Now, we know this will seem like an odd beginning to a blog from a marketing agency, but marketing just for marketing’s sake is pointless. Think about it for a moment. Why do you want to market your business? The obvious answer is to get more customers, more sales, and more profits. When you think about marketing, it’s all about your bottom line. If you consider other aspects of your company, you wouldn’t keep pumping money into a project that wasn’t giving significant returns; it’s completely uncommercial. Even charities and CICs who aren’t necessarily focused on profits wouldn’t invest in something that wasn’t working.
So, what are the figures that you need to focus on?
The basic theory of marketing is that to maximise sales; you need to place your products and services in the marketplace in a way that will make customers feel they need to buy them. That’s it! There are many clever ways of doing that, which is why you need a marketing agency like us to take the reins, but in essence, it’s about finding the place where your potential customers hang out and letting them know about your brand.
While every social media platform is packed to the brim with fascinating metrics about follower demographics, interactions, locations, times they’re online, whether they donate to charity etc., the figures you need to focus on are whether you’re making sales and whether your profits are increasing.
Don’t get us wrong; we love the other metrics, and they can really help decide where to place marketing content, but if you don’t take your bottom line and ROI into account, your marketing will be a bit pointless.
Without a goal, how can you identify success?
If you go and sit down with any business consultant, one of the first things they’ll ask you is, “Where do you plan to take your business in the next five years?”. It’s a sensible question. To grow your business, you need a business plan with achievable goals. The same goes for marketing. If you plan on marketing a product or service, you must know what you want to achieve from that marketing. And the answer can’t be vague. You can’t just say “more sales”; it must be a tangible and achievable target.
Creating a marketing plan that’s connected to your business plan suddenly allows you to identify the ROI from your marketing strategy. Even better, it helps you plan what you need for the coming months. So, say, for example, that you want to market a particular service over 12 months to double its sales; you need to ensure that you have the capacity to fulfil your goal. In short, marketing should impact every section of your company.
And this is why the numbers you need to worry about are your bottom line and ROI. Imagine two different marketing campaigns for similar businesses. One achieves 5,000 new followers who end up spending £20,000, and the other attracts 500 followers, but they spend £100,000; which is the more successful campaign? It has to be the one that pulls in higher profits. And, if your new customers receive a fantastic experience, they’ll recommend you to others and keep coming back.
Don’t be sucked in by vanity metrics.
It’s lovely to feel valued and a bit of a buzz to see new followers appearing, but you should never forget that just focusing on vanity metrics can be dangerous. That’s why you need someone in your business who knows and understands that business and marketing go hand in hand. This brings us neatly to the moment where we tell you to get in touch to talk about how we can improve your bottom line.