When you are marketing in business you really need to Analyse results on a regular basis. If it is not working fix it, if it is working make it better.
What results do you analyze?
OK, I mixed up my analyze words for both English and American spelling to satisfy you all or should I say Yo all . LOL.
Keywords are the basis of the internet and the amount of traffic generated depends on how you use them. Analyze has three times the traffic of analyse so writing a Blog I go for the best option.
Firstly we are looking at marketing results and your return on time and investment.
Why bother with results
Because things have changed in the selling world we now do a lot more of our own marketing. Once upon a time we would throw a whole heap of money at yellow pages and hope for a return.
In fact, in many cases, we even used a different telephone number as the only way of seeing any data and understanding our investment.
Yellow pages had a great up-sell business where you could pay money to buy a better position and size of your advertisement. A full page could be close to $10,000 back when it had value.
However there were not a lot of other opportunities.
Analyse results in your marketing channels
Your Eight best marketing channels.
You should have at least eight channels to market that will deliver opportunities to you.
These could include;
| Your Web page | The number of generated leads, |
| Email marketing | Opens / clicks/ sales also newsletters and responders |
| Google location | Local marketing |
| Social media | Which one is best. |
| Referal program | may include Loyalty program |
| Web Popup | Direct enquirers |
| Videos | Return |
| SMS | Instant analysis |
Your paid channels
| Ad Words | |
| Re-targeting | |
| Facebook adverts | |
| lead generation |
Every channel comes at a cost
Time spent in hours, Dollar cost, opportunity advantage, return, delivery.
Looking at unpaid first let's consider say a web Pop-up v a Facebook post.
A web pop up takes say three hours to set up and be working.
The art of analysis by Wikipedia
| hours | ||||||||
| set up hours | week cost | est sales | set up | week | income | return wk | annual | |
| Pop up | 4 | 0 | 5 | 8.33 | 0 | 250 | 241.67 | 12567 |
| Facebbook | 5 | 2.5 | 5 | 10.42 | 62.5 | 250 | 177.08 | 9208 |
| Local marketing | 5 | 0 | 5 | 10.42 | 0 | 250 | 239.58 | 12458 |
| Video | 30 | 1 | 5 | 62.50 | 25 | 250 | 162.50 | 8450 |
| Web Page | 60 | 1 | 5 | 125.00 | 25 | 250 | 100.00 | 5200 |
| Hour cost labour | 25 | |||||||
| Set up / 12 months | 25 | |||||||
| Sale margin in dollars | 50 | |||||||
| Annual times weeks | 52 | |||||||
| Video say 10 | 10 | |||||||
I agree much of this can be disputed however it is only to give you an idea of a return based on a 12 month window. This is a simple excel sheet.
Every one has a set up cost, a web page say $2000, Facebook page $125, 10 videos $750
Some have a weekly cost, new Facebook post a day, video App cost.
I made sales equal even though this won't be the case and a $50 margin as an example.
Your figures may be very different however use it as a guide.
SMS in marketing is instant results
Google analytics is a starting point
Certainly this is the best place to obtain website figures and where your leads are coming from. It is a free service and has enough information to sink a ship.
When I email/newsletter my Constant contact account gives me complete stats on who, where and when they clicked.
This is really great intelligence because you can know what people are looking for and re-target them for the future.
I use what is called a link cloaker named of all things Pretty Links. This keeps track of all link traffic so I can see what is working.
Pop-ups give you an email address to follow up on so there is no disguising that.
SMS has a easy dollar return. Send a hundred and count the sales.
The reasoning behind analysis
While you will do a lot of marketing the aim is to get the best results for the least expenditure. Not only financial expenditure but the all important time involvement.
Analyse results and make sure they are closed. Use organized planning for best results
Connections are the real test
In fact leads are nothing unless they can be converted to sales. You can buy leads on the market but they will never or rarely convert to sales. Therefore it is always quality over quantity. Generally leads generated by you are quality because they want something and have shown intent.
The number of people that approach you is an important matrix in your planning. If your closing rate is very low you have an easy to fix problem. Importantly you can see the problem and have the ability to do something about it.
Without analyzing you do not have any idea of your closing rate.
Up-selling is a legitimate market practice.
We all understand the Mc Donalds principal of do you want Fry's with that?
A friend of mine owns a busy coffee shop, he sells cheap and quick from a premises located in a semi industrial area. Measuring coffee is easy however his aim was to increase his transaction spend to double sales.
The 100% increase may seem easy and we would all love it. In this case it was going from $3.50 for the average coffee to a $7.00 spend. In reality it was a bit more than that but this is to give you the idea. The solution was to pack the serve area with ready to go food that mostly cost a bit more than the coffee.
They used a few up-sells along the lines of larger size coffee, extra shots, trendy milk price and selling keep cups.
It is a fact that when a customer is buying it is the best time for selling.
Another silly example is the neighborhood Ice cream man. The chocolate coating, nuts and sprinkles make him more money than the base product.
Analyse results and increase your sales value.
So what are you doing to increase your sales value?
Without good analytics you have no baseline to start from. Turnover comprises small and big items although we can always go for the 100% but at what cost?
To double the coffee sales you need another barista and a machine. Cups and packaging whereas the food was just an extra on the sale. All you needed to do was ask.
Loyalty brings it's own returns
Having a loyalty plan means you have all the customer records on file and can accurately gauge the buying pattern over time. it is ideal for target marketing and the only cost is on a purchase.
Your loyalty list is an asset you should cherish for its real value to your business.
I don't shop at Woolworth's that often however I have a card that covers petrol and wine as well as food products. I received an SMS today with a special on the last three products I had bought In the past month or so. That really is targeting the loyalty plan at its best. If a National super chain can do it so should you.
Analyse results and tidy up your list.
Tidy up your list and use it often
When you understand your list and the analytics behind the buying patterns you have a valuable marketing machine. A list that can make a huge difference to your results and continue to do so for years to come.
Surveys
It is a good idea to run the odd survey to see what others think of you. I recently wrote on this subject that may be interesting reading for you: Online surveys.
Conclusion
Analysis is the cornerstone of your ability to attract buyers at a low cost. We can pay $5, $10 or more fo a click at Ad-words or Facebook and get a 10% closing rate. A number that can make sales non profitable however hidden in the paperwork.
Growing at a cost that is bigger than income is a road to disaster that must be really upfront in your figures. Upfront sales and costs must be balanced to back end costs to really understand the total impact on the business.
Know your figures and use them to your advantage
Analyse results and win the game by Peter Hanley
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