You know that old saying about advertising? The one that says we know that 50% of our billboards work, we just don't know which half?
Knowing "which half works" has become a kind of Holy Grail in advertising and marketing. Lots of folks who haven't yet made the leap into inbound marketing labor under the illusion that the type of marketing they are used to -- outbound marketing (also known as broadcast marketing, or shotgun marketing) -- is more measurable and traceable than marketing conducted via blogs and social media.
Not so.
Inbound marketing is actually quite a bit more trackable than outbound marketing, and it's largely due to something called Tracking Tokens.
Tracking Tokens are little bits of code -- just strings of letters and numbers -- that are placed at the tail end of any old URL, so that when that link is clicked, some piece of analytics software somewhere knows where it was clicked, and by whom. It tells you which billboard worked. Which campaign got you to take the next step, and click?
For a great example of the use of tracking tokens, check out what Major League Baseball is doing right now to assign the final two places on the roster of the All-Star Game next week. From now until Thursday at midnight ET, fans can vote for one final player to send to the American League team, and one to send to the National League team. It's a big honor to be selected for the All-Star Team, even if some of your more jaded and spoiled athletes don't treat like the honor it is. In fact, one of my main criteria for who should be selected -- all other stats being equal -- has always been how excited is this player to play in the All-Star Game?
Allow me a short digression? Well, I'm a big baseball fan. I'm a Yankee fan, in fact, a detail that I tend to keep under my hat most of the time, as I live in Red Sox country and I have more than once gotten a door -- literally! -- slammed in my face by folks round here when they see a Yankees T-Shirt on my chest. But my rants about sportsmanship and courtesy will wait for another day.
My point is that my favorite player these days is Nick Swisher, primarily for the unbounded enthusiasm he brings to the field every single day. When he started playing for the Yankees last year, my husband and I joked that he must be drinking about 25 Red Bulls every day before the game, because he was out there practically doing cartwheels in the outfield, he was so pumped up to be playing that game. In every post-game interview, he was practically wagging his tail with excitement. Love that guy.
So I was sad to see that he didn't make the first cut for the All-Star Team, because he is absolutely qualified, stats-wise. But he's not a huge name, you know. So Nick is one of the last few players who are contending for the last slot on each team. End of digression.
