Make your marketing measure up
Fed up with funneling cash into marketing that seems to cost more and to do less? How do you work out what ‘works’ and what doesn’t?
You need to know the return on investment (ROI) of each marketing dollar you spend. Especially when technology means your potential customers can access information in a multitude of different ways. The aim is to identify potential buyers and track whether they respond to your marketing by making a purchase.
It is called testing and measuring. Most people hate it. But if you don’t measure and you might as well stand on the footpath outside your business and give $100 dollar notes to the first 20 people that walk past. Remember the newspaper advertising you tried that ‘didn’t work’, and the radio spots that ‘only did OK’? Money you’ve given away that you won’t get back.
Start asking people where they heard about you.
Start right now. Immediately. If you don’t know you’ll never know which marketing to use and you’ll keep running (and paying for) advertising that never brings a dollar into your business. Every time someone calls or buys, ask them this question – “By the way, can I ask how you heard about us.”
Keep track.
Record customer details and how they heard about your business, and ensure every member of your team does the same. Keep notes on what was discussed and what action is needed. Pay attention to chit-chat and jot down some notes. Rather than relying on your memory invest in database/customer relationship software or outsource your phone answering to someone who can do this for you. At the end of each week or month, add up the figures. Now you can start making decisions…
Stop and change.
When you see something isn’t working (when your profit margin from the sales is not at least paying for the ad), stop it straight away. Then change it. Try a different headline, media, offer, look etc… Make one small change each time…If it doesn’t work again, make another change and give it another try…until you find what works, and weed out the costly ones that don’t. Do this one at a time with each marketing media that you use…Stop and change.
Test and measure.
Track the result – how many enquiries were generated and how many of those turned into sales? Compare that with what it cost and check whether it paid for itself. If it costs $300 to run an ad that brings in 10 customers and makes you $1,000 in profit, it’s a good ad.
Upsize me.
When you know what’s working upsize it. Do the same thing on a larger scale. If it’s flyers, then drop twice as many. If it’s an ad, run it in more papers, run it more often or increase its size.
Check conversions.
This will tell you if you have a marketing problem, or a sales problem. Be honest – how many enquiries do you convert into sales? If you don’t know the answer – start measuring. Otherwise you’re throwing money away bringing people in that aren’t buying. Is it possible to increase conversions, even a little?
Give your customers more reasons to buy from you. Price is only one reason. What if the salesperson were a bit friendlier? Are you willing to back your product with a guarantee? Can you offer free delivery?
Remove the guesswork. Measuring your marketing ROI will give you a real competitive advantage.
Now you know what makes your phone ring – but how those phone calls are answered will mean the difference between a sale or not.
Smart’s personalised phone service ensures your calls are answered; your customers deal with a real person and get the answers they need as quickly as possible. We’ll manage bookings or appointments for you, qualify leads with a script, and then record the details in a database we’ll provide for you. Click here to enquire about Smart phone answering services.
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