The year is winding down fast and I’m all out of marketing insights of 500 words or less at the moment, so I just want to wish everyone a very happy holiday season.
May you enjoy the best of health, the most joyous happiness, and a very successful 2013!
Setting defined goals for your marketing strategies is a given… at least it should be. After all, how do you know if a strategy has been successful if you don’t have a way to measure it or something to compare it to? Of course, to know if you’ve achieved true success, not only do you have to have something to measure, but that measurement has to be meaningful in terms of the growth of your business and the achievement of your goals.
With the explosion of social media marketing, the claims are everywhere about how “successful” businesses have been with their online campaigns. My experience is that this “success” is generally measured in terms of how many followers, friends and connections have been amassed. If your goal was to achieve x number of followers, friends and connections, then congratulations, you have indeed achieved success. Now, my question for you is: “Did your business grow as a result of this success?” If not, then did meeting your goal allow you to: get a business loan, win a contest, get a grant; or, did you just get bragging rights as to reaching your magic number of people who can press a button on their keyboard?
Social media is not the only culprit here. Does your phone ring off the hook because of a yellow pages ad you’ve placed? How many of those phone calls convert to business – enough to at least pay for the ad; or, are you just bragging about the fact that you had to hire someone to answer all those phone calls without paying attention to the money that’s being earned or spent?
Do you even know where your business is coming from? Are you tracking your various marketing outlets (newspaper ads, online ads, yellow pages, radio, TV, online, networking, e-mail, signage, etc…) to see what is and what is not getting people to contact you? If not, how do you know what is and is not working. Maybe it’s time to drop or tweak one outlet and put more of your resources into the ones that are producing results for you. Don’t forget to measure each individual marketing outlet. For instance, if you’ve taken out ads on multiple websites, you need to track each one individually so you know which ones are productive and which ones are not.
If you need more information on tracking your marketing hits, we have a tracking sheet template we can send you. Just e-mail your request to info@levpromotions.com.
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I saw this poster in my daughter’s drivers’ training class and loved it, so I had to take a picture of it.
After putting it on my computer, I realized that it’s not only humorous, it’s also a good lesson.
Unless you live in the rural areas of Canada, so you really expect to run into a moose on the road? I certainly don’t.
Knowing what bumps and obstacles lie in the path of your business success is critical to achieving that success. If you don’t know what they are, you can’t plan the tactics that will maneuver you safely over or around them. A good SWOT analysis and marketing plan will help smooth the road considerably.
Of course, we can never anticipate every obstacle. While we might prepare for a moose, if a tiger shows up, well, that’s a completely different story.
Nevertheless, knowing what our strengths are an who our allies are, can help us overcome just about anything that can crop up on the roadway to our success.
Wishing you luck in navigating your business path!
Sticky Marketing - Marketing Ideas that Stick with Your Target Audience 