Whether a start-up or mature, large or small, restaurant or manufacturer, Marketing plays a vital role in the success of every business.  And while specific tactics may look different depending on your product or service, it’s important to have a clear understanding of the return on your marketing investment.  Setting up a Marketing dashboard is critical to providing you with this insight.  To get started you will need to have a thorough understanding of your business, your customers, competition, overall marketplace economics and trends.  Getting started requires time, focus, commitment and most importantly a complete acceptance of reality.   Take the 7 Question Marketing Effectiveness Quiz below to see how informed and prepared you are to lead your team to victory.

1. Do you have a written definition of what a lead is?  Many companies have no clear definition of a lead.  In many cases a name alone represents a lead.  Marketing may generate a name and provide it to the Sales organization to contact leading to a false sense of demand creation.  A name is NOT a lead.  However, YOU need to decide what a lead is for your company and obtain the agreement to that definition from others on the executive team most importantly the leader of the Sales team.
2. How many channels are you working to generate leads?  Is it just a sales team?  Do you use your website?  What about strategic partnerships?  A multi-channel marketing strategy provides greater possibilities to expanding your company’s reach and distribution.  Additionally you will find that certain channels present higher close ratios or stronger average sales prices.  While managing multiple channels requires resources, and subject matter expertise, you will find this approach yields better results as opposed to a single channel approach.
3. What is your ROL by channel?  Do you know what your return-on-leads are by channel?  For example, you have a direct sales force, a website, and a strong accountant referral channel.  Each day, week, month, you generate leads through all 3 of these channels.  What are the close ratios per channel?  What is the average selling price of your product by channel?  What channel coverts the highest rate of leads to presentations, and how many of those presentations result in a sale?  Having insight into your ROL will help you focus on making the improvements necessary to grow your business.
4. Does your website have lead-conversion capabilities?  Is your website static or dynamic?  Is it set up using responsive web design (RWD)? Do you have a mechanism in place to track the incoming visitors to your site and follow-up with the appropriate messaging and content?
5. How much content do you have on your site and how fresh is it?  Do you have a content management strategy?  Do you provide free content to those that visit your site?  How do you decide what content to produce?  Who writes it?  How often is it refreshed?  What do you do with the feedback you get from prospects or customers that download your content?
6. Do you have a blog?  Many businesses feel they don’t need to blog because their product or service is in a class of its own and doesn’t require blogging.  That’s simply not true.  Every company can and should blog.  There are always topics relevant to your potential buyers for you to be blogging about.  Whether you sell party supplies, automotive repair, or chimney cleaning, your target market is looking for content.  Blogs are a great way to increase your internet search results and get you found faster.
7. Who is responsible for Marketing?  If you can’t answer this questions with a name, find one quickly…even if it’s you.  Think of it this way…if you pay the bills for your business and keep your own books, you may not have the title of CFO but you know who’s responsible for the finances of your business.  Likewise, if you’re the one doing the marketing, you’re the one responsible for the growth of your business too.  Someone has to be accountable for Marketing otherwise it simply will not get done.

Your answers to these questions provide the insight necessary to begin to develop your marketing dashboard.  Let me know if this was helpful.