It’s easy to be impatient, but you know you can’t expect to see amazing results from your marketing strategy overnight.
Results take time, but as a small business, you don’t have a lot of time to waste. This creates a dilemma – how long do you wait things out before making changes?
Your success is riding on a steady incline on your income graph. It won’t be too fast, but it can’t be too slow. Changing up your marketing because you aren’t getting immediate results can potentially drive you into debt.
The trick is looking at the numbers, knowing what to expect, and understanding the impacts that small tweaks can make when they’re enacted at the right time.
Keep an inquiring mind
Many businesses use survey questions with their customers. Large businesses tend to offer small rewards for feedback, but that may not be feasible for your small business. Try offering one prize through a feedback based raffle.
There is a core question you want to ask to measure your marketing success, and it’s a simple one: How did you hear about us?
This one is self-explanatory. If your customers are referring to your advertising, you know it’s reaching at least some of your desired market. Get to know this market, and tailor your marketing towards this group for maximum success.
Get smart with analytics
Analytics are useless if you don’t know how to read them. These figures, especially with social media and tracked advertisement, mean the world. It doesn’t matter how many people you’re reaching if you aren’t engaging with them.
Comments and interactions are what actually signify that your marketing plan is working. Hire a reputable digital marketing agency to help you set up your analytics and figure out the reports.
If you aren’t getting an active response, it’s time to change the way you handle your interactive platforms.
A business assessment will help you re-asses what you are doing now and come up with a better plan.
Measure your plans against your goals
You’re going to have no idea whether something is a hit or a miss unless you have a direct goal you intend to use as a measurement of your success. Before you start marketing, know what you’re trying to accomplish.
Maybe you want to see a ten percent revenue increase at the peak of your marketing campaign. Maybe you want to recruit 30 new valuable customers within the first half of your ad outreach.
Keep modest goals, but always know what exactly you’re looking for as an indication that things are going according to plan.
Make sure your demographic matches your platforms
Where are you advertising? How are you advertising? Who are you advertising to? If your advertisement is geared in areas where your target customers aren’t likely to see it, things aren’t going to work out in your favor.
Using web forms to collect your users’ feedback is a great way to find out if you are giving them everything they need. There’s an easy web form builder for you use for those purposes.
Minimal response may not be the result of a slow trickle of new customers, but instead the result of your desired customers missing your advertisement entirely. Know your demographic.
Understand how they want to observe and interact with marketing. If you’re looking for customers in all the wrong places, your return is going to be as small as possible.
If you find yourself in a marketing slump, it’s time to try something different. You need to make sure your new strategy is the right kind of different, instead of merely something else.
Look at your competitors and weigh their success against yours. Marketing success is a game of innovation, so sharpen your wits and get in the game.
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