A post gets plenty of reactions and another gets almost none. It is tempting to declare the first a success and quietly pretend the second never happened.
But reactions alone do not tell you whether the right people understood your offer, visited a useful page or started a relevant conversation. To judge your marketing fairly, decide what you wanted it to help achieve.
You do not need a complicated dashboard to begin. A small, consistent record can help you make more considered decisions about what to continue.
Start with a business question
Choose a question you can investigate. Are people discovering a particular service? Are prospective customers asking better-informed questions? Are posts bringing enquiries about the work you want to do?
Different aims need different evidence. A post answering a common question may be useful even when it produces no immediate enquiry.
Write down the purpose before publishing. Otherwise it is very easy to pick whichever number looks most flattering afterwards.
Look at signals in context
Depending on the platform and account, you may see measures such as reach, views, interactions and link clicks. Check how the platform defines each measure before treating them as comparable.
Someone seeing a post is different from someone opening a page. A click is different from an enquiry, and an enquiry is different from an agreed piece of work.
Use the available figures to understand the steps you can observe. Avoid presenting them as a complete account of what every customer did.
Keep a simple enquiry record
For each relevant enquiry, note the service requested, the date and how the person says they found you. Ask naturally: “How did you hear about us?”
You can also record what happens next, such as a conversation, a quote or an agreed project. Use your existing business system where possible instead of building another unattended spreadsheet.
Keep the record proportionate. You need information that helps you understand your marketing, not a detailed collection of everything someone has done online.
Allow for an untidy customer journey
Someone might first notice a post, visit your website later and enquire after a recommendation from a friend. They may remember only one of those steps when you ask.
Treat source information as useful but incomplete. It can reveal patterns without proving that one post caused a particular sale.
When figures are small, resist dramatic conclusions from a single result. One promising enquiry is worth following up; it is not necessarily proof of a repeatable formula.
Review topics as well as totals
At a regular review, look at what each post discussed, who it was intended for and what happened afterwards.
Did practical explanations prompt useful questions? Did project examples lead people to explore the relevant service? Did a promotion generate enquiries that were actually a good fit?
Also consider the effort involved. A format that takes several hours to produce needs a reason to occupy that much of a small business’s week.
Choose one thing to improve
You might clarify a call to action, link to a more relevant page or explain a service that people keep misunderstanding. Change something specific and record why.
If people click but struggle to enquire, review the website as well as the post. Our contact-page guide is a useful place to start.
Estuary Connect offers digital marketing support that considers the connection between content, websites and customer enquiries. Get in touch if you would like a clearer view of what to focus on next.