5 Ways To Measure Returns On Your Marketing Budget

INTRODUCTION:

I am a firm believer in marketing but as a small business advisor it drives me nuts when I see money spent without any real thought as to whether it is working for a client or not. I suppose you need to work out firstly why it is you are advertising. Is it because you want people to know that you still exist or is it to obtain more leads that can then be turned into more sales? I'm guessing that the reason for most is the latter.

I have no magic market formula but I do know that you need to test and measure. So what are some ways that you can at least see whether what you are doing is actually working or not?

Figure 1: Sometimes you need to do a bit of investigative work or your advertising waste could come as a nasty surprise.

1. Insert Website Tracking Code

For those that use Google, tracking where somebody has come from will allow you to measure which site or key word caused the prospect to end up onto your web site. Google Analytics has a lot of useful information that can be accessed if you put some basic tracking code into your site which will usually be done by your web developer.

2. Download Free Apps For Social Media

Most businesses have worked out pretty much these days that you need to consider embracing social media or get left behind. However, even if you are using these for 'free', they are still costing you or somebody you are paying time and money so a return should be considered on this investment like any other marketing activity.

The key here is though, by not receiving any or a small number of leads from social media campaigns does not necessarily mean they are a waste of time and money. More often than not it's because you aren't using them to the best of your advantage.

For example, you might be sending the wrong type of posts to the wrong type of platform. Instagram might be better if people want to be inspired by something you are doing via a photo (maybe an artist for example as opposed to a photo of a small business accountant Sydney and Dubbo) rather than some deal you are offering which might be better on Facebook. Are you posting at the right time to your particular demographic?

InstTrack is an example of a free app that will give more information about your fans, who's unfollowed you, best friend rankings etc. whilst Facebook Analytics is also a great way to understand how to get the most out of using Facebook wisely to increase the return on your investment. 

Figure 2: There are ways to check if you are using social media correctly and to the right audience.

3. Have Landing Pages On Your Website

A landing page on your website is a web page that somebody arrives at but is different from other pages in that it has a form which allows you to collect customer contact details.

These are great little tools to see if your marketing is working. For example, you might be writing a blog which has key words which show up on Google. Somebody then clicks the link which goes to your landing page which makes an offer. In order for them to take up the offer they fill in the form which also asks them for not only their contact details but also how they found you.

Figure 3: You need to keep your eyes and ears open when working out what your advertising is doing.

4. Ask New Leads How They Found You

An oldie but a goodie. How often do you get a new lead and the sales team excitedly tell you they think they have closed a deal and when you ask them where they came from they say 'Not sure'!!

It's always best practice to ask new leads how they found you and then this should be recorded so that the marketing team can assess what is working and what is not compared to the dollars spent versus the dollars brought in.

5. Make Offers With Ad And Ask These Be Quoted To Redeem

You will often see advertisements whether they are TV, radio or newspaper where they ask that you mention the ad to get some sort of deal. This is purely for the advertiser to get an idea of where the lead has come from without actually having to ask it. Sometimes it will be a voucher but the point is that the ad is actually being measured as to its effectiveness.

CONCLUSION:

Marketing can be an extremely effective way to achieve business growth but only if there is a return on your investment. The next time somebody asks you to spend money with them, ask them how you will know that the ad is working. Yes an initial spike in sales might be one way but it will be rather vague. As small business accountants Sydney & Dubbo, we should always be checking that our clients are spending money in the right areas and if they are not find out why this might be the case.

Follow some of the above tips and you might just find that you are going to the right places but remember you may need to change the ad or the time and the place to get effective results. A simple "No, it never worked" might not be the reason so you ended up missing out on getting more leads which is vital to any business growth equation.