Optimizing Use of Social Media Metrics in Store for Budget Marine

Budget Marine is the Caribbean’s leading marine chandlery with retail locations throughout the Caribbean.  Budget Marine has an active marketing presence via their website, Facebook page, newsletters, email blasts and ads on affiliate websites.

While big in the Caribbean, Budget Marine is relatively small in terms of human resources.  There is one department, called Group Services, located in St. Maarten, which provides marketing support to all locations throughout the region.

Challenge & Recognition

Heather Tackling-Court runs Budget Marine’s Facebook page.  When I contacted her, she explained:

Budget Marine is in a complicated situation where they have 10 store locations spread out across 10 different countries which means 10 unique audiences. By paying close attention to the social media insights they are able to tailor their ads and social media advertising to those specific clients. Keeping a tab on the demographics means that they can maximise the reach with targeted ads to people specifically in the countries that they operate. This is much more cost effective than placing traditional advertising in 10 different publications. Instead the Marketing dept can create and change the message they want to send out on a daily basis and appeal to the customers needs almost instantly. The metrics allow Budget Marine to see where the majority of their customers come from and which store locations need work at connecting with the customers. Direct interaction combined with interesting content allows the company to put a more personal touch to their corporate facade.

Current Situation

Although the marketing department (two people, in-house) does use Google Analytics to track “what category of product is most looked at, if we are receiving referrals from the ads that we have placed on other sites, click throughs from Facebook and our mass mailings.” (Constant, Natasha, 2017. Budget Marine Marketing Department. Conversation: 13 June 2017), they tend to look at it quarterly.

The use of social media metrics is primarily focussed on Consumption & Sharing metrics (i.e. # page views, likes).  Use of Lead metrics is weak, as is, ironically, Sales metrics (ref: Jae Baer).

“High Season” is short in the Caribbean; only 6 months.  This is a good reason why Google Analytics should be consulted frequently.  Budget Marine needs to monitor visits, comments, shares, ideas received and feedback (ref: University of Waterloo).  This information will better enable the marketing department to encourage customer participation.

Areas for Immediate Improvement

For starters, Budget Marine’s marketing department could be looking more closely at demographic measures.  For instance, yachts are constantly moving.  The most recent update of Google Analytics shows where the customers are, when, and what language they speak.  Google Analytics also shows what devices are being used to access Budget Marine’s online media.

Budget Marine can also use other tools besides Google Analytics to track their social media presence.  For example, recently Budget Marine appeared on socialmention.  The post is erroneous – Budget Marine does not have a sailing school – but the overall impression is positive.  It could have gone the other way – a negative comment – equally important for Budget Marine to be aware of.

Quick Fix Solution

The latest version of Google Analytics features customizable alerts that Budget Marine’s marketing department can exploit without needing more people-power.

Lessons for Others

Budget Marine’s marketing department knows that using social media metrics is beneficial.  Their challenge is to do so easily, without requiring more people hours.  The immediate solution is to better utilize Google Analytics’ customizable reports.  The bottom line?  No company is too small to make full use of social media metrics.

If you have concerns as to the accuracy of anything posted on this site, please send your concerns to Peter Carr, Program Director, Social Media for Business Performance.

---

References