Frustration Sets In
Right off the bat, Harry got a lead through his website.
Yes! This was going to work great.
Someone filled out his Contact form asking Harry for some information about his services. Harry replied with an email that included a PDF brochure covering the services he provided.
Boom, a phone call comes in from the TV commercial.
It is from a lady who has a leaky faucet and wants to know if her son can buy a new one from Harry and install it himself. This is not the ideal lead so Harry directs her to a local hardware store that can help her.
Harry continues to see a noticeable increase in activity from the days when he simply relied on word of mouth. The phone was ringing more, he was getting more emails, there was an increase in website traffic… he was busy.
Everything was working great… right?
The Numbers Don’t Lie
After a couple months of this, Harry decided to take a look at how well his new marketing campaign was performing.
The best way to see if things were working was comparing this quarter’s sales to the previous quarter.
There was a slight increase over last quarter but not enough to get excited about.
How about looking at how this quarter’s sales compared to the same time last year? That might give a better picture of how this marketing campaign is performing.
Again, a very small improvement. Not nearly enough to get excited about.
Harry grew concerned. It seemed like there was a lot more activity going on. More calls, emails, quotes, etc. Why were the numbers not following suit?
Getting to the Bottom of Things
Harry called for a meeting with the sales reps from the TV and radio stations. They came out and told Harry they felt his campaign was doing great and that he needed more frequency to see better results. The more the market sees his commercials, the better they will remember him.
Harry tried to dig into the dashboards of his social media platforms so he could understand how all of the money he spent promoting his posts performed. The numbers were right there in front of him. He could see how many engagements came from how many people. Lots of people had liked Harry’s posts and made comments but he could not really tie back any of the new customers to social media.
His website guy came out to visit and go over his progress. The paid search campaigns were going great but Harry’s budget was not lasting very long. In fact, it was being spent in the first 2 hours of each day. Harry was beginning to show up for some keywords the website guy recommended they begin with for SEO. His web guy reminded him the SEO was going to be a long-term play and Harry needed to be patient… it might take 6 – 12 months to begin appearing for Harry’s favorite keyword.
How could this be?
Everyone says things are going great. They are all saying their vehicle for getting more attention is doing its job. While this does bring a bit of short-term comfort to Harry, it is not completely satisfying. The thing that Harry finds most frustrating is how little he understands everything.
He did not understand half of the terminology being used and the reporting tools for social media, SEO, and paid search might as well been written in gibberish because he could not determine what any of it meant.
Deciding to Shift Gears
Harry knew he had decisions to make.
He could throw in the towel and quit this marketing stuff altogether.
Life was good when his business was just him alone… why grow? He could rely on the word-of-mouth marketing that got him so far all these years.
Deep down inside, Harry knew that taking this next step and building his business to the next level was important to him. He did not want to be complacent and look back 10 years from now and wonder “What if”.
His second option was to continue on the current path.
He could continue to put blind trust in these people and marketing vehicles telling him everything was doing great and hope that the overall numbers improve soon.
Harry knew this was going to be a tough decision to commit to as well. He felt like he was betting big money on a card game that he did not fully understand the rules of which did not sit with him well. Harry was a trusting person but he also needs to sleep well at night by having a good idea of the health of every area of his business… including the marketing. He understood that the everyone he was working with at the tv station, radio station, his web guy and even the people that run the social media sites were likely good people but all were biased towards their work and (as bad as it sounds) had selfish motives.
Harry’s last option was to understand his marketing.
Just like every other hat he’s had to wear in his business, Harry decided that it is time to learn how marketing works.
He did not need to become an expert marketer nor did he need to replace every single person or system helping him with his marketing. He just needed to understand the fundamentals and how it all works together. This will help him make better decisions to determine what is working for his business and what is not so he can invest his marketing dollars in things that are yielding results.
The decision was obvious. Harry needed to understand his marketing.