Any promotion worth putting your time, money and effort behind, is worth measuring how well it performs. Only by knowing what kinds of results a certain marketing effort produces, can you determine whether or not to run it again, or what you may need to do to change or tweak it in order to make it more effective.

It’s absolutely amazing how many business owners don’t understand this simple concept. They’ll let the Yellow Pages advertising salesperson sell them an ad in their local phone book, let the phone company ad department layout the ad, then let the ad run with no way of knowing whether or not a prospect called or a customer was obtained as a result of that ad. The ad has no “accountability” or “measurability.” So, next year, the same ad gets run, the same results are had, and the business owner continues to complain about how poor business is.

And the same thing happens with his or her newspaper ads, magazine ads, direct mail campaigns, Val-Pak marketing and every other type of marketing they do. As an astute business person, you should never even consider running an ad or executing a mailing campaign or promotion without having some type of response mechanism to measure the results. You wouldn’t think of ordering and paying for a product… any kind of product, and then not checking to see if you received it. Yet, many business owners will run ads in their newspaper, magazines, Money Mailer, or Val-Pak, or send out a mailing and never even bother to see what kind of results the ad produced.

I know it’s crazy. But it happens every day. And millions of dollars are wasted because of it. Some people even go so far as to say, “Well, my advertising isn’t to bring in customers right away. Its purpose is to keep our name in front of our prospects and create ‘top-of-mind-awareness’ so when they’re ready, they’ll remember me.” Well, top of mind awareness is important. There’s no question about that. But you can’t afford to operate your business on “deferred results.”

“Why should I do business with you, instead of any and all other options I have?” This is a question that goes through each of your prospect’s minds before they choose to do business with you, and through each of your customer’s minds before they return to buy from you again. And, it’s a question you must take the time to formulate an answer to. Without such an answer, you become like every other business who sells the same products or services as you.

It doesn’t matter what product or service is being offered, your customers can go nearly anywhere and find the exact same (or very similar) products or services offered for the same price, or perhaps for even less money than what you charge. Think about yourself, for a minute. Why do you do shop at the same stores or eat at the same restaurants over and over again? Most likely, it’s because they offer you something you can’t get from their competitors. Maybe they’re closer to where you live or work. Or maybe you like the way a particular restaurant prepares a certain meal. Perhaps it’s the environment or the people who work there.

Or maybe you just feel comfortable… almost like you’re at home while you’re in their place of business. It may not be one single thing that influences you, but rather a combination of several factors. Nevertheless, the businesses you continue to frequent give you something special. Something unique. Something you just can’t get anywhere else. It’s that uniqueness that keeps you coming back over and over again.

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