Top 6 Ways to Evaluate the Effectiveness of Your Marketing Strategies

1. When prospective customers call or write to inquire about your services/products, always ask them how they heard about your company. Track their answers.
   
2. When sending out multiple mailings or placing advertsiements, assign a marketing code (any number or combination of letters/numbers will do) to each piece of print marketing you create. When customers mention that they saw your advertisement - ask them for the code. This will help determine which marketing piece resulted in the call.
   
3. Test your mail pieces by dividing up your mailing list into segments. Send one piece to one segment and another to the remaining prospects. You can test which one was more effective by the number of responses you receive.
   
4. Mission Accomplished? Assign a call for action to every piece of advertising you send out. "Call today for 10% off" or "Visit our web site to request a free sample" are examples of action statements. If your prospects aren't carrying out your action statements, it's a good indicator that your marketing strategy isn't as effective as it could be.
   
5. Pay attention to web statistics, sales numbers, incoming calls, etc. If you can count it, it can be measured. And if it can be measured, it can be used as a benchmark for evaluating the effectiveness of your marketing. Do incoming calls increase after launching a new radio campaign? Do more visitors come to your web site after seeing your advertisement in the newspaper? Compare.
   
6. Know where marketing ends and selling begins. Great marketing strategies will take you right up to the point of convincing your prospect to buy. Some people will make their purchasing decision on the marketing alone, but often it still requires selling in one form or another. For example - a great marketing campaign can result in a rush of new web site visits, but if you compare the number of visits to the number of purchases made, what is the result? You've got to know when the marketing ends and the selling process begins. Once you've hooked them with the marketing campaign, be ready to switch gears and reel your customers in for the purchase.