Obsess About the How’s, Why’s and Where’s

Being obsessive over weight loss numbers can be motivating, but also quite intimidating. The same goes with looking at the cold hard facts of marketing efforts. I know a million marketers who love checking their analytics and viewing the traffic that they get to their sites. However, they almost never check the numbers that matter most – the dollars, and the percentages.

The Dollars = The Amount of Sales or Revenue

The Percentages= How many of your site leads converted into Sales or Revenue?

Without a solid system of tracking actual results, it’s nearly impossible to keep track of what’s actually working. Although I hear complaints about the extra work that it takes to track a sales pipeline, (the process a sale goes through from a lead, to an opportunity to an actually sale) this process is imperative for a any marketer to discover the true cost of their efforts and the actual Return on Investment they are realizing. Would you blindly throw dollars into a campaign if it were you own money? You’d want cold, hard facts…right? Many marketers are lax on following strict pipeline management tractics, being that they work with client money – but the trick is to spend it like it’s not only YOUR money, but as if it were your last few dollars.

A Business’s $100,000 Marketing Mistake

I once worked with a client who was trying to market their site and their offline product for over a year…all by themselves.  I meet with them at their request, as they were at their wit’s end trying to figure out how to spend less and make more money. The first thing I asked them for was their analytics data and their conversion rates – neither of which they had.  So, I asked if they had tracked their leads over the past few years..at least keeping the customer’s name, region, and referral source. Again, they hadn’t. They also didn’t have solid data as to the actual campaigns they were running, or how much they all cost during their last fiscal year. Bad news. We went back into their accounting, and found they had spent nearly $100,000, gained only $30,000 in new sales, and had absolutely NO idea which campaigns produced which sales.

This is definitely not something you want to do. All of the world’s best marketers will tell you how important utilizing a CRM is. If you think you can’t afford one, there are many cost efficient solutions out there – even a few free solutions!

What was one of the biggest realizations that you made after implementing CRM into your marketing efforts?

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I am currently in the process of getting my main website in order, which I’ve been meaning to do forever now. I’ve been lucky enough that the bulk of my clientele comes from referrals, repeat clients, or serial entrepreneurs who fancy perpetually picking my brain.

The Shape of Business to Come

So what have I seen in the business landscape over the past year? I’ve seen companies buckle down and focus on what’s really important. Old processes and policies are flying out like crazy…because they’re no longer working in this climate. A few aspects that all channel into Customer Relationship Management that I’ve been focusing on with my clients are:

• Where the Business is Coming From-  No longer can businesses be lacking in their tracking strategies. Every dollar counts now more than it ever did, and this is where it’s at. No where your business comes from. This is priceless information.
• How do I Make the Process EXCEPTIONAL? – Creating an extremely unique and awesome customer experience doesn’t require vast amounts of money, just a bit of creativity and know-how. This, along with stellar customer service creates a genuine loyalty around a brand and it’s product or service. Make it memorable and elicit conversation. It’s the cheapest and most effective marketing method around (still).
• Know it All – Make it someone’s job to know EVERYTHING about your customer. Their clicking habits, the A/B test page results, what makes them tick, what sites they frequent, where their money is being spent, what email campaign traits get the best responses, and so on. Organize this all into one central location and make a meeting out of it at least every quarter. You’d be surprised at how this type of information spawns innovation in your business. Don’t be afraid to tweak processes, ads, and marketing based on the information you find. This information is useless unless you act upon it quickly.
• Service though Social Media: If your customer is talking about you, that’s great. If they’re expressing dismay with you, social media is your opportunity to make it right, while showing the rest of the world that you CAN and are WILLING to make it right. Social media is an exceptional customer service tool, because it provides past records of challenges, errors, mistakes, and fixes that are priceless to your business. Be sure to log your customer service conquests online, with basic information on the customer, what their issue was, how long it took to solve the issue, what you did to solve the issue, how much it cost you, and so on.  If you have Salesforce, or some other CRM tool, be sure to log this information thoroughly. You’ll be so glad you did!

These are just a few things I am seeing for 2010.There is a lot more I’d like to write, but I’ll save that for another post. I wish you all a prosperous and safe 2010!

Oh this guy has a lot of “Get Rich Fast” answers for you.

I am referring to the all-knowing awesomeness that is Google. If you’re like the average or above average web searcher, you’re constantly throwing questions at Google. If you don’t, don’t worry… then you’re actually using search terms, which generally renders better results anyhow. The other 80% of the populous seems to be on the “Ask Google a Question” train. They approach Google with their most burning questions, and expect an instant answer.

The Question is: As A Marketer – How Do I Capitalize On This?

The truth is that many internet marketers aren’t doing one of their most important due diligence tasks before throwing themselves fully into the internet marketing game; and that’s studying the search habits of those same users that they’re targeting.

What is your user really searching for, and how are they searching for it?

To answer this basic question, set up a blog or small site on any topic of niche’ that you’re looking to know more about. Grow the site, post regularly, and watch your web analytics closely. You want to look specifically at the search terms people are using to find your site.  What are they? You may notice some astonishing results. Some may seem completely irrelevant.

Many of the search terms that people are typing into Google to find your website are questions.

What kinds of questions are your users asking? What do they want to know? The answers may be surprising to you.

Some interesting questions some of my own readers used to find my site:

• “How can I Build Trust in Sales?”
• “Why no one ever notices my online marketing efforts?”
• “How do I admit marketing weakness?”
• “How Can I save money on my internet marketing?”
• “How did someone find my website?”
• “Is My Website Updated?”
• “How do I redesign my website?”
• “Why Isn’t my Business Growing?”

Take a look at the questions your users are asking to get to your site. This is really priceless information that you can really use to your advantage.

What are your users asking?