weaknesses, opportunities, and threats for each significant competitor and see if you can uncover some marketing opportunities.
Use Google Alerts. A straightforward way of keeping track of your competitors is using Google Alerts. You can set up email alerts based on specific search terms allowing you to get essential updates on your competitors.
Mistake #10
No Metrics Or Benchmarks
You probably have a couple of metrics or benchmarks to gauge the health of your small company. Some business owners assume that it’s another one of those excess strategies which you can choose to accept or reject based on how your company’s doing. Many CEO’s have forgotten to focus on them.
There are three reasons why you need to have critical metrics:
1 They give insight into what’s working and what’s not
2 Metrics let you know how much you should be spending to acquire a customer
3 The more you study and use them, the better your ROI will become.
Why You Need Key Metrics
What are marketing metrics? They are a set of numbers that let you gauge the health of your marketing. Key metrics are also used to measure the other parts of your company (e.g., cash flow, profit, and loss, debt, etc.). However, I recommend a small set of numbers exclusively for marketing.
In my book, 5Unstuck, I refer to these numbers as vital signs. Think of them as your “patient chart.” You’re the doctor, and you want a few indicators that show the health of your marketing.
The concept of key performance indicators was created to help you wade through mountains of data and save you time.
Here’s an example of why you need them: Let’s say you’re spending $500 per month in pay-per-click advertising and another $500 on social media advertising. Which channel is the most effective at generating leads and customers? Should you shift monies from one channel to the other? You can answer these questions if you know your cost per lead (CPL) and cost per customer (CPC).
What Metrics Should You Track?
There’s a concept called a “balanced scorecard,” which means that your metrics should be balanced to cover all aspects of your company. I like to apply this concept to marketing. I’ve come up with four categories of metrics to assess the health of small business marketing:
Pipeline and sales metrics – These could be the cost per lead (CPL), cost per customer (CPC), number of leads in the pipeline, conversion rate, number of prospects added to the pipeline, etc.
Customer metrics – Examples are customer acquisition cost (CAC), customer retention rate (aka churn rate), lifetime value of a customer (LTV), net promoter score (NPS), etc.
Channel metrics – These will vary based on which channels you’re employing. For email marketing, your parameters could be click-through rates, open rates, conversion rates, list growth, etc. Each platform in social media has metrics that show which posts are performing the best.
Website metrics – Your website is the hub of your marketing. KPI’s for website traffic, traffic sources, bounce rate, conversion rate, etc. are good to know. It’s also reasonably easy to do with 6Google Analytics.
After you’ve picked your key metrics, analyze your findings every quarter. Look for trends that either exceed or lag your goals. Also, revisit your benchmarks periodically and recalibrate.
5 Kenyon Blunt, Unstuck, Tulsa, Yorkshire Publishing, 2015.
6 https://analytics.google.com
Mistake #11
No Website
This mistake defies logic. How could any small business exist today without a website? Apparently, pretty easily. According to the non-profit organization SCORE, “Just 51 percent of small businesses have websites.” That’s correct. Nearly half of all the small businesses in the United States don’t have a website. And, 28 percent of the ones who don’t have one say they’re not likely to get one in the future.
When you see statistics that don’t make sense, it warrants additional investigation. The companies without websites say they don’t see a need. They generally have excuses like “I am not a web-based business” or “I don’t have time to maintain it.” These excuses might have been valid twenty years ago, but not today. Customers are using the internet to search for your business.
There are other reasons cited by these business owners:
Cost. 26 percent of the businesses without a site mentioned price being a significant factor. Note: I built my website for $350 using Upwork and a developer in Sri Lanka.
Local business. Some business owners think because they are local, or have one location, they don’t need a website. Keep this in mind: 90 percent of consumers search online before they go to your business (even if it’s a local business).
Social media. Some CEOs think social media has them covered. Facebook might be an excellent tool to connect to your audience, but do you want to give them control over your customer base? I don’t think so.
Why You Need a Website
I understand these arguments, but I still contend you need a website. Think of your website as the hub of all your marketing efforts. I have a feeling that business owners without a website won’t be reading a book on marketing. If you are, here are some more reasons to start building your site right now:
Your brand. A website gives your business an image of authenticity. You want your brand to convey a positive, innovative, inclusive, and forward-thinking company.
Control. There are three types of traffic: 1) traffic you control, 2) traffic you don’t control, and 3) traffic you own. Your goal is to own all the traffic you can. How can you do this without a website?
Your customers. Yes, your customers are online. 97 percent of consumers search online for products and services, and more than half of these searches are local. Customers generally find you online before they go to your location. They want a central place where they can proactively learn about your business.
It’s not hard nor expensive. As I mentioned above, you can have a decent website for less than $400. You can also learn how to edit your website yourself. There are companies like Wix, GoDaddy, Weebly, Squarespace, and many more that can help.
Insights. One of the fundamental principles of Lean Marketing is measuring results. A website provides valuable insights that help you measure and track the success of your various marketing efforts.
Time. A website saves you time. Just think about all the questions you’re asked by your customers and prospects. By addressing these questions on your website, you help potential customers make a purchase decision and save time that you’d spend answering the same questions over and over again.
Mistake
