Why Advertise If You Have No Clue Where Your Leads Are Coming From?
No matter what size of business, the biggest stumping question you can ask a business owner is... "where are all your leads and prospects coming from?"
And listen, the bigger the company and the higher up you go when you ask the question, the bigger the idiocy and loony tune answer you'll receive.
Though, as mentioned, this habit is not just reserved for the big players. Worryingly, it's even more prevalent amongst the small business owner and Internet based entrepreneur.
It's as if there's a never ending supply of cash a business owner has, and he couldn't care less as to how the advertising media he uses, performs.
And look, the funny this is that even though he'll scream at a decibel level that'll freak most when asked to pay his monthly or yearly yellow pages rates, he'll not blink an eye at tracking what his return on investment will be in the different media.
He's blind to the fact that month after month his yellow page ad cost is not even helping him break even, but... he'll still continue to pour money into a medium that isn't producing anything like what it should!
Doesn't it make just pure economic as well as plain commonsense to look at what's working with the advertising and marketing and also, what's not working... and then, make decisions and judgments based on that?
But you know, even though it seems commonsense to you and me, it's a rare bird that actually tracks what ad produced what sales, what amount of money was spent on direct mail and what leads, sales and actual profit it produced.
And that's pretty much true for any and every advertising media that is used.
The mere simple discipline of tracking your advertising results could mean that you never have to increase your advertising spend again. You see, once you strictly monitor your results, you'll then be able to decide to slash what's not working. And, the money you save in that media can then be re-directed into another advertising media.
Media that you will now be tracking and watching the results of, like a hawk.
It's this kind of thinking that gives you predictable, reliable, dependable results from all your advertising so you'll never ever be in the dark again when someone asks you "how's this media working for you?"
I recently came across a chap who I'll only refer to as 'Charley'. To outsiders, Charley seemed to have it all as far as his 3 person information marketing business was concerned.
He was, no exaggeration, putting into his bank account, over 39k a month. And, he seemed to have all the time in the world to enjoy the trappings of such a simply run, low overhead business.
However, as I dug a little deeper into his marketing practices and business procedures, it transpires that he spends over 15k a month in advertising costs and has literally dozens and dozens of leads that the he hasn't paid any attention to. I mean they're just falling out the box that he's dumped them in.
But, the thing you need to pay careful attention to is that though he's got potential moneybags literally sitting in a box, right in front of his very eyes, he's still continuing to advertise!.
Amazing.
I agree this is an extreme example of a business person who cannot not only handle the amount of potential business that's coming through his doors, his fax machine, his email account... but it clearly shows you that if you track where all your leads are coming from (he's mastered niche advertising in media where his ideal prospect lives) there's no reason why you too can't experience the type of advertising windfall that this man most certainly as got.
It's a pretty nice situation to be in. Of course, if he were to handle all the aspects of his business, he'd quadruple the business he now has. Why he doesn't... is one of those mysteries of the business kind.
Becoming a ferocious detective in how your advertising is performing, can not only help save you a bundle, it can show you where you should be maximising your future advertising spend in order to reach the precise prospects for your goods and services.
And listen, the bigger the company and the higher up you go when you ask the question, the bigger the idiocy and loony tune answer you'll receive.
Though, as mentioned, this habit is not just reserved for the big players. Worryingly, it's even more prevalent amongst the small business owner and Internet based entrepreneur.
It's as if there's a never ending supply of cash a business owner has, and he couldn't care less as to how the advertising media he uses, performs.
And look, the funny this is that even though he'll scream at a decibel level that'll freak most when asked to pay his monthly or yearly yellow pages rates, he'll not blink an eye at tracking what his return on investment will be in the different media.
He's blind to the fact that month after month his yellow page ad cost is not even helping him break even, but... he'll still continue to pour money into a medium that isn't producing anything like what it should!
Doesn't it make just pure economic as well as plain commonsense to look at what's working with the advertising and marketing and also, what's not working... and then, make decisions and judgments based on that?
But you know, even though it seems commonsense to you and me, it's a rare bird that actually tracks what ad produced what sales, what amount of money was spent on direct mail and what leads, sales and actual profit it produced.
And that's pretty much true for any and every advertising media that is used.
The mere simple discipline of tracking your advertising results could mean that you never have to increase your advertising spend again. You see, once you strictly monitor your results, you'll then be able to decide to slash what's not working. And, the money you save in that media can then be re-directed into another advertising media.
Media that you will now be tracking and watching the results of, like a hawk.
It's this kind of thinking that gives you predictable, reliable, dependable results from all your advertising so you'll never ever be in the dark again when someone asks you "how's this media working for you?"
I recently came across a chap who I'll only refer to as 'Charley'. To outsiders, Charley seemed to have it all as far as his 3 person information marketing business was concerned.
He was, no exaggeration, putting into his bank account, over 39k a month. And, he seemed to have all the time in the world to enjoy the trappings of such a simply run, low overhead business.
However, as I dug a little deeper into his marketing practices and business procedures, it transpires that he spends over 15k a month in advertising costs and has literally dozens and dozens of leads that the he hasn't paid any attention to. I mean they're just falling out the box that he's dumped them in.
But, the thing you need to pay careful attention to is that though he's got potential moneybags literally sitting in a box, right in front of his very eyes, he's still continuing to advertise!.
Amazing.
I agree this is an extreme example of a business person who cannot not only handle the amount of potential business that's coming through his doors, his fax machine, his email account... but it clearly shows you that if you track where all your leads are coming from (he's mastered niche advertising in media where his ideal prospect lives) there's no reason why you too can't experience the type of advertising windfall that this man most certainly as got.
It's a pretty nice situation to be in. Of course, if he were to handle all the aspects of his business, he'd quadruple the business he now has. Why he doesn't... is one of those mysteries of the business kind.
Becoming a ferocious detective in how your advertising is performing, can not only help save you a bundle, it can show you where you should be maximising your future advertising spend in order to reach the precise prospects for your goods and services.
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