Today’s post for The Methodology Blog is from Lorraine Ball, president of Roundpeg.  Her advice on getting the biggest bang for your buck in marketing: understand your clients and establish standards for success.

In basketball, the fans are often considered the Sixth Man.  In your business, Marketing is the “sixth man”. Would you hire an employee without a specific idea of what you wanted the employee to do?  Of course not. As a business owner, when you hire someone you want them to be productive.  Likewise, in order to put them on the right track you outline things such as goals, objectives, and performance so you and your employee know what is expected and how success will be measured. 

For many firms, the investment in marketing exceeds the salary you pay a single employee. If you are going to make that type of an investment, I think you need to have some clarity regarding performance objectives and success measures.

So where do you start?  

Just as you would with an employee, begin with your business objectives.  How many customers or sales do you hope to generate as a result of the investment?   Understanding what a single customer is worth will help you match the appropriate investment to a particular marketing activity. Then at the end of the program, campaign or promotion you can evaluate if the money was well spent. Calculating the ROI per customer can provide a helpful starting point for your budgeting process.

Compare Marketing Activities

Hold your marketing accountable.  Those activities which produce better results, such as more qualified prospects or simply more prospects in general, should get promoted while the investments directed toward similar programs should increase.  Those activities which don’t produce results risk being fired!  

Just as business owners will disagree on what qualities make up the perfect employee, they will disagree on what marketing is most effective.  Set your own criteria and measurements and you will enjoy a winning season!

Lorraine Ball is President of Roundpeg, a full service marketing firm in Indianapolis’ small business community. Visit them online at www.roundpeg.biz.

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