Soapbox Engage Blog

Nonprofit marketer, Soapbox Engage just made your brain a lot mightier!

Let's say you've got a campaign for which you're hoping to drive traffic to your website and capture conversions. In other words, you're trying to get folks to DO something once they hit your website: Give you money, buy some swag, register for an event.

You get the idea.

You're tweeting and Facebooking and blogging and all around shouting about it. But how do you know which of those efforts are producing the best results? Or no results?

Now, with Soapbox source tracking codes, you can measure the relative effectiveness of your campaigns directly in Salesforce and use that data to inform future action to maximize results.

How? Let's break this down, shall we?

1) Understanding the source tracking codes

Tracking URLs consist of three variables:

• Source: the place last visited before reaching your website. Think: utm_source=facebook or utm_source=newsletter.
• Medium: the means a visitor used to arrive at that source. For example: utm_medium=post or utm_medium=socialprofile.
• Campaign: the overall identifier you give for the marketing effort across all sources and mediums. Something like, utm_campaign=endofyearappeal or utm_campaign=juneadvocacy

These  will look familiar to any Google Analytics pros out there. That, dear reader, is entirely intentional. Call it a double dip of tracking goodness. For each code you create and share, you'll have that data tracked in Google Analytics for the visits as well as Salesforce for the action or actions taken.

That plural "actions" is what they call in the lit game "foreshadowing" and it happens to be pregnant with possibility for your nonprofit. Read on, fair reader. Read on!

2) Creating the source tracking code URL

How do you create these wonderful tracking URLs? Simply by choosing the appropriate and desired variables, as noted above, tacking them onto the URL of the page you're sending people to, and sharing the tracking link over the appropriate channel.

So, let's say that you're using Soapbox Events for your annual gala and you wish to create a tracking URL to capture the effectiveness of a series of Facebook posts in July, you could build something like this:

www.someorg.org/annual-gala-registration?utm_campaign=julygala&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=post

3) Sharing the source tracking code URL

Next, just share that link through the appropriate channel. In the case of our example, in Facebook posts during July that drive visitors to your annual gala registration page.

4) Analyzing the results in Salesforce

Once a visitor who was brought to your site through a tracking URL takes an action, that action is stamped with the source tracking codes when data is saved to Salesforce. That is true for the initial page they visit. It is also true for subsequent pages and actions during the same session on your site. Maybe the event you sent them to includes a donation appeal on the confirmation page. If the visitor decides to donate as well that donation will be stamped in Salesforce with the same source tracking codes.

This tracking code goodness makes its way to the Opportunity record for the action which allows you to create Reports and Dashboards so you can determine which campaign, medium, source or combination of each provide the highest number of conversions, the highest average donation, total revenue over time, and much more.

The following image is an initial taste of Dashboards made possible by Soapbox source tracking codes. For a number of other examples, click here.

Interested in making your nonprofit marketing brain beefier through Soapbox Engage source tracking codes? If you're already a Soapbox Engage client, just upgrade to the latest version of Soapbox Engage QuickStart for Salesforce and begin using the new tools.

If you're not, hit us up! We'd love to chat about how Soapbox Engage can help you further your nonprofit's mission!