You already know that marketing is the key to running a successful business. By this point, you've probably discovered that some forms of marketing are a lot of fun and other methods are a little tedious. If you're like most business owners, it's likely that you're having a difficult time determining whether or not your efforts are actually paying off, or if you should move on to a different strategy.
Related Blog: Inbound vs. Outbound Marketing 101
Monitor Using Analytics
Marketing has evolved into a highly data-driven process. By using analytics to monitor web traffic and downloads, you can determine the success of a specific campaign or strategy. That information can then be used to guide your strategy.
Watch Web Traffic
Sales shouldn't be the only thing you watch. You should also pay close attention to your web traffic. A surge in traffic indicates your most recent marketing gambit has generated an increase in your brand recognition. Pay attention to whether or not the visit leads to a sale and which web pages get the highest amount of traffic. You will be able to use the results to tweak both your promotional efforts and downloadable offers to increase the effectiveness of your marketing.
Use Offers
Offering a discount code, downloadable guide, or informative cheat sheet after filling out a form is an excellent way to quickly identify exactly how many customers connected with that specific offer. Remember that generating a wave of sales is just one of your goals, you also need to focus on creating leads and converting them. By having the reader fill out a form to download the offer, you will then be able to track them and alter future content and offers to better suite them.
Check Retweets and Messages
Social networking makes brand recognition easier than ever before. Pay attention to social media networks like Facebook and Twitter. Remember, the key to successfully using social networking sites is having an active account and making sure you interact with your subscribers. Reply to tweets, answer messages, and post content regularly.
Key to Creating a Successful Marketing Plan
The best way to get great results from your marketing strategy is sitting down and creating a good solid plan. This plan should include:
• A baseline that you can use to measure all your efforts. This can be done through Hubspot and Google Analytics.
• Create a set of benchmarks. Make sure each one, especially your short term goals, are realistic and attainable.
• Be willing to adapt your program based on the generated results
Contact Nextiny Marketing if you have any questions about inbound marketing and how we can help.