Hands up who REALLY evaluates their campaigns?

Hmmm I can see some half-hearted hands being raised at the back there! Are you the ones who have "evaluation" on your to do list but never seem to quite get around to doing it? Don't worry we're not here to tell you off - just to give you a gentle nudge in the right direction.

When you are busy putting a campaign together, working on strategies and developing content and nose to the grindstone getting information out there, it is all to easy to forget to evaluate just how well (or not) your campaign is being received.

For a PR campaign, tracking press coverage is the obvious evaluation tool. There are many ways to track coverage, the most fool proof is to pay a cuttings agency to do the reading for you. A daily report of coverage in the press (trade and consumer) lands in your inbox. Easy! These services will also cover broadcast media if you need them to. Then there are Google alerts which, if you use the right keywords, will pick up any coverage online. Of course effective PR isn't just about the number of mentions or the column inches - it is about the messages, the response from the public and what you do with it. Do you circulate your press coverage to your team? I bet you'll see lots of smiles and "oh wow we're in the newspaper" if you do! Great for morale.

If it's a new website (or an old one for that matter) there is the genius Google Analytics. Find out who is visiting your site and when. Where are they coming from? Searches, Facebook, Twitter....which pages they stay on and which makes them switch off in a nano-second. Used wisely this FREE tool can give you a real insight into how your website is performing and how it can be improved.

For social media campaigns you can track your "likes" and "followers" and see how the numbers grow. Check locations here - if you are a UK based company but all of your followers are from overseas you may want to re-think your strategy for building your network. How much interaction are you getting? It's all very well having a great big bunch of followers but if they're not commenting on your posts, retweeting you or interacting in anyway they're not hugely valuable to your business.

So why not make it your mid-year resolution to take the time to evaluate the marketing work you are doing. We promise it will be a real eye opener and you might even be able to pat yourself on the back for a job well done!