How Successfully To Test And Measure Your Marketing
You can do this in a number of ways.
- Ask the people who enquire where they heard about your business.
- Keep a note of this information over a defined period of time and analyse it.
- Run specific offers in selected marketing options and keep a record of responses.
- Test headlines on adverts or flyers in smaller batches until you find out which gets the best result.
- You can do the same with sales letters sent by post and email.
- When you run an event, or speak at a networking group, keep a record of how many contacts you make and whether any business results from them.
- Do the same for networking events you attend as a participant.
- When you write an article for a business publication offer a free report that requires the reader to make contact with you. This way you will not only get the details of some potentially good prospects but you can test how many people read and responded to your article.
- Before and after sales data is useful when you are running a brand awareness campaign.
Marketing Evaluation – Special Response Checklist
- Decide how you are going to evaluate your activities in advance.
- Keep a record of the evaluation data you collect.
- Work out which has been the most successful marketing activity.
- Plan to repeat all successful activities.
- Ask yourself why certain activities have not been successful.
- Check that the marketing activities you have chosen are right for the audience you wish to target.
- Stop any expensive marketing activity that is costing more than the return it gives you.
How To Use This Information
Over a period of time, monitoring and measuring the success of your marketing will enable you to build a very clear picture of how to spend your valuable marketing budget. There will be no more last minute decisions or trial and error, as you will have the evidence you need at your fingertips, and you will be able to use the information to make informed decisions.
7 Assessing The Value Of Your Current Base
Growing Your Current Customer Base
There are three main ways to grow any business:
- get new customers
- increase the amount your existing customers spend with you
- increase the frequency with which they do business with you.
It is easier and less expensive to build on the existing base you already have than it is to develop new customer relationships.
What Is The Value Of Your Current Customer Base?
Do you know?
To work out the average value of your current customer base all you need to do is find the following figures.
- How many customers do you have?
- What is the average amount these customers spend with you?
- How many times a year do these customers spend this amount?
- What is the average length of time your customers stay doing business with you?
Based on these figures each new customer you get is potentially worth £6,000.
Why Is This Important?
It is important to know what your current customer base is potentially worth to you, as it gives you a starting point, a base from which to decide how you want to grow your business.
If you use the marketing techniques detailed in this book to
- attract new customers
- get existing customers to spend more
- get existing customers to spend more often
you could potentially increase your profits by whatever figure you decide you want. There is a vast amount of untapped potential in your business right now. All you need to do is decide what you want and then get really good at marketing to make it happen.
Your existing customer base probably holds the most potential for you. These are people who are already happily doing business with you. They already spend money regularly and probably would spend more if they had a good reason to. You need to give them that reason.