Make More Money with Marketing Metrics

Do you know how effective each of your individual marketing tactics is? Many small business owners market in a vacuum. They spend money on brochures, advertisements and web sites with no real way to tie specific results to specific endeavors.

If you are unable to associate leads and sales with the specific marketing efforts that generate them you have no way of knowing what is working as an effective marketing mechanism and what is not.

The money you invest in marketing your company is precious. In order for you to maximize your marketing dollars you need to know the results individual marketing efforts generate. When you know the results of your marketing tactics you can make intelligent decisions about how to better allocate your marketing budget.

For instance, if you concurrently run a direct mail campaign, a search engine advertising campaign and weekly ads in industry periodicals without some method to discern results you will not know which effort generates the lions share of any new business.

If you don't know that your direct mail campaign yielded 90% of your revenue with a 2% response rate, you are powerless to make the wise decision to reinvest in the direct mail campaign and make changes to or drop entirely the other campaigns. What's more, if you can figure out how to double the response rate of your mail campaign, you can nearly double the revenue your marketing campaign without spending money on search engine marketing and periodical advertisements.

Measuring your marketing results will help you save money by allowing you to eliminate unproductive marketing tactics and at the same time, will help you make more money by allowing you to reinvest in productive marketing tactics.

Do you have a method for measuring the effect of your marketing?

Here are four tips for gathering the information you need to make wise marketing investment decisions.

Use a Database
Start by designing a database to keep track of individual marketing efforts and the leads and sales they generate. Make sure you include fields to track the dates of your campaigns, campaign descriptions, the number of leads generated and sales made. Once you have a central storage location for this information you will be able to make queries to glean the information you need to make wise marketing decisions.

Ask Questions
When you or your staff speaks with a prospect on the phone make sure you ask how they heard of your business; was it a referral or an ad in the local newspaper? It's such simple way to gather valuable information many small business owners overlook it.

Be sure to ask your prospects how they heard of your business.

Make It Easy for Your Prospect to Help You
Make it easy for your prospects to properly identify the marketing piece to which they respond. If you have multiple phone lines into your office you can easily accomplish this by assigning a unique phone number to individual marketing efforts. This way, you or a staff member can ask what number your prospect dialed or, if you have the right phone system you can look at the phone to see which line the call is on.

Data Entry Should Be Easy Too
Once you or a staff member have garnered the information you seek from your prospect, make it as easy as possible to have this information to be entered into your database system. If you employ a staff, make certain everyone is up to speed on your latest systems. Training is a must.

Move Your Marketing Forward
The idea is to gather as much information as you can about which marketing mechanisms generate the best (and worst) response, who is responding and why they chose to respond.

Once you have this information you will be better able to think like a future client, cater your marketing material to their needs and generate more leads and sales.

What are some other steps you can take to measure the effect of your marketing efforts?

Marketing Coach, Jeremy Cohen, helps small business owners and professional service providers attract more clients, grow their business and be more successful with his marketing and web site enhancement service and his marketing guides.
Get his free marketing guide: Jumpstart Marketing: More Profits, Clients and Success

---

How to Run a Successful News Release Program

Marketing public relations gives you cost effective ways to reach... Read More

Does The Market Really Want It?

At the very heart of any successful marketing strategy is... Read More

Marketing Got You Stumped?

It's not unusual for entrepreneurs to find the whole idea... Read More

Promotional Magnets: Promotion that Sticks

Some people are happy with just a business card. For... Read More

Becoming The Obvious Choice In A Sea Of Competition

Differentiation, niche marketing, and positioning. These and other related business... Read More

Small Business Marketing Tip ? Putting the Customer First.

I am a great believer in the keeping to the... Read More

The Easiest Marketing Plan Youll Ever Find

When it comes to marketing there's simply too many choices.... Read More

Name the Top Cable Network

When Cable began as Community Antenna Television in 1948, all... Read More

You?re In Charge. Now What?

For years now, you have been waiting patiently for that... Read More

Four Keys For Successful Foundation and Corporate Fundraising

Earlier in my career, I worked for a training and... Read More

The 5 Minute Marketing Plan

If I were to ask you right now, what marketing... Read More

Guerilla Marketing Lesson 2: Why Do People Call Me?

Before we begin, I want you to think about how... Read More

Mark Twain?s Great Marketing Idea

To tell you the truth (and about 53% of this... Read More

At the Speed of Light

How many times has someone you've called said, "Why don't... Read More

How To Get Your Prospect To Take Action

There's really only one thing that separates Image advertising from... Read More

Tradeshow Booth Cures - Living Color

Feng Shui is the Ancient Chinese practice of configuring home... Read More

Bridging the Chasm from Lead to Loyal Customer

Bridging the Chasm from Lead to Loyal Customer: A Step... Read More

Ten Crucial Questions

Ten Crucial Questions for Your Business Future I'm... Read More

The M-Word

It was a real eye-opener to hear the perceptions people... Read More

Increase Sales With Travel Incentives

Today's business environment has changed dramatically over the past 10... Read More

Loan Officer Marketing ? How to Target the Right Agents

Once there was a loan officer, who marketed his services... Read More

Using Business and Greeting Cards Effectively

Business cards and greeting cards almost go hand in hand... Read More

Feature Your Benefits

Sales Copy? eventually every small business owner must consider what... Read More

Identify The Ideal Target Audience With These 5 Tips

Narrowing your focus to one primary group of people is... Read More

Does Your Marketing Pass This 10-Point Test?

Good marketing, whatever form it takes, always meets certain criteria.... Read More

Competitive Research and Google

It all started out with an email message: "I am... Read More

Make More Sells With Colors

How Colors Effect Our Emotions?One of the most interesting things... Read More

Free Publicity for Restaurants

One of the best ways to get a restaurant free... Read More

Make Your Prospects Say Yes!

6 Secrets to Stellar Sales PresentationsEvery sale is won or... Read More

Freebie Seekers? Turn Them Into Clients and Referrers - or Turn them Far, Far Away

Many service business owners these days are "giving away" their... Read More

Inform vs. Excite

excite v. 1 a: to call to activity b: to... Read More

B2B Marketing Tips - Create an Interactive Online Experience for Clients

Business to business communications on the web are as stale... Read More

7 Marketing Lessons I Learned From the Muscleheads at Golds Gym

Can I share a secret with you?I love working out.... Read More