My website has a survey used to gauge people’s concerns about their business.
It’s important to ask because what I *think* might be top-of-mind for them might not be at all – and that’s especially true when readers are from all over the world, much less all over the valley.
The current survey asks “What’s your biggest marketing challenge?”
The “winning” concern (25%) is “Making time to do the marketing”.
It’s clear that 25% isn’t keeping track of the response to their marketing efforts.
Why?
If your marketing’s successful, you know that it’s like a slot machine that doesn’t lose, so you MAKE time to do it.
When your marketing is working AND you are tracking what works (and what doesn’t) AND you act on it, you can do things like expect to put $1.29 in and get $2.34 out (or whatever).
If your marketing efforts (overall) return $1.05 in PROFIT every time you spend $1.29, is there *any* reason why marketing wouldn’t be one of your highest priority tasks?
Tracking in circles
I realize this is a bit of a circular argument:
- You: “I don’t spend much time on my marketing cuz I don’t know what works.”
- Me: “If you start tracking, you will know. Once you know, you’ll understand what works, what doesn’t and it’ll become clear why your marketing is job #1.”
…and so on.
If you know that ads in the print edition of the Beacon (or any advertising medium) produce 27 new sales averaging $12 each (and introduce you to 13 new customers) and you know that ads in the online edition produce 17 new sales averaging $16 each (and 9 new customers), then you can figure out the ROI of those ads.
You *don’t* cancel the online one because it didn’t win. It’s still generating $272 and nine new customers (which you should have a lifetime value figured for, on average).
You might cancel it if it doesn’t meet your ROI expectations and other advertising does, but not simply because it didn’t win.
The only way to get to the point where you can play the slot machine that never loses is by *tracking* your efforts.
Tracking transforms your marketing from an expense into an investment with a known return. Please, please start paying specific attention to the performance of your marketing efforts.
Being different
The next largest group said “Differentiating my business from competitors”.
Those folks need to sell some air.
Air…
- Adds substantial value to what you sell.
- Doesn’t add substantial cost to what you sell (thus “air”)
- is something competitors haven’t bothered to do, so your product/service looks better/more complete, with higher value.
Air isn’t lame or junk. Air is valet parking in a downpour.
Example Air
Let’s say you sell premium brand house paint. The box stores buy more in a month than you do in a year, so price isn’t an edge.
You could negotiate with a local painter to include drop cloths and/or stir sticks with the paint crew’s business name and 24-hour emergency number printed on them, along with “Tired of this? We’ll finish the job”. Who hasn’t bit off more than they could chew and wondered why they didn’t get a pro?
People complain about not having enough time to do (whatever). How long would it take to drive from your premium paint aisle to the MegaBoxStore? Put up a sign in your paint aisle to remind them of the travel time/traffic and thank them for supporting a locally owned business.
Be the ONLY choice for someone who needs premium paint, not because no one else sells it, but because no one else takes care of paint customers like you do.
After doing all that… your biggest marketing challenge won’t be differentiating your business.
Want to learn more about Mark or ask him to write about a business, operations or marketing problem? See Mark’s site or contact him via email at mriffey at flatheadbeacon.com.