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Posted on Tue, 02/7/2012 - 01:58 PM by
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Quipol Image:One-Fat-Man via Flickr CC The poll question above is a bit loaded and, not that I want to skew the results, the answer for most lies in the fact that they don’t really know what results they expected or what result they are actually getting. Mostly they know the results aren’t what they had hoped for, but that’s another issue. Setting expectations One of the simplest, yet most effective, things you can do is set expectations or goals for your marketing. You can create overall revenue goals, campaign goals or more product or service specific goals, but either way, simply defining a target number will prove to be one of the best first steps. Goals are like magnets in a way. If we define them and measure our results towards achieving them, they can produce some pretty dramatic pull. I know this is an obvious bit of advice, but experience tells me that few businesses actually set real, tangible and meaningful targets. How many widgets do you need to sell this month? How many press mentions do you want to add this quarter? How many newsletter subscribers, webinar attendees or trial evaluations must you complete this week? Measuring results Once you define your marketing expectations you must define and track the most important indicators that will tell you if you are on track. You can make this is a simple as a weekly sales total or as complex as the results of multivariate ad element testing, but the key is start measuring something and sharing the numbers. If you’re not measuring anything, break a few key numbers down and figure out a way to produce a weekly spreadsheet that you use as a guide and also use to share with team members. Then start looking for ways to add key indicators to the list so in addition to simply measuring results you can start measuring individual effectiveness. Add Google Analytics to your web site and pick up a copy of Web Analytics 2.0: The Art of Online Accountability and Science of Customer Centricity If you’ve been measuring key indicators and you’re comfortable with a tool like Google Analytics, consider looking at a more advanced form of measurement from the use of a tool like KissMetrics. This tool can measure so many things that it can also overwhelm, so don’t start here unless you’ve mastered the basics. MORE NEWS FROM DUCT TAPE MARKETINGHow and Why I Use LinkedIn Groups to Build My BusinessAs I’ve written here in the past, I think there are solid business reasons for participating in most social networks these days, but if your business sells primarily to other businesses, you must get more active on LinkedIn. LinkedIn is not the biggest or most talked about network these day, bu... What If Your Customers Could Talk to Your CRMI spend a lot of time talking to and about the stuff that we do to make it work now. So sometimes it’s a real treat to get to talk to someone that’s so far out ahead of most of us in their thinking that you pretty much just listen with your mouth open when they talk. (I would put my conversati... Who Doesn’t Need Great Free Stuff?Next week is National Small Business Week in the United States and to help celebrate all things small business I’m holding a live webcast where, among other things, I’m going to give a number of lucky participants some awesome business tools like: A copy of Premise Landing Page Softwa... 5 Reasons Why Landing Pages Are a MustOnline marketers have used the term “landing page” for many years to describe a sales tactic focused on getting people to take one, specific action. Today, landing pages have simply become a required element in the marketing toolbox for every imaginable business, including local brick and mort... 13 Questions That Will Lead You To Your Perfect Marketing StrategyPlenty of startups try to determine the perfect business model to take to market only to find that the market doesn’t need, want or understand what they are presenting. The fact is most books or courses on business models take this into consideration by suggesting trial and error scenarios and m... RELATED SMALL BUSINESS NEWSWhat can content marketing do for your business?Content marketing. It seems like everyone’s talking about it. But what exactly is it and what can it do for your business? How NOT To Get Good Reviews in Google PlacesThe topic of fake reviews in Google Places (which has been around for what seems like forever) is getting airtime on Denver TV. Is Seek or Shout the Holy Grail for PR, Bloggers and the Disconnected Media?This is a guest post from Yvette Pistorio of Cision. Two shifts have dramatically changed the way media and public relations professionals interact over the past few years: the move away from email in favor of online social channels, and the emergence of versatile, freelance content creators who ar... Content marketing is important but not free!One of the things that irks me is when I hear a marketing “expert” extoll the virtues of content (or social or digital) marketing and to close the sale — they remind their audience — “and best of all, it’s free.” A Very Short Message to the Shitdiots at @KloutA Very Short Message to the Shitdiots at @Klout originally appeared on Danny Brown - under a Creative Commons license. |
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by Avinash Kaushik.