How to increase your sales through marketing
When it comes to marketing your product or service, are you measuring results from a monetary standpoint?
While marketing can serve as a tool for increasing brand awareness and gaining visibility, it’s just as important for entrepreneurs to see how their efforts translate into increased revenue. At Flourish Media we create marketing campaigns for our clients that measure the tangibles of marketing, also known as Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). As a business owner you want to ensure that your time, energy and resources are resulting in a clear return. In this blog post we’ll discuss how to measure your marketing efforts with monetary conversions so you can get the most bang for your buck.
Set measurable goals
Not all marketing results turn into cash right away. That’s why it’s important to create benchmarks that can be tracked over a period of time. Based on where your prospect is and how much they need your product or service will determine the length of time for a conversion, which is why effective marketing nurtures an audience over a long period of time through value-driven content and community building initiatives. This is called the customer awareness journey and knowing where your prospects are in the process is important for determining how much resources to put into your nurturing efforts. For example, a prospect who has a flat tire will be “pain aware” and ready to spend money at a tire dealership. But a prospect who recently had a tune up and has a well functioning vehicle will likely take longer to convert.
When defining marketing goals consider what results are worth your time and resources within a certain time frame. Decide on what your marketing budget is and the increase in revenue you expect to achieve in a given time period such as quarterly, every six months or yearly.
Example of measurable marketing goals:
Increased website traffic
Social media followers
Email list subscribers
Increased conversion rates for buying a product or service
Increased social media engagement
Click throughs on paid ads, CTAs and freebie offers
Targeting the right audience
Knowing where your audience is and how to reach them is essential for increasing conversions for your product or service. If you are looking to increase your profits, we recommend focusing on one customer segment at a time, conducting research and ensuring that your product or service has market fit. Your marketing dollars will go a lot farther targeting a niche or specific audience rather than a general one. When conducting market research, you should identify your target audience’s pain points and how your product or service solves that problem. Entrepreneurs can often make false assumptions about their customers, which makes it difficult to sell their products or services. Here are some important things to learn about your target audience so you can market effectively:
Age
Location
Education/background
Career
Income
Marital status/family
Occupation
Values
Interest/Hobbies
Lifestyles
Behaviors
Track your goals
Sales Growth: Monitor the increase or decrease in sales over a specific period of time while your marketing efforts are underway. When measuring sales, be sure to include overall profits. Remember that results aren’t always instant and there may be fluctuations. This is why it’s important to measure overall growth over a longer period of time.
Lead Generation: There are many ways to measure the success of leads your marketing is generating. Consider measuring the number of new leads brought in as well as the percentage change compared to previous time periods. Knowing your total amount of leads and dividing it by the marketing dollars spent on a specific campaign will help you to determine the cost per lead, which you can compare with the industry average and see if your efforts are paying off.
Sales from previous and existing customers: Once acquired, the lifetime value of your customers is where marketing efforts can really pay off. Track the number of new customers as well as returning customers. Consider creating campaigns that reward loyal customers with discounts, exclusive offers and gifts.
When it comes to marketing, it’s about making your dollars work for you and setting measurable goals for the outcomes you want to achieve. The first step to effective marketing is identifying those goals and knowing how to reach the right audience.
Looking to get the most value out of your Facebook ads? Check out our checklist for creating Facebook ads that get results!
