Measuring Marketing

To the "unchurched," marketing appears to be a money pit, a big hole in the balance sheet that just sucks away money and seems to do nothing to earn its meals. A lot of company executives view marketing (and advertising) this way because they see no measurable results. Unlike sales, where you can automatically peg a transaction and attribute it to a particular sales person, marketing is perceived as being a little more squishy, a non-measurable ambiguity. We throw some money in what we hope is the right direction, attempting to appeal to what we hope are the right customers, crossing our fingers and toes that they will take some sort of action and buy our product. Sound familiar? Do you encounter this every time you try to pitch an idea?

The truth is, marketing is far from unmeasurable. In fact, done right you can track almost all revenue back to its source. The easiest marketing to chronicle is direct mail. Why? Chances are you sent your e-greeting or snail mail piece to a targeted group of existing or potential customers, recipients who have been screened by some demographic as likely candidates to send some of their money your way. You have their names, addresses, and probably a little more information about them before the piece ever hits the cyber circuits or postal truck.

Online advertising is simple to track as well, either by cookie-grabbing or by a unique URL that is set up just for your ad. For example, if your company, ABC Cosmetics, wants to track how many hits your latest ad generates, set up www.ABCCosmetics.com/April or something similar. Once they type in that address, it ticks off one recipient on your list and sends the customer to the original ABC Cosmetics home page. The user is not inconvenienced at all, and you have a record of her visit.

For even deeper diving and better opportunity for follow-up, set up the unique URL with a registration page full of basic information: name, e-mail address, phone number, and how they heard about your company. The user will fill in the quick blanks, click Continue, and is then directed automatically to your regular home page. Now you've not only recorded the click thru, but you've also captured basic contact information for future action.

No marketing or advertising is going to be tracked 100% accurately. That's the nature of multiple exposure campaigns. Did they see the ad or the direct mail or the brochure sitting on the lunchroom table? You may never know. But by a few simple tracking methods, you can justify the expense of a campaign that worked. Or you could find out that it didn't work and know you need to try something different next time. Either way, you have valuable information that will help you make the case in the next budget meeting.

Advertising & Marketing in a Down Economy

There is a huge debate raging right now inside companies across the land. How much do we spend on advertising right now, when budgets are getting slashed and revenue is diminishing? Knee jerk reaction is to cut personnel, pull ad campaigns, and slice and dice marketing plans to reduce expenses. At first, this might seem like a fiscally smart idea. After all, why spend unnecessarily at a time like this, when the future of the company is in jeopardy? Who can afford to spend all that money right now?

Let's take a lesson from history. The current economy is being compared to the Great Depression of the 1930's, so let's see if we can learn anything from what happened back then. During that time, companies reacted much the same way that we are today: by cutting expenses through layoffs and budget reductions. They barred the fiscal doors and didn't let any wasteful spending escape.

But not everyone believed in the conventional wisdom of the time. The smart companies understood the way everyone else was reacting and did just the opposite. They ignored the fear mongers and downers and instead charted a course to take advantage of their circumstances.

And it worked like a charm. The companies that ramped up their advertising and marketing efforts may have felt a crunch initially, but when the Great Depression was over these companies emerged as the industry leaders and went on to greatness, partially because of continued brand recognition in the eyes of their customers.

Should your company cut back on advertising and marketing in these tough economic times? Only if you want to be left in the dust. But if you want to show you're the leader, ramp up the efforts and watch your competition fall flat flat while you emerge victorious! The time for marketing is now!