Wondering why the whole spray-and-pray method of social media marketing hasn't radically increased sales?

Social media "experts" too often leave out a key concept: conversion marketing. Conversion marketing is the science of measuring the quantitative effectiveness of all marketing channels—from paid advertising to word-of-mouth.

Is the amount of time you invest in Twitter, Facebook or even LinkedIn worth the volume of traffic, sign-ups or sales you get in response? You have to measure customer acquisition across of all of your promotional channels to answer that.

Start a conversion measurement program via your website by setting up Google Analytics and its Goals feature. It enables you to track all "wins" (like an email sign-up, purchase, or any action that matters to you) by traffic source.

If your transactions happen offline, measure promotional effectiveness by asking a wide sample of customers how they heard about you (e.g. call and ask, or poll them via email). You don’t have to get fancy. Just talking to a dozen customers will give you some insight.

DISCUSS: How will conversion marketing change your promotional plans this quarter?