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?
It should. If your answer is "I don't know" then you've got some work to do. In addition to 2) above, there are some things you can do to improve response rates.

-- 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

---

Trade Show Videos Need to be Planned

A few months ago, we attended the recent Austech 2005... Read More

Tradeshow Booth Cures - Living Color

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

Mortgage Marketing - Viral-Email, Referral Marketing Strategy

This is a devastatingly powerful way to extend your marketing... Read More

How to Promote your business website using free online resources.

There are many ways to promote your website for free... Read More

Case Study: How to Get a Big Boost in Response by Taking Your Marketing to the Extreme

Want a big boost in response and quick sales from... Read More

Five New 5 Ps!

NO! When I say "5 P's", I'm not talking about... Read More

Free or Not Free ? That is the Question

You may be in business for yourself or as a... Read More

5 Tips to Heat Up Your On-Line Marketing Using Off-Line Tactics

The internet of course brings a huge arena of marketing... Read More

10 steps to promote your business

1) Word of mouth is the most cost-effective, powerful form... Read More

Why You Dont NEED a Marketing Plan

If you pick up a copy of the November 2003... Read More

Break Even On Your Next Direct Mail Campaign...And Still Generate Huge Profits

With direct mail, you can break even and still claim... Read More

Marketing On The Cheap: Speak Out!

No matter what business you are in, you probably have... Read More

How to Start a Big Mail Service

A BIG MAIL SHOULD CONTAIN:At least three to four Mail... Read More

Independent Professionals: What Stands Between You and Your Artist Statement?

What Stands Between You and Writing an Artist Statement or... Read More

The Secret to Adding Credibility to Your Business ? Testimonials!

You may not realize it, but you already have a... Read More

Self Promotion Brings Business Success

Your business success depends on your ability to promote your... Read More

Recipe for Success

Special event and a special recipe- hand it out on... Read More

SWOT Analysis -- Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats

When conducting strategic planning for any company -- online and/or... Read More

Promotional Marketing Products ? Selecting the Perfect Item

People are known to shop on impulse- buying an item... Read More

A Jack Of All Trades Is Often The Master of None

You've heard variations of that saying your entire life. Consider:... Read More

Be Prepared for Marketing

For most businesses, making a sale is all important. However,... Read More

Making the Intangible Real

How do you make the intangible real? How do you... Read More

Get More Clients From Networking - Follow The Rules Of Dating!

If you're a business owner, you probably spend quite a... Read More

Where to Look for New Donors for Your Fundraising Letter Appeals

Have you ever studied your best donors and wished you... Read More

First Steps to Developing a Marketing Plan

Direct Mail . . . Newspaper . . . Radio... Read More

Marketing With Brochures

With the explosion of the internet and online businesses many... Read More

Like Brushing Your Teeth

What do the following things have in common: brushing your... Read More

Direct Marketing ? Brand Identity Guru Tips

If your company doesn't have a direct marketing program in... Read More

Business Leads

Anyone who runs their own business can tell you how... Read More

Maximizing Your Yellow Page Investment

Yellow Page users are the hottest of all prospects ?... Read More

How To Recover Your Almost Customers

You'll always need to find new prospects for your business.... Read More

Fertilizer For Your Grassroots Marketing

Looking for a great way to drive traffic to your... Read More

Marketing Messages: Your 10 Most Important Business Principles

As a self-employed professional, you have two basic strategies for... Read More