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Title: Dramatically Improve Your Marketing Results With These 6 Simple
Steps
Author: Debbie LaChusa
Article:
What if there were things you could start doing now that could
help you to market more successfully in the future? Even if you
didn't have your marketing act together over the past year.
Well, there are.
(1) Review your past marketing activities and results
Take some time to review all of your marketing activities and
try to understand which ones worked best. And when I say "worked
best" I mean, which ones resulted in more clients, more
customers, more sales, or more growth for your business?
Your goal each year should be to understand which marketing
activities bring you more business and which ones do not, so you
can concentrate on the activities that work, and delete the ones
that do not. Even if you did not have an organized marketing
plan, or marketing activities that you implemented consistently
during the past year, if you are still in business today, then
there must have been some form of marketing going on.
(2) Broaden your definition of marketing
Marketing isn't only things like running an advertisement, or
sending out a direct mail piece. It's anything you do that puts
your business, product or service in front of the prospects you
are trying to sell to.
You may be surprised to realize you've been marketing more than
you know!
Any time you talk to someone about your business, product or
service, in person, at an event, over the phone, or through a
brochure or some form of media, you are marketing. Any time you
send someone an email or a thank you card from your business,
you are marketing.
Be aware of any time you are communicating with current
customers, or potential customers. Take the opportunity to make
them aware of new products or services, special offers or
programs, or even milestones or changes in your business.
Do you include your business card every time you mail a letter
to a client or prospect? Do you have an email signature that
includes your business name, your phone number, your email
address, your website address and possibly even your tagline?
You should. You are reminding people about your products and
services and making it easy for them to find out more if they so
choose.
If you truly believe that your products or services can enhance
people's lives, then it should be easy to share the word at
every opportunity. After all, if people don't know about you,
they can't benefit. Put this way, it is almost a disservice to
NOT market.
(3) See if you can track your sales to your marketing, either
directly or indirectly
Take a look at the marketing you did do, taking into
consideration all of the activities mentioned above. Can you
directly or indirectly track any new or increased business to
these activities? An example of direct tracking might be: You
attended a networking event and someone you gave your business
card to, contacted you or made a purchase.
An example of indirect tracking might be: You attended a
networking event, and someone you gave your business card to,
referred you to a friend, and that friend contacted you or made
a purchase. For each marketing activity you did over the past
year, ask yourself the following questions:
(a) Did I get any new clients, customers or increased sales as
a direct result, or an indirect result, of this activity?
(b) If the answer is yes, quantify the result by asking
yourself: How many new clients, customers or sales did it
generate?
If you can't seem to track your past marketing activities,
consider asking your current customers how they found out about
you.
You could do a survey that includes a number of customer
satisfaction questions, but also includes a question to
determine how they found out about you.
If you have a handful of clients that you work closely with and
you really don't know how they found you, pick up the phone and
ask them.
At the end of this exercise, you will have a list of all of your
marketing activities, and the results connected to each one.
(4) Separate those activities that resulted in business from
those that did not
Are there any activities on your list that did not result in new
or additional business? If you gave these activities a good
opportunity to bring you business, then maybe it's time to
consider dropping these activities and trying some new ones.
After all, there is no sense continuing to spend money on
marketing that has not proven to be effective for your business.
Even if it has worked for someone else, it may not be a good
marketing activity for you and your business.
(5) Use this information to plan your marketing for next year
Plan to spend more time, energy and/or money on those activities
that brought you business and sales. These activities have
proven themselves to be effective for your business, product or
service. So odds are if you commit more to them, they will
result in even more sales. And, if you really don't have any way
to track your sales or new clients, don't beat yourself up. You
are not alone. In fact, one of my biggest challenges as a
marketing consultant has been to get my clients to track the
effectiveness of their various marketing activities. Just make
sure to remedy this now, once and for all. Commit to never
implementing a marketing activity again without some way to
track how effective it is.
(6) Set up a way to track all future marketing activities
Recognize the importance of tracking and make sure that you have
a plan in place to track all of your future marketing
activities. The simplest way to track is to simply ask each new
customer where or how they found out about you. You may also
want to consider including a code on any flyers or brochures
that you distribute, and providing a reason for the customer to
bring that flyer in when they come to make a purchase. Reasons
to return the flyer could be to take advantage of a special
offer, or to get a discount or free bonus gift.
You can also do this by phone or on the Internet if that is how
your customers make purchases. Simply ask them to provide you
with the code on the brochure or flyer that they are calling or
ordering from. Make sure the code is specific to the location or
group of people that you distributed the flyer to. If you are
networking or speaking to a group and someone gives you their
business card and agrees to receive your free report or
e-newsletter, make sure you include a reference in your contact
database of the event where you met them. For every marketing
activity you do put a plan in place to help you track all them.
Effective tracking is by far one of the easiest ways to improve
your marketing effectiveness. And when you zero-in on what
marketing activities are most effective for your business, you
will be able to focus your efforts on only those activities, and
will be able to spend less and get more as a result.
(C) 2005 Debbie LaChusa
About the author:
20-year marketing veteran Debbie LaChusa created The
10stepmarketing System to help small business owners and
solo-preneurs successfully market their business, themselves
without spending a fortune on marketing. To learn more about
this simple, step-by-step program and to sign up for her FREE
audio class and FREE weekly ezine featuring how-to articles,
tips and advice, visit http://www.10stepmarketing.com
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