Company-Crushing Killer #9: “Invisible Data”
Part 9 in a series of 12 Company-Crushing Killers Lurking Inside Your Business Today…
By Brett Lloyd Abbott, Pool Builder Marketing LLC
The success or failure of any marketing campaign is determined by accurate, measurable data. Quantifiable data gleaned through precise tracking and monitoring of responses vs. expense will tell you what’s working and what isn’t. Without it, you’ll never know what to fix.
You can’t fix what you can’t see.
For example, if your advertising is capturing hundreds of leads, but few of them convert into ‘sales-qualified prospects,’ then the marketing team needs that feedback to figure out how to fix their nurturing campaigns.
With data, you can have an emotion-free conversation about what’s wrong. This reduces unpleasant conversations, and creates accountability to ensure your people and campaigns are performing effectively.
Opinion can be disputed, but numbers don’t lie.
Data tells us not only which campaigns worked, but what type of customer they worked for. This allows us to properly fine-tune your marketing efforts for maximum results. Real-time data visibility lets you analyze and tweak your strategies to maximize results, giving you the opportunity to abandon tactics that aren’t working, and step up the ones that are bringing in the most leads and conversions.
If you have several marketing campaigns active at the same time, the data will let you determine which direction each one is heading. This lets you put your marketing and advertising money where it will have the most impact on your profits.
Without this data, you’re dead in the water.
You can try to make guesses based on hunches and “gut intuition,” but in marketing, you will frequently be wrong. And you will burn a lot of cash figuring that out. You may be able to judge the success of a campaign by the orders it generates, but you still won’t know where or why it succeeded, or why it failed, and most importantly, how to fix it.
SOLUTION:
To win this battle you need an intelligence network.
As the General of your business, you have a hundred things on your plate. There aren’t enough hours in the day for you to also analyze the statistics from all your marketing campaigns. That’s why every good General relies on his intelligence network to keep him up to date.
The more you understand your customers, the more targeted and strategic your communications can be. When you’ve identified a marketing campaign that works well for one customer segment, you can adapt that for another. This is a task that requires real-time visibility to help you make the best decisions.
A strategically-automated intelligence tracking system will give you the answers you need.
You can receive detailed reports identifying responses by marketing segment, and potentially pinpointing new marketing opportunities. With this information, you can easily make important marketing decisions fast, and move on to the next task. You’ll know exactly what’s working, and what needs to change, which means you can make on-the-spot decisions to optimize your efforts.
CONCLUSION:
You need to find an expert – either in-house or third-party – who can set up your intelligence network and provide real-time data, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to allow you to make fast and intelligent decisions.
NEXT WEEK – Company-Killer #10:
“CUSTOMER FRUSTRATION”
This article is part of a series designed to provide pool companies with unique insights that will help them address the modern marketplace challenges their company may be facing. These insights, when applied, will virtually guarantee new growth, and get your company to the next level.
If you find this information helpful, and would like to learn more, check out the short five minute video here.
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