5 Ways to Know if Your Marketing is Working (and what to do about it if it’s not)
Want to find out if your marketing is working? I’ll tell you how in these 5 ways:
Increase in sales
Flat out, if you’ve hired a marketing manager (or coordinator or you’ve taken it on yourself) and you see an increase in sales that is above and beyond the normal rate and projections, it’s working. When I was first hired to head marketing for a medium sized manufacturing firm, they saw a 30% increase in sales within the first 3 months that was directly related to my efforts. If you don’t see an increase in sales, change your call to action. Direct customers to “buy now” or “click here.” Most people will follow these steps, so make sure they’re clear and that you’re pointing them to the right place.
Marketing Analytics
If you’re not using basic marketing analytics, you should get that started ASAP. Most sites have SEO and other analytical tools built in, so talk to your service provider about whether or not you’re actively using the plugins. You should also use Google analytics to track your company mentions and other metrics (especially with the new Google Trends tool, but that could be a whole forecasting post on its own). These tools will give you hard numbers on whether or not your digital ads and other placements are working. If you’re seeing a negative trend in your reports, check (and adjust) your keywords, digital ads, or even connect with Google on your ad spend and see whether or not you’re spending enough for the top placements in your industry.
For a practical example, when I was at said manufacturing company, we saw a decrease in sales in our promotional products campaigns after I changed some of the calls to action and imagery in the ads that were placed in the promotional products industry tool. Immediately after, I adjusted the imagery and gave more clear calls to action. I also worked with the host company itself to increase our spend during the most popular times of day/week/month. The next month, we were up in double digits.
You’re getting more attention
If you’re seeing an increase in requests for editorials, articles, white papers, etc. (especially directly following a press release), you’re on the right track. Press releases should lead to more media attention, and can even attract product placements or other notable activities. If you’re sending press releases and the phone doesn’t ring (or your inbox doesn’t bing) check your distribution list. You may be sending your release to irrelevant contacts, or leaving out the necessary audience. Media Hub (a paid tool via MarketWired) is an incredibly powerful tool to help you build your distribution list, and at $2,500 yearly, it’s incredibly worth the cost. This can help you segment your audience and get your release (and email blasts, for that matter) in front of the right people.
You’re growing
In addition to an increase of sales, if you steadily notice the need to hire more people, especially in the marketing department, it could be a direct correlation to positive marketing results. Marketing efforts are designed to GROW your business, so if you’ve got more customers, more placements, more revenue, and need more people, more space, and more resources, that’s a good problem to have.
If you’re spending more than $60k per year or more on marketing and you’re not seeing a steady growth in your business, check where those dollars are going. Make sure you’re not spending money on large trade shows if your audience isn’t there. Check your placements in publications and make sure those magazines/newspapers/etc are still being read. Compare your traditional and digital marketing efforts and see where you can cut costs and improve ROI (this is easy to do in the digital world now).
You just have that “feeling”
Even with the powerful analytics tools that are available now, a large part of marketing is based on feeling. Consumer feeling about your products and services can be felt inside the organization. If you’ve got a successful marketing campaign and your customers feel good about you, you’ll know it’s working.
If you start to have a bad feeling, or are unsure about the results of your marketing efforts, go back to those analytics. Are the numbers up or down? This information can tell you where your pain points are and you can use the trial and error method to see what else you might try and see if that works instead.
