How do you know whether all that marketing and advertising you’ve done is working?
Use these strategies.
Many businesses don’t really know if their advertising is working and become pessimistic about doing more. They’ve been burned. I get it. They are hesitant because they don’t know how to measure it, they don’t have the time to track it, or they didn’t start with an end game in mind to even know what worked.
Advertising is too important to do without a clear strategy and a way to measure the results. Whether you are investing in print, radio, TV, digital or just social media, understanding the return on investment (ROI) is important.
There is a solution.
There is a funny but accurate quote that has been attributed to several great entrepreneurs such as Henry Ford, John Wanamaker or J.C. Penny. It goes something like this, “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is, I don’t know which half.” If greats like these men had trouble knowing if their marketing was working, you don’t have to feel bad.
For hundreds of years, the art and science of advertising has been studied. We all want to have a definitive way to assess whether the time and money we spend on advertising is being put to good use. But it isn’t always obvious.
For example, you advertise your plumbing business in a local magazine. A local resident sees your ad. A few weeks later, a friend of theirs is having issues with a toilet in their home. The resident who saw your ad subconsciously remembers your company name and refers you to their friend with the plumbing issue. You ask the customer, “How did you hear about us?” The new customer says, “My friend gave me your name and then I “Googled” you.”
Did that print ad work? Absolutely. Were you able to measure the effectiveness of that print ad in the magazine? Nope.
1. Before you spend a dime…
I always tell my clients (and any business owner or marketer who will listen, really), not to spend a dime on marketing or advertising without first having a plan. A good marketing plan will save you countless hours, lots of money and give you peace of mind as you work on your business.
Take the time to develop your goals, what you want your marketing to do for you, who you are targeting, how you can stand out from your competitors and more. It will also give you a baseline for measuring the success of any marketing tactics you choose to do.
A starting point by which to measure the success of advertising is helpful.
- What was the website traffic or Google searches of your business before you ran the ad in the local magazine?
- Did you see a bump in sales the months after your ad began running?
- Did you get more engagement on your social media posts or more Messenger inquiries during those months?
These are just a few ways to know if your advertising is working and it all starts with a baseline.
If you don’t have time or the inclination to track and analyze this kind of information, consider hiring a marketing professional. Your marketing will be infinitely more effective saving you money in the long run. Most importantly, you will be even more satisfied with the money spent.
2. Have a Call to Action
Every marketing effort should have a goal in mind. Do you want more brand awareness? More direct sales? Are you hiring? What do you want that ad to do for you? Put that out into the universe and definitely put it in your ad. Even a general brand awareness campaign should compel the audience to do something, to think something.
While offering discounts and coupons can seem like a great way to track the effectiveness of a campaign, it can sometimes cheapen your brand depending on the type of business you are in. You can however, always offer added value. In your advertising, offer a gift with purchase, an incentive to collect their email address or a special code they can use for a future purchase.
3. Don’t underestimate the power of email
Let’s go back a moment and talk about email marketing. Email marketing compliments all your advertising and is the most important asset you will have in your marketing arsenal. We do not own our followers on social media. If Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, etc. go down, your connections there are lost. If you have a robust email list, you can still communicate with that audience. If you nurture those email relationships by sending out quality content and offers, you are giving your business a huge potential for repeat business, and audience growth at very low cost. And you can measure its effectiveness by monitoring what action the recipient took. Did they open your email and click a link? You will know that immediately.
As a way to measure advertising, give every opportunity for potential and existing customers to sign up for your mailing list and creating an incentive for sign up in your print and online advertising is a great idea.
4. Test your ads
The pros know that testing and more testing is the key to effective advertising. For example, if you are running ads on Instagram, set up an A/B test. Run two ads with slightly different headlines or different photos. Run those ads at the same time, to the same audience and see which one pulls in more engagement. If one works better than the other, do more of that one. Note: be sure to only change one aspect of the ad at a time in order to know which element was the thing that made the ad more effective.
5. Get social media metrics
Social media marketing is powerful. We can target audiences and measure results like never before. The platforms are constantly changing, often with better analytics and tools for the business user. Take full advantage of these measurement tools. Before you start any social media activity be sure you understand its capabilities and have a goal in mind. Don’t spend any time or money on this until you have identified what you want to achieve and have learned how to use the tools effectively.
Search engine optimization and marketing are similar. There are infinite possibilities to utilize and measure this form of marketing but you can easily go down a rabbit hole or shell out thousands of dollars to the wrong company in hopes that it is the holy grail to your success. Do your research before trying to do this alone and avoid hiring a company you don’t know or who doesn’t take the time to know your business.
6. Measure website traffic
Creating landing pages that are tied to your advertising is a wonderful way to track your advertising efforts.
For instance, if you are running a series of ads, create a separate landing page for that campaign. Not only will you better serve your potential customer by not simply sending them to your homepage but you will direct them to a page that gives them the specific information according to their interest. This will also allow you to measure whether the ad is performing or not.
If you do send users directly to your homepage, be sure you have tracking codes assigned so you know which ads delivered those visitors to your site.
While tracking visitors to your site for sales, it also helps you improve your website by showing you where the visitor went, how long they stayed on your site and where they may have had difficulty finding what they were looking for.
Google Analytics is a free tool that can help you track and improve your website.
7. Use Marketing Automation
Keeping track of all of these different measurement tools can be intimidating. Constant Contact, MailChimp, Google Analytics, Facebook Business Manager. So many tools to track and accounts to log in to. Consider a marketing automation platform such as SharpSpring. With SharpSpring you can see all the analytics in one place allowing you to schedule, post and analyze social media, create landing pages, see website traffic, set up retargeting and yes, manage all your email communications with your customers under one virtual roof. And did I mention just one login password to remember? Heaven!
In Summary
Marketing and advertising are both art and science. There is a great deal of trial and error but that doesn’t have to be a bad thing. Having a solid marketing plan, an end goal in mind and a few ways to measure results will save you time and money while helping your business grow.
If you\’d like to take your marketing to the next level, sign up for 11 one-to-one sessions with me.