Almost as important as having some kind of marketing strategy in place as you work to grow your business is having a way to measure its effectiveness and success. Your marketing strategy should be evolving and changing as you reach different stages of your business. But if you’re unable to get a read on how well your marketing endeavors are working for you, it can be very difficult to know how to move forward.
What follows are 3 key points to follow when it comes to determining how and if your marketing plan is working.
You Must Have Goals in Place
If you truly want to measure success, it is critical that you take the time to establish realistic and specific goals. Setting goals not only keeps you headed in the right direction, but they also provide a point of reference that you can use to determine how things are going.
When it comes to marketing goals, consider breaking the numbers down by each individual marketing project or campaign. Rather than just coming up with a lump sum of new customers you want to see your first year, take the time to estimate how many new customers are possible with each and every marketing effort.
Ask the Right Questions
It’s important to know as much as you can about your customers. If there are 10 different ways that they may have heard about your business, you need to know which of those 10 methods is working the best. Most often, the best way to find this out is to simply ask your customers. Make it a habit to constantly ask new clients how they heard about you so you can start to recognize trends.
Not only do you need to know how your customers first heard about you, but you also need to have an idea of what products and services are attracting the right customer. Which leads to our next point…
Track Numbers
Many small businesses miss out on helpful information that can make a difference in their marketing strategies simply because they do not track numbers. Taking the time to track numbers like website analytics, email open rates or an uptick in sales after a direct mailer campaign is what helps you know what is working and what isn’t working.
You may be spending thousands of dollars a year on a specific type of marketing that is bringing in very few leads while other marketing efforts are leading to dozens of converted leads. When trends like this show up, it can help you as you shape your marketing strategies going forward.
If you are a small to medium size business looking for new marketing ideas, we invite you to give Printing Solutions a call. Find out what is working for so many of our other clients and let us help put those strategies to work for you. Give us a call at 480-596-6300.