How Do I Know If My Marketing Is Working?

ou have hired the best creatives.

You have maximized your budget.

Now what?

How Do You Know If Your Marketing Is Working?

Here are some simple things you can do to make sure your marketing is working.

Set A Goal

Every activity in business should have a desired stated outcome. Desired outcomes could include more RFQ's (Request For Quotes), Website visits, White-paper downloads, Schedule a call, etc. Once you established the goal then you need to measure for success. Google Analytics makes this very easy. 

Choose events that lead to revenue generation. It can be as simple as Quotes Submitted, particular Downloads or number of Downloads, Specific Time On Page or Watching a Video.

[Click here to see what Google says about setting goals.]

Here are some examples of goals that lead to revenue generation.

It takes an understanding of your business processes to select the correct goals. When selecting goals it is best practice to involve all those involved in the sales process so proper attribution can be assigned. 

Monetize Your Goals

Your gut reaction might be to assign Total Sale Value as the monetary value of the goal. The problem is you have not accounted for all costs.  We recommend that you download our ebook Marketing Metrics Your Boss Really Cares About for the methodology of calculating ROI on marketing.

Download The Marketing Metrics Your Boss Really Cares About

Consider using some percentage of the profit after accounting for all costs. You must reach a consensus agreement with everyone involved in the process. Once you have agreement on the profit piece, the really hard part is next.

You must identify the sales that were generated by your website. This could include visitor downloads before they called for a quote or Simple Form Submission. This requires meticulous attention to detail in record keeping and the patience to gather historical data. Segregate existing customers from new customers to present a solid case so you don't hear "They were already a customer so we would have gotten that business anyway." 

We like to use HubSpot with our clients as it makes tracking and attribution simple.

• Collect Data over a Specified Time Range - 30 days is OK, but 90 days is better.
• Reevaluate your goals to make sure you did not miss any "key" revenue generating activity.
• Determine the monetary value from website generated revenue based on goal completions.
• Assign Monetary value in Google Analytics.

Now you will see the results of your efforts in Google Analytics reports.

Focus on What Is Working

Once you are seeing the ROI (Return On Investment) that makes sense for your business with a specific marketing approach, do more of that. You can spend all the money you want on marketing that does not work and it will not make it work.

Many believe economic theory proves that spending more produces more results. Modern research show this is not always a valid model. You may want to read Large Stakes And Big Mistakes to see how this does not always hold true.

Be bold enough to stop doing what does not work. This is very difficult thing to do. You read article about how a campaign created enormous success and you want to try it.  What worked for others may not  work for you. 

Don't Underestimate The Power of Free Marketing

Google My Business is a free tool that is overlooked by many businesses. Think of Google My Business as a mini website. 

Here are a few easy things you can do as a business owner to take advantage of this FREE lead generation tool called Google My Business.

Verify Your Google My Business Page -It is FREE. Your business contact information, hours, phone, website, reviews, photos,etc are posted for the world to see at no charge to you.

Post on your Google My Business page- read this article for the step by step details.

Set up messaging on your Google My Business page- Check out this blog post for step by step instructions.

Simple Steps To Design A Lead Qualification Strategy

Marketing complains that sales are not closing the great leads they send . Sales complains that marketing send them bad leads. What makes a lead good or bad?

 How to Use Predictive Lead Scoring to Design A Lead Qualification Strategy

The sales cycle/process has evolved from a benefits/features model- look what I have for you- to a customer driven model- what do you have for me. The role of the salesperson has evolved dramatically in most market sectors. Spending time knocking on doors and making cold calls on the phone has become a dinosaur method of selling.

Modern selling methods understand that you need to allow a customer to buy from you and that you eliminate any steps that complicate that process.- Lean Marketing.

One highly effective tool that eliminates waste in the sales process is Predictive Lead Scoring.  Predictive Lead Scoring is a data driven method based on  behaviors, demographics and engagement. 

Image Source:https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/traditional-predictive-lead-scoring

How can you use Predictive Lead Scoring as a Lean Tool For Marketing?

Sales and Marketing can now agree on what is a Marketing Qualified Lead and a Sales Qualified Lead. This resolves the age old conflict of " We send sales leads and they don't close them!" and " Marketing sends us bad leads".

Sales now spends time on those leads that are qualified and marketing spends time on generating content to engage and move leads through the sales process. As you gather more data you can improve lead scoring by weighting contributors and refining your model. Quality 101: Plan, Do, Check, Act.

Download our free Ebook on generating high quality leads.27 Proven Techniques For Generating High Quality Leads

Technical SEO: How To Drive More Traffic To Your Website

5 Ways To Improve B2B Marketing On Mobile

Mobile is no longer a "channel" for B2B marketing.                                                                  It is the way most B2B researchers look for new vendors.                                                Here is the latest research from Google on B2B marketing on mobile:

The user experience with your B2B marketing on mobile can no                                        longer be ignored.  A poor experience on mobile does adversely                                      affect your brand and will cause you to lose potential business.

Source: Google

Click Here To Find Out How Your Website Performs On Mobile Devices

 

Here Are 5 Ways To Improve B2B Marketing 

On Mobile .

AMP - Accelerated Mobile Pages

Accelerated Mobile Pages are "skinny" versions of your website                                  designed to load quickly on mobile devices.  

Current research has revealed the average website page takes                                             15 seconds to load.

The problem is your conversion rate decreases dramatically as                                        page load time increases.

Source: Google

We recommend that you integrate Google Search Console                                        (formerly webmaster tools) with Google Analytics.                                                            Look at Acquisition, then Search Console.   

Click on Devices.  You will see desktop, mobile and tablet.                                            Compare bounce rate across devices.  A high bounce rate on mobile                         compared  to desktop indicates a problem.  

Now click on Mobile. 

You will see Landing Page Impressions, Clicks, Average Position and                         Bounce rate.     

If you see a high bounce and no conversions e.g.                                                          Request Quote, Download Offer, etc. you have identified an area                                          of improvement in B2B marketing on mobile. 

Next look at Behavior you have a drop down for Site Speed.                                                      Under Site Speed you will find Speed Suggestions.                                                                 Google has done the work for you. 

Click on the suggestions and get to work. 

Optimize Images

"Images often account for most of the downloaded bytes on a page.                                      As a result, optimizing images can often yield some of the largest                                             byte savings and performance improvements: the fewer bytes the                              browser has to download, the less competition there is for the client's                             bandwidth and the faster the browser can download and render                                   content on the screen."-Google 

This is low hanging fruit! We really like tiny.jpg and tiny.png for image                      compression. They provide a very simple drag and drop interface.  

It is common to see up to 70% reduction in file size. 

This will dramatically improve page load speed.                                                             Another option is a CDN- Content Delivery Network.                                                        They speed up content delivery by allowing websites to cache content                                on a network of servers spread out geographically instead of retrieving                                 it from a single location server every time . 

Use Forms Optimized For Mobile

It is often difficult to fill out a bunch of fields when on a smart phone. 

Your website needs to be mobile responsive in order to fit the device in                            use.

 In addition,  use smart forms that automatically adjust for the device in                               use.

 Make Phone Numbers Clickable

This may seem a bit obvious, but have you ever tried to click on a                                  phone number when viewing a website on a mobile device and nothing                  happened? Frustrating and annoying. 

Don't forget to position the phone number so it is easy to click. 

White space is your friend here. 

To  do this you simply use the hyperlink function and use                                                    tel: then the phone number.

859-653-1759

 View Your Website On A Smart phone/Mobile Device

Even better than you looking at your website on mobile, have your                            customers tell you what they like and dislike about your B2B marketing                               on mobile.   Every time you hear "It would be nice if...", you have an                        opportunity for improvement. 

Pro Tip- Consider an APP for your business.

FREE Mobile Checkup

How To Implement Kanban In Your Marketing

Kanban is an inventory control system well known for its application in lean production and Just In Time manufacturing. It is a visual story board and has been applied to areas beyond manufacturing.

Can you implement Kanban in your marketing? The reality is this has already been done.

Inbound Marketing allows you to implement Kanban in your marketing.

The visual above from HubSpot shows the flow of the customer buying journey.

The core principles of Kanban are easily seen:

• Visualize Work
• Work In Process
•  Flow
• Continuous Improvement

Learn More About Inbound Marketing

A Deals Dashboard allows you to visualize work, work in process, flow and focus on wins and losses to implement continuous improvement on your sales and marketing efforts.

Predictive Lead Scoring addresses Work In Process by focusing on those leads that are further along in the buyers journey. This allows resources to be focused on those leads that are likely to close and avoids chasing after leads that are not ready to buy.

Learn More About Predictive Lead Scoring

Continuous Improvement can be achieved by looking at page performance and aligning with overall business goals for lead generation.

Implementing Kanban in your marketing allows you to more effectively manage resources and get more leads and close them.

You may want to look at Marketing For Manufacturers.

Topics: kanban, inbound marketing