Is it really working? 5 ways to calculate and improve your marketing success

Having an excellent marketing strategy is pinnacle to achieving success in your business. But, how do you know if your marketing is any good?

You don't want to wait until your business crumbles before realising your strategy wasn't working. We've collected some of the best ways you can reliably assess and improve your marketing tactics. Find out what's working and what isn't!

It's important to regularly assess your marketing strategies. One tactic might work for several years until you realise it doesn't have the same profitable effect is used to have. When you need to change up your tactics, you need to know which direction to take.

There are many ways you can monitor your strategies to see how effective they are. We've summarised 5 straightforward ways to keep your marketing on track.

Set Goals

Set weekly or monthly targets and from the results you can see if your current marketing is able to achieve the goals you want. Make sure these goals are realistic and discuss with your teams to gather their input. As your team has been working with the current strategies they will know what is achievable and what isn't. 

Setting targets will also help you manage your teams more effectively as they will know what they are working to achieve each week/month.

Inbound marketers that checked their metrics 3x a week have recently been reported as the most successful. Take heed of this fact and review regularly.

Monthly reviews

Every month make a report detailing the outcomes of your marketing plans + goals. Observe what works, what can be improved and if there are strategies that should be discarded. Don't be afraid to put bad ideas to bed.

You can also introduce a small weekly meeting to see how your marketing is progressing. This will help you see what can be done to help you improve your current plans.

Examine conversion rates

Okay, people are reaching your website but how many are actually converting into contacts or customers?

Examine your conversion rate to see how successful your marketing is. 

Number of visitors on your site ÷ converted customers = conversion rate 

This is where you can really see if your marketing is working. What do you class as a 'converted customer' - do you want a person to sign up for a newsletter, do you want them to buy a product or a service? Your aim should be converting visitors into customers and if you are failing to achieve a healthy percentage, you need to make some changes.

What are your Returns on Marketing Investment (ROI)?

Assess what your financial returns are on your marketing strategies. If your marketing isn't making you any money, then it isn't working.

You can work out your ROI by:

(Gain from investment - cost of investment) ÷ cost of investment = ROI

If you use different marketing strategies, it's important you examine what your returns are for each investment. Assess them regularly to give you enough data to see which techniques are making you money and what's making you lose it.  

Social media Interpretation

How do your customers interact with you on social media? Social media is a popular marketing method for many different businesses but it works better for some brands than others.

Look at your social media analytics and see which posts receive the most engagement. Twitter and Facebook have their own analytics you can use to assess the activity on your accounts. From your results consider if you need to reevaluate your tactics. Whilst likes, retweets and pins aren't everything - they are a quick, easy and most importantly free way to see how your message is being interpreted and acted upon. 

 The success of your marketing is what keeps your business alive and kickin'

With these five methods you can reliably assess and improve your marketing. There are not many strategies that are timeless, as times change you need to be willing to adapt and understand when you need to let go of your favourite tactics. 

Use the Online Marketing Grader

Do you really know how effective your marketing is? Use our FREE Marketing Grader to see how successful your marketing is and find out how you can improve your current techniques.

Did you find this blog post helpful? Is there anything else you wanted us to talk about? Tell us in the comments below.