Many business owners believe that their marketing results are best measured by sales achieved — yet at the end of the day, marketing will not make anyone buy from you. You could have the best marketing in the world but poor location, ordinary inventory or underachieving staff can all conspire to stop the sales from happening.
So how do you measure marketing effectiveness? Here are six key benchmarks that can help gauge your marketing activity:
1. Door counter. If you don’t currently measure foot traffic, how do you know if your marketing is bringing you more customers?
2. Website traffic. Not all sales are generated in-store. Whether you have an online store or not, website inquiries are still a direct outcome of your marketing efforts. Measuring your monthly traffic will show whether you are gaining a greater share of the eyeball in your marketplace.
3. Social media following. Growing your social media following is not an end in itself, but it is a direct byproduct of the online activity you are doing to promote your business and how you are creating a two-way communication style with your customer base.
4. Email list. Is your email list growing? Despite the relative age of email in the digital environment, it still represents one of the most effective ways to communicate with customers and costs very little if anything to act on.
5. Clienteling contact. How many customers do you reach out to every month? Marketing is no longer a passive game through recognized channels. You need to proactively contact customers and measure the effectiveness of this approach.
6. Keyword ranking. Part and parcel of your online efforts involving tracking the keywords you want to be found for. How do you rank each month? If you are halfway down page 2 for “diamond rings San Jose,” how does this compare to other months?
As you measure, you create questions that lead to actions. A drop in your email list can lead to a plan to increase email numbers. A static social media following raises the question, “What are we doing to attract and engage potential customers online?” A simple A4 sheet tracking each area monthly will help drive your business growth into the future.