business builder marketing
How to measure
if your marketing
plan is working
by Jean Peterson
Many businesses are concerned when their marketing efforts don’t appear to have an immediate impact.
You might overhear a business owner complaining, “I just spent $5,000 on an ad campaign this weekend and I only had 10 people walk in the door! Did I just waste $5,000?” Good question. Did you?
Before you decide that your marketing dollars are being thrown away, take a look at the underlying objectives for your marketing program. Understand that marketing is an investment in your business.
Just as different financial investments have different rates of return, so too different marketing efforts will show varied results — some more immediate than others.
The most important element in determining whether or not your marketing efforts are successful is to quantify your definition of marketing success. What exactly are you trying to accomplish?
Broadly speaking, success in marketing is having your audience hear about your company in a positive and memorable manner. You want people to see or hear about your company and remember it, so that when they have a need for your product or service, your company will come to mind.
If the result of spending $5,000 last month was that you didn’t get the exposure you were bargaining for, then your money may have been spent more effectively. If you received the exposure you were expecting and simply didn’t get the response you wanted, you need to remember the goal of marketing: having your target audience hear about your company in a positive manner and remember it.
So ask yourself, how many people heard our company name and product? Was it in a positive manner? Did our ad contain all the information needed for them to be properly informed? Will they remember it for future reference?
If the answers to any of these questions don’t satisfy you, then you need to analyze your campaign. What is your underlying strategy? Who exactly are you trying to reach? And what are you hoping to accomplish by reaching them?
Evaluate the information you present. Make sure it is memorable, informative and easily understood. Keep in mind that studies show your advertising needs to be viewed by a person five times or more before they even remember you, let alone begin a consideration process.
Think about companies like Coca Cola and Pepsi. You see time and again a consistent effort to continuously expose their target market to a variety of media and ad campaigns. Yet, companies like Coca Cola openly admit that 50 percent of their advertising does not ultimately reach the intended audience and therefore is not effective.
The challenge? They have no idea which 50 percent. Understand that you may spend money and not realize an immediate return. It takes time and consistency in a variety of media to cement your company into the mind of your consumer.
Any money spent on marketing is an investment into your business, and each comes with its own rate of return. What savvy investors and large corporations know is that a diversified portfolio positioned for long-term results is the way to go.
Create a marketing investment strategy that is geared for long-term results. Diversify your efforts so that you are reaching your target audience in various ways — print, promotional, radio, etc.
Then commit to steadily investing money, time and effort into your plan. Doing so will help you reap the dividends you desire.
[contact] Jean Peterson is co-founder of Starmaker Marketing in Minneapolis: 612.290.6222; jean@starmakermarketing.com; www.starmakermarketing.com
