Tag: google analytics

Marketing is so much more than promotion

Posted on by Richard Milton

No matter the size of your business every penny you spend & every hour you commit to your marketing has to count towards you achieving your business goals.

Promotion is an important part in your marketing efforts but ‘effective marketing’, the entire marketing that satisfies the needs of your customers is so much more. You can have a great promotional campaign but if your product or service isn’t wanted or you are charging prices that are above what your target customers will pay then it will struggle to deliver.

 

To have ‘effective marketing’ you need to consider a wider range of factors than just promotion. Much of it isn’t difficult with the result being that it can transform the impact of your marketing. Here are just a few ideas:

• Start with product. Give customers what they need not what you think they need. Think wider than the actual product – consider the other features that surround your product – delivery methods and times, guarantees, installations, refunds, exchange policies – all of which can make your product or service more attractive.

• Speak to your customers. Ask them what they need and want from you. Find out what they think of your product or service and how it can be improved.

• Ask your customers for reviews. If they are liking what you do then encourage them to share with others what they think of your product and to post reviews on-line.

• Regularly monitor your sector and competitors. Consider how tastes are changing or new products are being launched and adapt where necessary.

• Make it easy for people to acquire your product. That maybe how they can find you or buy your product on-line. Make sure your website is mobile responsive and is search engine optimised.

• Develop your team. Ensure that everyone who works for you has great knowledge about your business and offer. Ensure they also have the right attitude & provide the level of service your customers would expect.

• Be responsive to your customers. Ensure you follow up on enquiries quickly – not many buy products or services from a company they have had to chase or have had to wait a long time to respond.

• Deal with customer complaints well. No doubts you have all had customers who haven’t been completely satisfied but how you deal and resolve their compliant will make all the difference to whether they buy from you again or recommend you to others.

• Measure, measure, measure. If you don’t measure your marketing you can’t understand, control or improve it. Use tools such as Google Analytics to see how well your website is working, monitor your email performance or conduct market research to understand what your target audience think about you and your product or service.

About the author

Richard Milton is founder of e-nexus Ltd – a Marketing Consultancy based in Bournemouth specialising in Strategic Marketing Planning and Performance Measurement. He is a career long marketer holding numerous senior marketing positions throughout his 20+ years in the profession.

Describing himself as a marketing strategist, Richard spends his time working with business owners, managers and marketers to help them improve their marketing decisions, investments and impact by connecting data, insight and creativity alongside his strategic experience.

 

How are you measuring your marketing impact?

How much is marketing contributing to the success of your business? Do you know?

Posted on by Richard Milton

Given the availability of data and insight within all organisations, there has never been a better time to measure and regularly monitor the performance and impact of your marketing. Now is the time to identify what works, what could work better and what you should stop to ensure you get the most out of the marketing for your business.

So where to start?

In many cases simply planning ahead and identifying what you want to measure is a great starting point. Then thinking about how you could go about measuring and monitoring the the impact of the activity. Finally, consider what measurement actions and systems you need to put in place to gather the insight and data you need.

Need a place to start?

There are so many readily available systems and processes for you to use when measuring, monitoring and enhancing your marketing impact. Some examples include:

• Adding a web analytics tool e.g. Google Analytics to your website to track and monitor your website performance. Are you reaching the right audience and are they engaging with your site?

• Monitoring the performance of your keywords for your website to ensure your Search Engine performance is optimised. Do you appear high enough in google so that your customers will find you?

• Using an email based system e.g. Mailchimp that allows you to monitor your email open rates, click through rates, unsubscribes etc. Do your subscribers respond to your emails or one type of email campaign compared to another?

• Monitoring your social media demographics and engagement levels. Do your followers match your target audience? Which channel is more effective for brand building vs sales generation? What posts are more effective than other posts e.g. image driven vs video based?

• Conducting Net Promotor Score (NPS) research to understand your customers loyalty to your business. Are they willing to recommend your business to their family and friends?

• Adding UTM tracking codes to your digital advertising, social media activity or email campaigns. How do the different channels drive traffic to your website? Which channel is more effective? How does one advertising media e.g. Google paid ads compared to ads you run for example on Facebook?

• Using a CRM system to record and monitor customer engagement and sales. What approaches generate the most leads and which of these turn into paying customers?

• You can use the same CRM data to explore which customers are the most important to your business? What characteristics do this customers share and how can you find more businesses or individuals who share the same characteristics to help drive forward your business?

At e-nexus we specialise in Strategic Marketing Planning & Performance Measurement. Need some help to work out how best to monitor and measure your marketing then email info@e-nexus.co.uk or visit our website at www.e-nexus.co.uk

About the author

Richard Milton is founder of e-nexus Ltd – a Marketing Consultancy based in Bournemouth specialising in Strategic Marketing Planning and Performance Measurement. He is a career long marketer holding numerous senior marketing positions throughout his 20+ years in the profession.

Describing himself as a marketing strategist, Richard spends his time working with business owners, managers and marketers to help them improve their marketing decisions, investments and impact by connecting data, insight and creativity alongside his strategic experience.

e-nexus Ltd

Marketing is so much more than promotion

Posted on by Richard Milton

No matter the size of your business every penny you spend & every hour you commit to your marketing has to count towards you achieving your business goals.

Promotion is an important part in your marketing efforts but ‘effective marketing’, the entire marketing that satisfies the needs of your customers is so much more. You can have a great promotional campaign but if your product or service isn’t wanted or you are charging prices that are above what your target customers will pay then it will struggle to deliver.

Print

To have ‘effective marketing’ you need to consider a wider range of factors than just promotion. Much of it isn’t difficult with the result being that it can transform the impact of your marketing. Here are just a few ideas:

• Start with product. Give customers what they need not what you think they need. Think wider than the actual product – consider the other features that surround your product – delivery methods and times, guarantees, installations, refunds, exchange policies – all of which can make your product or service more attractive.

• Speak to your customers. Ask them what they need and want from you. Find out what they think of your product or service and how it can be improved.

• Ask your customers for reviews. If they are liking what you do then encourage them to share with others what they think of your product and to post reviews on-line.

• Regularly monitor your sector and competitors. Consider how tastes are changing or new products are being launched and adapt where necessary.

• Make it easy for people to acquire your product. That maybe how they can find you or buy your product on-line. Make sure your website is mobile responsive and is search engine optimised.

• Develop your team. Ensure that everyone who works for you has great knowledge about your business and offer. Ensure they also have the right attitude & provide the level of service your customers would expect.

• Be responsive to your customers. Ensure you follow up on enquiries quickly – not many buy products or services from a company they have had to chase or have had to wait a long time to respond.

• Deal with customer complaints well. No doubts you have all had customers who haven’t been completely satisfied but how you deal and resolve their compliant will make all the difference to whether they buy from you again or recommend you to others.

• Measure, measure, measure. If you don’t measure your marketing you can’t understand, control or improve it. Use tools such as Google Analytics to see how well your website is working, monitor your email performance or conduct market research to understand what your target audience think about you and your product or service.

 

Data, what data?

Posted on by Richard Milton

The digital revolution means that you can now access more data and insight than ever before to understand the impact of your marketing. With so much being available for free and at a click of a button there are now real opportunities for you to better measure your marketing.

Through our day to day work we still support companies that feel they have no or very little data or insight. For many of these businesses we go on a journey of discovery, helping them to think about their needs. We work with them to identify what data and insight they actually have, what they need as well as how it can be captured and stored – and yes at times that includes uncovering all the data and insight stored in numerous note books, diaries, excel spreadsheets, business card holders and even their own heads.

So if you think you are marketing data and insight poor or want to better measure the performance of your marketing consider some of the following to build your knowledge and understanding:

• Website analytics – many websites have some form of analytics platform linked to them so you can understand where your visitors are coming from and how they interact with your site.

• Social media analytics – these will tell you a lot about the types and levels of engagement you are receiving from your posts. Platforms like Facebook will also give you some demographic data so you can be sure you are reaching the correct people.

• Email – platforms like Mailchimp will tell you how many people open your emails, how high or low your bounce rates are and your click through rate to your website. If you A/B test your emails you’ll also get a much clearer idea of what type of content or subject headlines work better with your audience.

• Voice of the customer – such things as feedback from your customers as well as interviews and survey ratings will give you a clear view of what they think of your product offering or service levels.

• Competitive intelligence – It’s important to monitor the performance of others. For example monitoring the social media engagement that your competitors are gaining can be a useful benchmark for the performance of your own social posts.

• Sales data – understanding what and how frequently your customers are buying from you is key. What channels are they reaching you to make that purchase – is it via your website, retail outlet or exhibition stand?

• Customer churn rate – establish how many customers are cutting ties with you over a given time. Monitoring your churn rate is the first step in understanding how good you are at retaining customers and identifying what actions might result in a higher retention rate.

• Your top customers – sounds simple but identify which customers drive the most profit your business. When you can look at a single list and see your main customers you have the power to identify the unique characteristics of this group and work on attracting more.

• Cost of acquisition – calculate how much you spend in acquiring leads and turning these leads into new clients. How does that differ using different channels? The key here is that the fees you charge need to at least cover your associate costs.

• And finally conversations with customers – always a great place to start

Need some help on where to start with your data and insight gathering?

At e-nexus we undertake marketing audits where we’ll work with you to identify your data and insight needs, what you already have access to and how you can begin to fill the gaps. Just email us at info@e-nexus.co.uk and we’ll organise a time to meet.