It can be challenging at times to know if your marketing is working. You’re putting yourself out there, yet how can you tell if you’re succeeding? Read on for 10 ways to know if your marketing is working.
1. You’re attracting clients who are a fit for you. If you’ve done a good job of identifying your ideal client, and the marketing you do speaks directly to them, you will disproportionately attract people who are in alignment with you, what you do, and who see the value in what you’re offering. This begs the question that you know who your ideal client is, and if you don’t, you can read more about how to discover them here.
2. The potential clients you attract turn into paying clients. If you’ve done a good job attracting potential clients who are a good fit for you, more people will convert into paying clients because you have skewed the pool of people you’re speaking to. People come pre-enrolled, and therefore more likely to buy. Your job at that point is to have an authentic sales conversation and allow them to even more deeply see the value of working with you for themselves.
3. You enjoy the marketing strategy you picked. If it’s not fun, is it worth doing? Many of us ended up self-employed because we want freedom, options for doing things differently, to bring our craft and gifts to others. It’s your business, and you can choose to make it hard or make it easy. From my perspective, if it’s not fun, it’s not worth it; you don’t get extra points for doing something that’s harder than it needs to be.
4. The marketing strategy feels easy. Not all marketing is created equal. While there are likely conversations you have with yourself about what you “should” do for marketing, one way you can tell if you’re being successful is if things feel easy. If you don’t like doing any marketing at all, it’s time to reexamine how much you’re actually already doing, or ask yourself if being in business for yourself is the right thing for you.
5. Your marketing strategy is set up as a well-oiled machine. It’s great to experiment with different marketing strategies so you can find the one that’s the best fit. Once you’ve decided which to use, it’s best to set up the strategy so that it has a system, there’s an order to things, so that you can pursue the strategy over and over without much effort on your part. Decide on the strategy, set it up so that it’s repeatable, then rinse and repeat regularly.
6. You have a marketing strategy. If you do your marketing well, your reward is practicing your craft: marketing first, then deliver the goods. You need to have something you’re doing to let clients know you’re available. Again, if you say don’t like marketing, how can you get business in the door? No marketing = No business. Having a marketing strategy you employ, even if it’s a small and simple one, is vital to the long term survival of your business.
7. You know what to say to a potential client. Since you’ve established who your ideal client is, and what you’re offering them, what you say to them will naturally flow from the verbiage you used in your marketing. Remember, you’re having a sales conversation, not just chit-chat. Successful marketing means knowing what to say that reinforces their decision to speak with you, and shows them the value of working together.
8. You’re measuring how effective your marketing is. Measuring is a great way to insure success. Make sure you’ve got clear objectives, and look at the cost of the marketing you’re doing: the cost in dollars, time spent, stress experienced. Make sure what you’re putting out is coming back in a way that feels equitable, or above and beyond the effort. Success here means getting back more than you put out, and that it feels worth it.
9. You’re flexible and adjusting to the feedback you’re getting. Your marketing is giving you feedback all the time; are you paying attention? Successful marketing means looking at what’s working and what’s not working, and making adjustments as necessary. By paying a bit of attention, and making small adjustments as you go, you can hone your marketing into the well-oiled machine we talked about.
10. Your pipeline is full. Bottom line: marketing is all about filling the pipeline with potential clients. You’ll know your marketing is working if you’ve got people lined up to work with you, people interested in exploring your services, and plenty of people to call back. Successful marketing means having people to talk with who you’re excited about, and who’re excited about talking with you, too.
