Owning and running a business can be overwhelming. With all the things that entail, marketing is often something that becomes an afterthought. Then, after some time, you begin to wonder why sales are dropping or you’re not getting new customers.
Putting your marketing to the back burner or the warming drawer is why your sales have dropped. It is why you’re not getting new customers. You dropped the ball on your marketing. It may dawn on you then: You shouldn’t have ignored the marketing aspects of owning a business.
The good news is you don’t have to dedicate a lot of time to your business’ marketing needs. But some basic marketing metrics should always be at your fingertips. If you don’t use these metrics and practice them, your business’ profitability will be adversely affected.
#1: Your Audience: The Size and Demographics
Your audience is the pool where you’re going to get new customers. Whether this audience is subscribed to your email list or follows you on social media, these are people that represent who are most likely going to do business with you. Three things you should know about your audience:
- How big is your audience
- Where your audience is located
- What is something common between them
How do you find that information? The metrics to your blog, the number following you on social media, and your email lists will tell you how big your audience is. Once you have that information, you can determine where they are located and how they found you. For example, you have more Facebook followers than Instagram.
Now you need to analyze your audience. With Facebook, their ages, gender, and geographics are determined, such as their common interests, and other data is available at your fingertips. Build an audience of similarities and create the type of content that they all will read and enjoy.
#2: Online Reviews: Your Status
For every business, online reviews are essential to business. Why? Because almost 90% of all consumers read those reviews when making decisions about a product or service. You must get a grasp of your company’s online reviews.
By searching for your company listings on Angie’s List, Google My Business, and Yelp, you can do that. Once you find them, claim them, and update them. They should have accurate and current information like your address and phone number, business hours, and your business’ category or categories.
Create a method to respond to every review, especially negative ones, constructively and professionally. Start encouraging customers to leave a review when they do business with you. Set up each platform your company is listed to send you alerts, notifying you when you have a new study. A quick response shows customers that you are concerned with their experience and opinion.
#3: Google Ranking: What Is Yours?
The third marketing metric is an important one, Google ranking. Routine Google searches for the most important keywords to your business will help you keep track of how well your business is doing.
On one page, your website may be ranking number one with a Google search, but another page may be on the third or fourth page. These rankings are an indicator that your SEO needs improving, so your visibility improves. Why does Google Ranking matter?
Research has shown that the first result on Google search of any keyword gets up to 30% of all clicks. The further down the ranking list you are, like page two or three, you get maybe 10% of all clicks. After page three, you may get 2% of the click if you’re lucky.
By focusing on SEO for your local audience, your ranking will improve. But first, you have to know where you are so you can create a plan of attack.
#4: Your Ads: Their Performance
No matter if you only have one ad or 12 ads, you need to track their performance to know how they are working. If they aren’t working, you’re wasting your marketing dollars.
Facebook has tons of insights for your business to utilize. With Facebook, you can get a count on the number of people your ads reach. From that, you can get the demographic overview with a tracking of the day and time of day people engaged with your advertising. Then there is Google Analytics, an all-in-one solution for tracking your company’s performance with all the social media platforms.
#5: Your ROI: By Campaign
Tracking your ROI – Return on Investment – is the final metric you should know. The steps to get your ROI are:
- Calculate the total revenue from a campaign
- Calculate the total costs associated with a campaign
- Subtract the expenses of the campaign from the revenue to determine the profit
- Divide the profit by the expenses and this will give you your ROI
ROI calculations will identify the marketing campaigns that have the highest revenue. Then that information can help you rethink the marketing you’re using, consider split-testing to see what will improve any underperforming marketing campaigns, and decide where to put more money and where to pull out your money.
It doesn’t take a marketing professional to make your business a success, but it doesn’t hurt to use the advice and suggestions of a marketing professional. And most of those professionals will tell you that these five marketing metrics we’ve discussed need to be your guide.
