.

New month, new numbers

As I publish this, it’s the end of the month. Set yourself up, get acquainted with your analytics on each platform, and decide how you’ll track them. Then on the first of the month, take a look at your numbers from last month. If you’re reading this mid-month and want to get started today, that’s fine too. Just evaluate your numbers on the same day of each month in order to compare the results. If you have a marketing plan with a timeline, it’s easy to match your efforts against the results. If you don’t have a plan, today is always the best day to start one. I have a self-paced course designed to help you set up a six-month plan in about three hours. I also have a mini coaching program that includes a plan and two one-on-one coaching sessions to walk you through building a six-month plan. Visit my website to learn more.

As always, if you have questions, please feel free to leave them in the comment box below. If you’re feeling stuck and need a little help, click here to schedule a time to get “unstuck” in a free 30-minute consultation with me. I’ll do my best to help you get unstuck and provide as much value as I can to help you in your author marketing journey.