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Know Your Numbers

The finished product of marketing is the advertising; print, radio, television or online are all the final result of what the marketing department puts together. These ads are the “creative” that you see that either compels people to to buy or file away in their memory for the time being.

The platform that you consume the advertising on has to be the “science” part of the equation. In other words, if you sold hearing aids would you advertise on the radio or in print?

This is why you need to know your numbers

Obviously the hearing aid question is a bit extreme, but you need to know where your active consumers are coming from (as well as their own demographic makeup) in order to move the dollars you have set aside for marketing around to be most effective.

You have to know things like:

  • The total population in your area
  • ethnic makeup
  • median age
  • marital status
  • education level
  • housing status
  • income and net worth

And these are the basics, depending on your vertical you can drill down much deeper into these numbers to get a much closer look at your prospective buyer.

But you also need to know what compels them to buy. What specific offer moves people to pick up the phone and call you? For example, have you ever run an ad that didn’t work and you just pulled it? Of course you did. Did you change the ad before you pulled out or did you just remove it? If you just pulled it then shame on you, because you know you have to test your marketing over time(and track changes) before you pull your spots, right?

Do you know what advertising attracts buyers? I mean, I could have the Eagles cheerleaders dance out in front of your building and sure it’s going to draw attention but it’s probably not going to convert into new business.

What I mean here is, you have to know what advertising venues people go to when they are ready to buy! Do people buy from TV ads? Sure sometimes. Do they buy from radio spots? Yeah I guess. But your marketing dollars have to always attract buyers.

Most contractors don’t have the room in their marketing budgets to brand their businesses, so be smart and find out what your best customers use to find businesses like yours when they are ready to buy. There are certain technologies you can use online to track people ready to buy, and I am going to be getting into that real heavy for my newsletter subscribers, so if you aren’t subscribed yet, you may want to get on board by clicking here.