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Growing And Measuring Your Marketing Efforts

Forbes Agency Council

David is a best-selling author, speaker and trainer. He is also CEO of IPD, a world-class marketing agency based in Tampa, Florida.

For years, marketing has been an uncertain science. Often, business owners feel as if they are throwing money at various advertising campaigns and seeing what will stick.

A client of mine once told me he knew 80% of his clientele came from 20% of his marketing efforts, but he wasn’t sure which 20%! While he was perhaps exaggerating, he’s not alone: Every business has a marketing budget, but few know what’s working for their company and what isn’t.

It’s a double-edged sword—there’s no reason to put forth the effort and resources toward something that doesn’t generate a proper ROI, but if you aren’t sure what to focus on, how can you measure your marketing campaigns effectively?

As the owner of a full-service marketing agency with a marketing team that devotes 95% of its time and effort toward advertising our products and services, we are always looking for patterns as we partner with organizations. What works? What doesn’t? How do we know? These are questions I’ve racked my brain with for years, and questions that my marketing team is responsible for understanding and answering. It’s timely, and it requires a lot of hours dedicated to reading data and forming opinions on that data. So, how do we effectively measure and grow our marketing efforts?

Below, I’ll go over just a few key pieces of advice on how my team and I have tackled this concept head-on.

You can’t grow what you don’t know.

Some owners are hands-on with their company’s marketing efforts, but in my experience, most aren’t. They instead will hire a marketing director or marketing team to handle this and know nothing about it. I’m not saying that having people in place to vet marketing efforts is wrong, because I do the same. However, it’s crucial for owners and operators to at least have some level of understanding of what they’re running each month. If you have no idea what your organization is utilizing for its marketing efforts, then you will also have no idea what needs more time dedicated to it and what should be left alone.

Be aware of what is going on with your marketing front. I set aside time to meet with my marketing team simply because I see the value in it. Time spent with your marketing manager provides you with the opportunity to ask questions, shift focus or provide advice on what your overall goal is.

Allow time for growth.

A common mistake I’ve made in the past is quickly shifting from one marketing focus to the next without allowing enough time to see what is fruitful and what isn’t. You have to provide your efforts with the time needed for growth.

Few things explode in popularity overnight. In fact, much of our own advertising will require minor tweaks before it reaches the level of success that we want it to. The fact is, you can have a detailed plan laid out, utilize the right platforms and have the correct process set in place, but if you give up before you have allocated the proper time, you will spin your wheels making shifts and adjustments that aren’t needed.

Shift accordingly.

Now, I just discussed allowing the proper time for marketing efforts, but how do you know when it’s time to shift? This depends on the goals of the specific marketing effort.

For instance, sometimes marketing efforts are time-sensitive. Perhaps you’re attempting to capture some end-of-month traffic for your company or are combating a slow week or holiday slump. This, of course, will require quicker shifting than is typical.

Knowing when to shift is going to vary from time to time, so my advice would be to set specific parameters for your marketing and make shifts once you have determined that your budget can best be spent elsewhere.

Focus on digital.

Traditional marketing within the automotive industry—the primary industry we serve—is on its last leg, and I don’t think we’re the only ones. I believe the days of direct mail, radio ads and TV commercials are numbered. These are approaches that cannot, in my opinion, be measured as effectively as digital.

Digital advertising, however, can be measured and adjusted easily, and often while campaigns are still live. This provides your team with crucial stats in real time.

I feared this transition for many years, but the Covid-19 pandemic essentially forced my industry to shift toward digital marketing, and we haven’t looked back since. We live in a digital world, and our customers do, too.

Be different.

It sounds obvious, but in order to stand out, you have to be different. This is true not only for the specific content within your ads but also for your choice of platforms.

A year ago, my marketing team approached me with the idea to advertise on TikTok. At first, I couldn’t see it. How would a platform known for dances and meme videos help us? To my surprise, I was wrong. TikTok advertising has become one of our most popular services, and many of my clients have shifted a large portion of their budget toward it. It was an odd shift on paper, as no one within our industry had used the platform. For our clients, however, it paid off in dividends.

Measuring and growing your marketing efforts will work hand in hand with one another. By measuring, you can accurately determine what is growing and what is stagnant. Before you can grow effectively, you have to measure to find out where you’re at.

Remember, you can’t grow what you don’t know. So make sure that you know.


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