Tired of spinning your wheels on your marketing, wondering what’s working and what’s not? While analytics can tell you a lot, there are other things you can look at too. I use three metrics when determining how successful the marketing is for my business and the clients we serve: sales, data, and attention.

1. Increasing Sales

First and foremost, you will look at how your sales are doing. This is the end result for most businesses and the ultimate goal of many marketing campaigns.  A quick check of how your sales stack up to the year before, will help you gauge how well your marketing is working. This metric is not going to happen overnight. Engagement, nurturing, and building trust with your audience will eventually result in sales.

Remember, while sales growth is important, so is growing your profitability.  Making sure you have strong margins will allow you to pay expenses.  As your sales grow, your variable costs may stay the same but fixed costs should go down as a percent of the total, thus increasing profits. Learn more about protecting your margins here: Protecting Your Margins for Business Success.

2. Marketing Data

This is a topic you hear me talking about a lot. It can be easy just to focus on the end result. Still, if you’re not moving the needle in other areas, which will eventually result in sales, you may pass up valuable opportunities. When it comes to marketing analytics, there are different things you want to look at.

• Your funnel and metrics
• Engagement on social platforms
• Growth of your e-mail list
• Time spent on your site engaging with blogs and your service and product pages

All of these metrics can be measured, but you need to start with goals and prior data to know if you’re doing better than you have been.

Tip: As much as possible, you want to try and automate things to better track your data. Automation comes in all forms: email marketing, booking calls, social media, etc.

3. Overall Attention

While you can certainly measure many things in your business using data and analytics, other things are less tangible and still great indicators of success. Maybe you are receiving more questions in your DMs, invitations to speak on podcasts, or invites to connect over coffee. These small things can help you realistically gauge if your marketing is working.

How Often Should You Be Measuring?

If you’re just starting, keep it simple. Sales and website behavior can be tracked on a monthly basis. But things like social media and email marketing will want to be monitored more regularly.

How Long Should a Marketing Strategy Take?

I never like to say, “it depends,” when my clients ask. My best blanket response to this question is 3 months. However, frequency and consistency will dictate this a lot.

Typically, we don’t use twelve-month contracts when we work with clients. That said, I do strongly recommend at least a three-month minimum. Doing something new and fresh will likely generate reactions, but you want to ensure that the attention will last. Always keep in mind that you will likely encounter seasonal fluctuations within your business as well.

Does selling to your audience make you feel icky?  Let our team at Ellen Grace handle the heavy lifting for you. Reach out to us today to find out how we can create a customized strategy for your business!