Keep a Keen Eye on These to Not Only Survive but Thrive in This Downturn Economy

"If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading." -- Lao-Tzu, Chinese philosopher (604 BC - 531 BC)

Now that could either be a great thing or the scariest possibility for any small business owner or independent professional. Especially with a bit of an economic downturn on our hands… let alone the doom and gloom people seem to be perpetuating around it.

So tell me… where are you heading and how do you know for sure? Is the marketing you’re currently doing working? Is it bringing you a steady flow of new qualified prospects? Is it strengthening your brand? Is it making you money or just draining your precious resources at a time where you simply can’t afford for that to be the case?

Now on the surface you may believe you know the answer to questions like these however, are you 100% positive?

Well one of the most important and tangible parts in determining whether or not anything in your business is working is by maintaining sound metrics.  Yes, I do believe that certain aspects of your marketing are not practical to track and measure.  However, there are plenty of key metrics that are easily gathered.  For example you might keep metrics on things like:

• Number of projected versus actual new Clients each month
• Number of projected versus actual repeat Clients each month
• Number of projected versus actual new prospects each month
• Return on investment for specific advertising or marketing campaigns
• Return on investment for each marketing strategy in general
• Number of web site visits per month and where the visitors are coming from
• A monthly “Profit and Loss Statement” which shows your monthly income, monthly expenses, and whether or not you were profitable during that period. The key here is to analyze and know what the numbers mean and how you can alter your marketing to improve them.

And we could go on and on and on here however I hope you get the point… the numbers simply never lie! And if you know how to read them, they can empower you to make better decisions.

For example, one such way is to look for trends. Compare the most recent month, quarter, and year to the one previous (e.g. August 2007 to July 2007, Quarter 3 2007 to Quarter 2 2007, and the year 2007 to the year 2006). Compare specific months from different years (e.g. August 2006 versus August 2007). Compare specific quarters from different years (e.g. Quarter 3 2006 to Quarter 3 2007).

Additionally look for trends dictating the effectiveness of specific marketing campaigns. And to risk stating the obvious, do more of what’s working and less of what’s not… yes it’s that simple. However, you’ll never know whether a marketing campaign is working or not if you are not collecting and analyzing metrics.

So in closing, remember the numbers never lie. And for small businesses and independent professionals, it’s times like these that separate the “men from the boys” so to speak. So the big question remains, where are you heading and how do you know for sure?

© 2008 Online Marketing Muscle -- All Rights Reserved.

Want to use this article in your newsletter, blog or web site? You have my blessing so long as you include the following complete blurb with it (including links).

Liked this article? -- Then check out Long Island-based marketing consultant, coach, and entrepreneur Dean Mercado’s highly acclaimed marketing blog 'The Motivational Marketer’s Journal' at http://www.MotivationalMarketer.com. Additionally, for even more small business marketing and success tips, sample the latest edition of his FREE marketing tips newsletter the 'Marketing Minute', -- a weekly multimedia e-zine designed to give you a jolt of marketing wisdom in less than 5 minutes.

Dean Mercado, Online Marketing Muscle, marketing articles, metrics, small businesses, small business owners, independent professionals, economic downturn, economic turmoil

A Simple Metric to Gauge Your Web Site’s Popularity

So tell me… how exactly do you know whether or not your web site is working for you? Is it making you money? Is it increasing your visibility with your target market? Is it broadening your reach within your target market? And what about your credibility, is it establishing and continually reaffirming it with your target market?

For most types of businesses, unless your web site serves as an e-commerce site directly selling your products and services to your customers, it is very difficult to establish and track whether or not your web site is actually making you money.

However with minimal effort, you can easily track and measure whether your web site is increasing your visibility, broadening your reach, and establishing your credibility with your target market… three very important reasons for marketing… with one simple metric. Here’s how it works.

From your Internet browser go to the popular search engine Google’s web site www.google.com and type in the search box the word “links”, a colon, a space, and then your web site’s domain name minus the typical “http://www.” part. So for example, for my web site, I would type: “links: OnlineMarketingMuscle.com” and hit either the “Enter” key or click the “Google Search” button.

The result that Google will return is any and all Internet URLs that it knows about that have linked to my web site. And in the eyes of the search engines, typically the more links the better. Yes, the quality of who’s linking to you does factor in to how you’re perceived by the search engines as well, but that’s a conversation for another day. So unless a large majority of your inbound links are coming from offensive, less than desirable sites, it’s hard to argue with the power of sheer volume -- it speaks volumes about your popularity across the web.

Now to take the usefulness of that data up a notch, run this metric once a month and record the results in a spreadsheet. Then from the spreadsheet you can easily produce a graph showing your increasing web popularity over time.

That’s it… it’s that simple.

So in closing, it’s nearly impossible to know whether or not your web site is working for you if you don’t maintain and analyze some sort of metrics. The one we’ve discussed here is just one in a series of simple, yet critical ones that everyone using the web as a marketing medium should have in their arsenal. The key here though, is not just collecting the data but how you leverage that data to enable you to make better marketing and business decisions.

© 2007 Online Marketing Muscle -- All Rights Reserved.

Want to use this article in your newsletter, blog or web site? You have my blessing so long as you include the following complete blurb with it (including links).

Liked this article? -- Then you won’t want to miss Long Island-based marketing consultant, coach, and entrepreneur Dean Mercado’s highly acclaimed marketing blog 'The Motivational Marketer’s Journal'. Additionally, for even more small business marketing and success tips, sample the latest edition of his FREE marketing tips newsletter the 'Marketing Minute', -- a weekly multimedia e-zine designed to give you a jolt of marketing wisdom in less than 5 minutes.

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