A quick guide to get the best from your marketing budget.

By Jeff Turner, ActionCOACH, Christchurch, NZ

How to Tell If Your Marketing Is Working

It is super simple. You get your market to tell you. This is what ActionCOACH calls "scientific marketing".

Although that may seem like a smart answer, it isn't. And if you are not doing this, it is time to smarten up. Here's how to make your marketing budget work.

When you spend money on marketing and advertising your friendly accountant will call it an expense... and he will be right... UNLESS your marketing makes more money ( and by this I mean PROFIT, not turnover) than you spent on it... then it becomes an investment. Right?

So how do you know if your marketing spend is an expense or an investment?

You need to have a scientific approach and analyse your marketing results.

It takes three simple steps:

1. Ask your NEW customers HOW THEY FOUND ABOUT YOU. Which specific marketing are they responding to?

2. Tally up how many clients come to you from all of your different marketing strategies.

3. Figure out which marketing gives you:

    a.   The most leads and customers

    b.   The most profit

Isn't a and b the same thing?

No. Some marketing will give you more leads than others. But then which marketing gives you the highest conversion of leads into customers? Which marketing gives you customers that result in the highest profit business? Lastly, which marketing gives you customers that matches your profile of an A-grade client and A-grade referrals?

Even if you think you know the answers to these questions, ASK. If you haven't asked, you don't know. It is better to ask and be wrong than it is to "know" and be wrong.

So you need to measure of these parts of the marketing process. This is vital business and marketing information which gives you accurate data to achieve marketing results. The scientific marketing approach uses proven sales and marketing data to help you decide which marketing strategies you should invest in.

So you test different marketing ideas and advertising, then measure the responses in sales. Sales and profit are the best measure of marketing success.

In summary, test all your different advertising and marketing, and measure the responses that you get. Then you can assess which marketing is working and worth further investment, and which marketing activities needs to be culled.

To get more practical business advise, contact Jeff Turner now. Get FREE business advise direct from the business experts. Click here now!