At a recent meeting of business
leaders, the question was raised on how to measure the effectiveness of
marketing efforts. That is a question that is near and dear to most businesses
as the opportunities to promote one’s business seems endless today.
First, determine that the
right products/services are being marketed. One of the best resources to
study is the book, Competing for the
Future, subtitled Breakthrough
Strategies for Seizing Control of your Industry and Creating the Markets of
Tomorrow, by Hamel and Prahalad..
The authors make a good point to
study the right groups of customers and prospects. They break these groups down
into those who are customers today and those who are desired to be new
customers. Both groups are then divided into those who express their needs and
wants and those who don’t reveal their wants and needs (maybe they don’t even
know themselves). So customers can be surveyed, and that is good, but what
about those who would be desirable customers and those who don’t express what
they want. Somehow a process is needed to extract those real needs and wants
from all groups. A simple survey of key people in all those groups is one way
to get effective feedback on supplying products/services that satisfy the needs
of the marketplace. The survey needs to be simple; if it takes too long or too
much work, people will not respond. If mailed or emailed, it should be no
longer than one page, including space for answers. Open-ended, probing
questions are most useful because they can reveal information beyond which is
anticipated.
One also needs to understand the
market for the product/service. “Shotgun Marketing” is employed when reaching
out to the general public is needed. An example would be for a general
merchandise store. “Rifle-shot Marketing” is used when the target market is a
narrow segment of the public. An example would be for a septic service business
that only needs to market to owners of septic tanks. It might be possible to
obtain a list of residences that have a permit for a septic system and direct
marketing can be employed to focus only on those who might have needs for the
service.
Secondly, a follow-up survey can
be made to determine if the best approach to reaching customers/prospects is
being used. This is also a simple survey to determine what attracted
customers to buy and what would attract new prospects to buy. It can be broken
into two parts:
·
Traditional Marketing
o
Sales force
o
Image-storefront, location, packaging
o
Word-of-Mouth
o
Networking
o
Advertising-newspaper, radio, television,
billboards, other
o
Leaflets
o
Press Releases
o
Direct mail
o
Other
·
Electronic Marketing
o
Web Site
o
Email “Blasts”
o
Targeted Email
o
FaceBook
o
Twitter
o
Other
The cost in terms of time and
money obviously varies greatly with the different approaches, as well as
effectiveness. Armed with the responses to the above survey, a simple return on
investment can be made on each approach tried. It is wise to try different
methods and monitor results. Be sure to consider the cost of time involved in
the computations.
There is satisfaction in having
data upon which to base decisions. Knowledge of which products/services of the
business satisfy the real needs and wants of customers/prospects and knowledge
of where to focus marketing efforts will provide guidance to maximize
return on marketing efforts.
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