As consumer trends continue to shift away from traditional brick-and-mortar shopping to online shopping and social media activity, a strong, targeted, and effective digital marketing plan is becoming more important than ever. While this is increasingly self-evident, many brands continue to struggle with how to measure the effectiveness of their digital PR campaigns.

There are several different metrics brand managers, digital PR pros, and marketing reps can use to measure the performance of a digital marketing campaign. Here are five that, collectively, give brands a clear understanding of the impact of their digital marketing efforts.

Traditional journalism is dead, just ask the Internet. Except, of course, we know that’s not true, because traditional media – what some like to call Legacy Media – is going strong, maintaining a solid grip on the hearts and minds of millions upon millions of faithful fans and followers.

But what is the role of traditional journalists in the modern age of digital marketing and social media influencers? It’s a strong, vital role, to begin with.

Self-made billionaire Kylie Jenner had much to celebrate in 2019, and being the highest paid influencer of Instagram was likely on the list. As the former majority owner of Kylie Cosmetics, Kylie is one of the most influential people in the online beauty industry. Her Instagram posts have been valued at over one million dollars in traditional ad spending.

Somewhat surprisingly, Kylie is the first member of the Kardashian-Jenner clan to hit such a milestone; Kim Kardashian still only makes a mere $910,000 per post. Moreover, Kylie’s engagement rate between her 157 million followers is through the roof, and she posted Instagram’s most-liked picture ever when she announced the name of her daughter, Stormi. In less than a day, the post had raked in 13.7 million likes and close to 500,000 comments.

2019 is history and a lot of lessons were probably learned.  In looking ahead, one of the areas to pay close attention to is the health of the company’s digital marketing for 2020.  With proper attention in the right areas and some meaningful tweaks, the potential for growth looks promising.

Now’s the perfect time for an annual checkup.  The first place to start is an honest assessment of how well the entire company is in tune with marketing’s digital marketing strategy.  Do sales and senior leadership embrace and support marketing’s vision and plans?

Marketing professionals are taking advantage of every opportunity possible to generate a buzz about their brand or products, and one of the more popular options that is transforming marketing efforts is newsjacking. This is a method of marketing that essentially involves companies or brands maximizing the buzz of current news stories and events in order to raise awareness about their own company or brand. It is generally relatively affordable or even free, and it can create a considerable amount of interest in the brand when it is done effectively.

Many of today’s news stories and current events have some negative aspect to them. It is not necessary to focus efforts on a negative news story to add your real-time spin. For example, we all remember the now-classic Oreo Superbowl Ad. Oreo successfully hijacked a major event during a sporting event, to showcase their companies brand identity, wit and voice.

Looking at the marketplace as a whole, trends report that larger, traditional grocery stores in the United States are experiencing a downturn. National or larger regional chains are struggling to compete against both big box stores as well as the growing number of online consumer grocery options.

A closer look reveals trends beneath these trends. Certain regional brands are thriving, building in markets where other chains have died off, not only competing against much larger brands, but beating them in key demographics. Walmart is selling more and more groceries. Discount chain Aldi is spreading like wildfire, and yet these much smaller companies are still growing. How? The magic bullet, market watchers say, is a precise combination of branding, local connection, and targeted consumer PR.