The True Measure of Marketing Success

It's called testing and measuring. Most people hate it. That's because it means 'there is a chance, however remote, that every marketing strategy you try will not work the first time'. In other words, it's possible you'll spend money without seeing any returns.
But consider this - you've probably been testing and measuring all your business life.
Remember the newspaper advertising you tried that 'didn't work', and the radio spots that 'did OK'.

That's all testing is... Testing what works and what doesn't...

The next step is to do it properly; here's the five steps to successfully working out what 'works' and what doesn't...

1. Start asking people where they heard about you.

Start right NOW, immediately. If there's one thing I stress to business owners when consulting with them, it's this - if you don't know what's working and what's not, you can't possibly make informed decisions and you'll never know which ads to run. You may keep running an ad that never brings a sale, and accidentally kill a good one.

Customers usually come from so many sources, it's impossible to judge how an ad is working on sales alone. You need to find out for sure. Create a tally sheet, including the ways someone could hear about you - newspaper ads, direct mail, fliers, phone directory, referrals, walk-by traffic, etc.

Every time someone buys, ask them this question - "By the way, can I just ask where you heard about my business?'.

Make a mark on your tally sheet in the relevant column. Keep track, and ensure every member of your team does the same. At the end of 14 or 28 days, tally up and get the figures.

Now you can start making decisions...