"One accurate measurement is worth a thousand
expert opinions." Admiral Grace Hopper, American Naval
Officer
In the last issue of Insightful Marketing, we
established
the importance of setting marketing objectives. Which
leads to the question, "Have we met our objectives?"
The only answer to that question is measurement - the
only real way to determine what works, and what
doesn't.
But how and where should you start to measure your
marketing programs? Much has been printed in the
past two years on the subject of measuring return on
investment for marketing programs - certainly a worthy
subject. But where to begin? Start with the
basics:
1. Ask - Ask your customers and potential
customer leads where they heard about you. Enlist
everyone in your business in this effort. And use the
cyber tools available to you. If you have a web site,
count hits, "click throughs" on e-newsletters, etc.
Be sure to look for information concerning all of the
programs and initiatives that you are
currently using, for example:
Web site
Search engines (which one)
Networking (which groups)
Advertising (which medium and when)
Referrals (from whom)
Promotions
Other (specific information)
2. Tally - Keep a tally based upon what
marketing programs you're using, and what your
customers and sales leads are saying. Set a timeframe
for your tally.
3. Compare - Compare the results of your
customer information with your programs. What seems
to be most effective? Measure your return on
investment. A $1,000 program that yields a $100 sale
probably isn't the best use of your marketing dollars.
4. Consider quality of leads and sales - ROI
isn't always the final answer.
Sometime quality is more important than the size of the
initial sale. Decide what you consider a quality
lead. Is it a large sale or a sale with future potential?
Evaluate which marketing programs result in the best
quality leads, based on your comparisons. Prioritize
where you want to focus your future marketing efforts
and money.
5. Prune and refine - Now you can decide what
actions you need to take, based upon what works,
what doesn't and what the costs are. Make sure you
have given a promotion enough time to yield results
before you evaluate it.
Following are some things to consider:
Are your current search engines generating sales
leads? Do you need to consider adding or changing the
search engines you use or optimizing your web site to
achieve better search engine placement?
What kinds of responses are being generated from
your website?
Do your networking memberships generate leads?
Some memberships are costly. Consider their value.
Keep in mind that experts say that it takes 9-12
months to see results from networking.
If you are advertising, are you getting value for
your dollars? Are there media that you aren't using
that could be more effective for you?
In our next newsletter, we'll introduce Insight #6:
Networking: It's all about relationships.
Need help creating more effective marketing programs?
