Small business owners have to wear so many hats. From Finance Officer to HR, Head of Buying to Sales. So it's no surprise that when it comes to marketing your business - an area sometimes referred to as the 'fluffy' bit - knowing where to put your efforts is confusing.
In this short article we outline ways to measure how effective the time you spend on your marketing is. The importance of setting goals with measurable KPIs (key performance indictors) and determining how successful your marketing plan is.
1. Ask yourself why
Before spending time on any sort of marketing, ask yourself why you're doing it. Often, we jump to the execution of an idea - it's usually fun! Designing a poster, creating a social media post, hosting an event... If you're even the slightest bit creative you'll want to start turning your idea into reality.
But if you're a small business, with limited resource, it's important to use your time & budget wisely.
When faced with a big idea ask yourself:
How will this benefit my business, really?
What am I ultimately looking to achieve?
Is the time spent worth the return?
How can I see the positive impact of this on my business?
Taking a step back to consider your business objectives & how your idea helps achieve those will help you determine if it's really worth your time & effort.
There's more on the benefits of thinking strategically with your marketing in our article 'How to avoid last minute marketing'.
2. Set a goal
The ultimate aim of most businesses is to generate sales. But a marketing campaign needs more of a steer than that. An effective marketing plan digs deeper than the top-line business objective, uncovering areas of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities & threats (SWOT).
Conducting a SWOT analysis will help you look at your business as a whole & focus your attention. Using a SWOT as a discussion point will help you determine what it is you really need your marketing do to.
Here are some common small business goals:
Increase brand awareness in the local area
Grow proportion of online sales
Increase customer return rate
Acquire X new customers
When setting your marketing goal consider the SMART acronym. Outlined in the 80's by George T. Doran, SMART stands for:
S - Specific
M - Measurable
A - Attainable or achievable
R - Realistic
T - Timely
The more specific your goal, the more directed & effective your plan will be to achieve it.
3. Set a measurement
A clear aim not only helps with the execution of your marketing idea or plan - it also helps in setting measurable targets. KPIs are there to determine success. They will help you determine whether or not your time & energy was well spent.
Your aim always determines how you can measure it. Here are a list of KPIs a small business is likely to when measuring the impact of their marketing:
Social media engagement rate
Website visits, conversions, conversion rate
% growth in email database
Engagement of email newsletters
Social media profile visits
Structuring your idea with measurable goals just like these will improve your marketing tenfold. Learn more about what marketing can do for your business in our article Marketing: in a nutshell.
Final thoughts
Tight budgets & limited resources means small business marketing requires more precise marketing plans. A tight marketing plan will help you to determine where to invest your time, effort & budget.
Getting carried away with a creative marketing idea happens to the best of us - but if you want to see real business result, think of the bigger picture.
Consider what you really need in order to achieve those top line sales figures; more customers, more awareness, higher return rate, higher average sales value. Set your goal & how you'll measure success before getting creative. It will not only improve the quality of your idea execution but the results too.
To discuss anything above in more detail feel free to reach out. Michelle@narrativeagency.co.uk. would love to hear your thoughts, goals & ideas.
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