When you start to look forward to the next few months and the year of marketing that your business has ahead of it, I want you to keep these three keys in mind. If you put them in place, you’ll have a very successful year. Ignore them and you’ll waste a lot of time and a lot of money that didn’t have to be wasted.
1. Real-Time Reporting
Instead of sending out a blast and looking at the data sometime in the future, actively monitor your campaigns. There are now ways to do this in almost every media so you just have to plan ahead and provide adequate tracking tools.
- Set up Goals in Google Analytics
- Use a traceable phone number
- Use a short URL
- Use a unique coupon code
Those are just a few of the ways that you can institute tracking. It doesn’t really matter how you implement it – as long as you implement it! Once you have a tracking mechanism in place, be sure to monitor it and see what your results are.
Create a system of real-time monitoring and be sure to look at it on a daily, weekly and monthly basis to see what’s working. This will help you adjust future campaigns and determine which marketing tools are getting the best results.
2. Measure Everything by Customer Acquisition Cost
Yesterday, I spent some time talking to a prospect named Marc. It was refreshing to hear Marc explain to me how his profit margin was 5% on every deal, and that his gross revenue ranged from $6-12,000 per client per year. Marc explained to me that he couldn’t afford a $50,000 Yellow Pages ad because he’d have to do a million dollars in business just from that ad to break even.
Are you looking at your business in this manner? Do you know what your profit margin is and how much you can afford to spend on buying a new customer?
If you haven’t already realized this, you are going to need to spend money to buy a new customer. That new customer will generate X in revenue and, if your business model is correct, you’ll generate an average net profit on each new customer.
When you have good data around what it costs to acquire new customers, how long they are going to be with you and how much gross and net revenue they’ll generate, you now have enough information to plan your marketing strategy.
If you only make $100 per customer per year and customers only stay with you for one year, you need to make sure your marketing plan is not going to cost more than your profits. Spending $50 per new customer is a good investment. Spending $150 per customer is a bad investment.
This may be elementary math to some folks out there, but I am always surprised at the number of people who don’t know their numbers. Marc knew his numbers so he was able to make good decisions about his marketing investments. Do you know your numbers?
Customer acquisition cost is one of the key metrics of a successful marketing campaign. If you’ve already identified this and have a plan in place that works from a mathematical standpoint, I want to add two more pieces to challenge your model and help you grow:
- This year, you should find ways to double your customer retention time frame. This will double your net profit from each customer acquisition.
- Start thinking about quality over quantity. If you can invest $2,000 to buy a $25,000 customer that nets you $8,000, your time would be better spent than if you were investing $100 for a $1,000 customer. Correct? Start looking at higher value and higher payoff marketing activities.
3. Listen to Marketplace Demand
In a recent post, I shared all the keys that will make any motivated entrepreneur a millionaire. It really boils down to one thing. Are you willing to be responsive to what the marketplace wants? Your customers are already telling you what they want to buy. Are you listening?
There are a few simple ways that you can listen to the marketplace around you. If you put these into practice, you can continue to adjust your marketing plan throughout the year to focus on the right areas.
Look at Your Top 20%
The top selling products or services in your business are an indicator of what your customers want. What are they? How can you expand upon them?
Look at the top 20% in revenue-generating clients. What are they buying from you? Why are they buying it from you?
Survey Your Audience Four Times this Year
When was the last time you surveyed your customers? When was the last time you surveyed your marketing list? If you don’t know when the last time was, you’ve got something you can work on immediately.
Use something like Wufoo or Survey Monkey to put your survey together and then send it out. Ask these kinds of questions:
- Why do you like doing business with us?
- What do you wish we offered?
- What is your biggest challenge in business right now?
- What do you not like about our service?
Those are just a few of the questions you can get started with. Ask questions that will make you more intelligent as a business and give you tools to create better solutions. Surveying your audience is one of the best things a business owner can do. However, it’s something that I rarely see is put into practice.
Wrap Up
A successful marketing campaign is something that takes thought, effort and practice. If you track everything with real-time reporting, measure your customer acquisition costs and listen to marketplace demand, you’ll find ways to improve the campaign performance at every turn.
What have you found to be the most effective marketing campaign tool or approach? Share your suggestions in the comments below.
Do you need help buying new customers at the right price? Contact us today and setup a free consultation.