When you build a home for someone they generally have a pretty specific set of expectations of what they’re going to get for their money. The homeowner invests a certain amount of money and in return gets a finished product. Sometimes the homeowner is really thrilled at the return he got for his investment (and don’t you love it when that happens?).
As someone with a building or remodeling business, you make investments in your own business all the time. And one of the areas you invest in is marketing. But what kind of return are you getting on your marketing investment? Too many businesses (and it’s not just builders and remodelers) spend significant money on marketing efforts without knowing what those efforts (and dollars) are giving them in return. Your customers would never let you get away with that. You probably can’t imagine asking them to give you $25,000 and telling them you’ll give them “something” at “some time”. You wouldn’t do that to your customers. Don’t do it to yourself with your marketing investments.
One of the reasons businesses are so “fuzzy” about what they spend on marketing (and get in return) is that they’re not really sure what to measure or how to do it. To keep things simple, let’s just focus on one component of your marketing: Your website. You probably spent a significant amount of money building your website. And it may even look really nice. But what is it doing for you? How may leads is your website generating for you each month? And how many of those leads are ending up as sales? How does your website stack up against your competitors? When potential customers look for the services your provide (and, by the way, they are looking online) are they finding you—or your competitors?
If you don’t know the answers to those questions you’re certainly not alone. Many businesses don’t really know how their website is performing (or if it’s even performing at all). In business, ignorance is not bliss. You need to assess your site so you know how it’s performing. And if it’s not performing well, you need to take steps to fix that.
You paid for your website. It owes you something. You don’t spend good money on construction tools and then just store them. You use them. You get your money’s worth out of them. You need to get the same return on investment for the marketing tools you buy.
What marketing tools do you have the biggest questions about?
