| |
| |
|
Marketing Information |
|
|
|
7 Ways to Evaluate Your Marketing Plan
Business owners often find it difficult to know whether their marketing tactics are working. This can be especially tricky when you use a combination of marketing activities simultaneously, or if using personal-contact tactics such as networking. No matter what business you're in, your marketing should be accountable. So here's a few ways to evaluate how well you're doing. 1) Look at your sales (or fee income). They should be going up! But be careful about what you measure. Some firms have a longer sales cycle than others. To get an accurate picture you might need to also measure the number of new leads being generated, or the number of appointments, or the number of billable hours achieved. Remember discounts or variances in fees will affect total sales values. 2) Ask your clients. Check to find out where they heard of you. Most businesses never ask this question and miss out on gleaning valuable insights into how clients select a service provider. 3) Does your advertising and/or promotional activity produce direct responses? -- Firstly, make sure you are advertising in the right media. Choose media to suit your selected audience. Be as specific as possible. And avoid rejecting options just because they don't look "exciting", such as trade journals that might have relatively small readership. Importantly, check with your audience to make sure they actually do read the publication. -- Use a strong headline that asks a pertinent question, or gives a solution-oriented statement. -- Include a clear call-to-action. Tell people what they should do. For example: Ring today for your free appointment; Ask for our free information sheet. -- Include multiple methods of contact. Phone, email, and web site are all important. Give prospects a choice of how to contact you. 4) Do your networking activities create new opportunities for you? One of the major principles of effective networking is to "give" rather than "sell". That is, you should look to help others as you spread word about your services. But this softly, softly approach can make it hard to measure effectiveness. To measure your networking activities make sure you track the source of incoming enquiries. Then see if any of your visible/tangible tactics can be credited with generating the enquiry. If not, then maybe you can safely say it was a referral generated by networking. This is made a lot easier if you're a member of a lead-generating club such as BNI or Leads. You'll get specific feedback each week from these groups. 5) Do your marketing tactics make it easier to sell your services? To do this your marketing activities and/or material should do the following: -- Attract qualified prospects (who have shown a specific interest in your services). -- Anticipate and diffuse potential questions/concerns from prospects. -- Be easy to use when personally selling to prospects. For example: material should be relevant; images/charts easy to understand; and be presented in a format the prospect will be likely to keep. -- Focus on your client needs and your points of difference (Unique Selling Proposition). 6) Check your sales conversion rate. The best approach here is to look at your historical records and determine whether your conversion (or closure) rate has improved. "Selling" is an important part of the "marketing" function, so make sure you assess your success at closing the sale, rather than just focus on generating new leads. 7) Does your plan have a positive return on investment (ROI)? Does it bring in enough new/repeat business to justify the expense? Rather than just look at the "marketing budget" as one total, you really need to evaluate the cost effectiveness of each specific marketing activity. Even if you think you're getting a great ROI overall, maybe you can do even better by changing or eliminating unproductive tactics. (c) 2004 Stuart Ayling Stuart Ayling runs Marketing Nous, an Australasian marketing consultancy that specialises in marketing for service businesses. He helps clients to improve their marketing tactics, attract more clients, and increase revenue. For additional marketing resources, including Stuart's popular monthly newsletter, visit his web site at www.marketingnous.com.au
MORE RESOURCES:
Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
What Can Star Wars Teach You About Creating a Buzz for Your Business? Many people think marketing is some type of mystery that only a few select people know the secret too. In fact if you look at the entertainment industry you will find some of the best models to follow. Happy Hunting! Before you ever get on the telephone, send a marketing piece or set up an appointment with a potential customer, you must first identify whom that customer might be. To do that, you will need to create an "ideal customer profile"-a profile of who would be the best possible prospect for you and whatever you are selling. Reach Thousands of Your Prospects, Absolutely Free I'm big on getting maximum marketing exposure at the lowest cost possible. After all, most small business owners don't have huge marketing budgets, so finding inexpensive ways to market is a necessity. The Benefits of a Marketing Plan What is a Marketing Plan? Marketing is to do with matching the features and benefits that your products and services are able to provide with specific customers and then telling those customers why they should buy them from you. Your marketing plan details how to do this. Direct Mail - Dont Assume, Just Test and Track Where to Start:Most novice marketers have definite fixed ideas about direct mail that are way off base - most often in the area of what to spend and how much to do. You should determine what you are able to spend for your marketing budget, spend it, and determine the maximum number of leads that you can create. How to Make Profits With a Commission Mailing Business There are many mailorder publications that will list your nameunder this directory.. Reasons Why People Usually Dont Buy Again There are many psychological reasons why people will buy from the first time and why they do not buy from you again. There are books on many of these reasons. PowerPositioning: WillYouAcceptThisRose.com Positioning is a powerful concept in marketing. To illustrate, have you ever visited a fast food restaurant, and, in a rush to complete your order asked for a coke when you "perhaps" meant to order some other soft drink? The Coke brand and its owners have achieved a top of mind awareness. Timing and the Right Product Will Make Your Dreams Come True Are you looking to erase your debt, buy that new luxury vehicle, or impress that special person?You can, if the timing is right and you market a product everyone needs!Here's a blueprint that outlines the 6 steps to start earning big money today.Step #1: Find a product everyone needs. Getting Ideas for Your Postcards If you're going to do postcard marketing on an ongoing basis, it's a good idea to have a collection of cards to inspire you. In advertising and marketing circles, this is called a "swipe file. Are Your Marketing Efforts Working...Or Could They Use A Little Help? Marketing is a broad business subject that encompasses a range of activities including advertising, public relations, sales, and promotions. Generally, you will find that people often confuse sales with marketing, when in fact the two are quite different. Stop Searching - Joint Ventures are the Solution to Doubling Your Business First, define the end user (or ideal client) of your product. Many times when I ask people who their ideal client is they will tell me "oh everyone can use my product!". Marketings Nuclear Weapon Three seconds. That's what you have to convey your message. Guerrilla Marketing in Action Guerrilla Marketing is using time, energy and imagination to market a product, business or person without spending massive amounts of hard earned profit dollars. It also has been defined as non-traditional marketing, something unusual, unexpected and designed to be noticed. Positioning For Success According to military historian David Chandler the campaigns of Napoleon Bonaparte consistently rose above the expected. For more than 20 years Napoleon showed genius and skill as a general on the field of battle. Self-Promotion on a Zero Budget Recently, I've received a few e-mails from people asking me for advice on how to get started in the writing biz. When I stop to think about it, maybe I've been lucky to accomplish this much writing in a short time. Pre-Cleaning and Updating Addresses in Your Database When you send a direct mail piece using the Addressed Admail reduced postage option, it can cost you anywhere from 60 cents to $1.25 or more for printing, mail production and postage. Four Essential Marketing Plan Components Preparing a Marketing Plan for your product or service is a real eye-opening experience. While we all hope that our product or service will appeal to the masses, the truth is, that may not happen. Loan Officer Marketing - How to Target the Right Agents Once there was a loan officer, who marketed his services to some Realtors®. His story went something like this. Marketing Messages: Your 10 Most Important Business Principles As a self-employed professional, you have two basic strategies for your marketing efforts: Writing or Speaking.No matter whether or not you do both of these activities or only one of them, you need to know what messages you want to convey to your audience.
|
| home | site map |
| © 2006 |
