One of the most important elements of executing any marketing strategy is tracking your results. The other element you should always keep in mind is consistency. Tracking will help you understand how you are getting clients and what is working best for you so you can make informed decisions when it comes to marketing your business in the future. Consistency will help ensure you actually give the strategy time to work and produce results. If you do not have the ability to track your strategy or do it consistently then you need to rethink your plan in order to avoid losing valuable money and time. Here are a few simple things you can do to measure your results and tips on being consistent:
1. Ask your clients how they found you. Record their answers on a spreadsheet or in a database. This will give you a better idea of what marketing strategy is bringing in the most prospects. You then want to review the strategy you are using and decide if it is better to decrease focus on one area and move resources to another. Make sure before you change anything that you have given each strategy enough time to yield results. Often business owners are impatient and do not allow enough time to truly gage if a strategy is working. If every strategy worked overnight we would all be rich – that is not the case and building your business takes time. Be realistic with your expectations, don’t be afraid to give an approach time and don’t be afraid to change direction.
2. Keep track of who’s sending you referrals. Set up a form on your website for partners or clients to submit referrals so you can easily respond and manage your referrals. Following up quickly is crucial to your success in turning referrals into clients. You might also want to consider creating a rewards program to encourage more referrals from both clients and partners. Keep in mind that the “reward” should fit your business, if you decide to give away a percentage of your sales (i.e. a commission) make sure you can realistically do that. In most cases a simple card saying “thank you” will do the trick. Rewards are all about “perceived value” find out what’s important to the people who are sending you referrals and build your program based on that input. Just like building a good strategy, make sure your referral program is easy to execute so you can be consistent with sending out your rewards.
3. Utilize e-marketing software to track your email campaigns. This will help you gage who is reading your emails, what they are interested in, etc. and will help you follow up more effectively. Most services are relatively inexpensive and very easy to use. Some will also have survey tools built into them and almost all will provide you with real time reporting. When setting up an email campaign or html newsletter please be courteous and do not SPAM people. It is best to only use your contact list, send no more than one communication per month and make sure the information you are sending is interesting and relevant to the reader. If you follow those simple rules your communications will be more effective and chances are the reader will look forward to getting your emails. Plus if you send one communication each month you will be able to easily manage and send your e-marketing campaigns on a consistent basis.
4. Add a call to action on any advertisement or communication you do. For example, “Mention this ad and save 10%” or “Call now for your free consultation.” A call to action should tell your customer what to do next. Keep your communications simple, don’t inundate the reader with information, that’s what your website and in person presentation are for. Provide general information and leave them wanting more, then tell them to contact you and why.
5. Survey your clients and referral partners. Create a simple survey and send it out on a consistent basis to find out how you are doing, what motivated them to buy from you or send you a referral and how you can improve your product and/or services. If you get a negative response don’t be defensive, look at that as an opportunity for improvement. Let your customers and partners help guide your product development or service offerings, create what they want and need then watch them buy and refer more frequently.
If you find that something you are doing is not working well, find out why and fix it. Don’t simply abandon it. If you cannot fix it, move on and try something else, but make sure you give anything you do sufficient time to see results. Remember, sales don’t happen overnight. It takes more than one time (or even a few times) for you to start increasing your brand awareness and sales within a market, so if you are consistent in your marketing, provide great service and products, the sales will come.
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