Why Your Marketing Sucks and What To Do About It
Years ago you may have got away with simply placing a sign on the front of your business and waiting for people to walk through the door. These days’ businesses compete against a much broader market and the competition to get noticed has never been fiercer. In order to run successful marketing strategies today you need measurable tactics. For example if you do put a sign in your window, see how many people walk through the door in response to it.
The modern day complexities of marketing and branding would never have been imagined 20 years ago. Buyers are better informed, more knowledgeable and have many more resources available to research products and services, just think about the Internet for example. You can do a quick Google search on just about any topic and have relevant information instantly. For this reason your marketing and branding strategies must be consistent with the business itself in order to communicate a clear message to your target market. This means there is no, one size fits all marketing technique.
Most large companies now use sophisticated database driven systems to test, measure and tweak marketing campaigns. This allows them to capitalise on strategies that have proven and predictable results. So how does small business compete against that kind of intelligence? By following the same model. Do a small test run and trial different variations of the same marketing strategy until you are happy with the results. Once you are happy with the results you are getting, role it out on a larger scale. Doing so will increase your chances at getting a good conversion rate. For example you could test conversions online by measuring a particular links click through rate for a particular advertising campaign. When done well, any business can achieve growth through marketing. Why not test it for a month. Calculate the visitor numbers for that month, divide by the number of buyers and multiply the result by 100 to get the percentage. Now calculate the cost of the campaign and assess if it is worthwhile doing at a large scale or if you should change the strategy. Does doing a cheaper alternative impact on the conversion rate at all? Often it doesn’t, in fact sometimes it improves results.
Do not try to tackle too large a market with a campaign that is likely to bring in sales without the ability to follow through with the delivery of the product or service. With the percentage rate you have calculated you should be able to estimate the number of sales your campaign will make and determine how large a group you should target at any given time. This way of thinking will also change your focus on Search Engine Optimisation. Most businesses focus on simply increasing the traffic to their site and forget to track if the traffic they are getting is actually converting into paying customers.
Many companies rely on a combination of marketing activities, including advertising, trade shows, direct marketing systems and e-mail campaigns. But the coordination of these efforts can be too demanding on a company’s financial and human resources. At the end of the day you don’t need to master every new marketing strategy that comes along. Simply find one or two that work for your business and that you can use for the long-term before you move onto the next strategy.
Working to a marketing system like this where you test, measure and tweak campaigns will provide your sales team with better qualified leads, enabling you to optimise the sales and marketing process and produce higher profits. Good marketing systems allow you to measure results and track your return on investment.
I’d be interested to hear how you have tracked, measured and tweaked your marketing strategies. Good and bad experiences are all helpful to our readers so please comment below.
