I had a rather interesting experience that might be cause for thought for some of you business owners. This past week I spoke with a small business owner in home improvements who is using a tracking mechanism for his advertising. For years they have stuck with a certain radio station just because they thought that station has a good listening audience. I literally went into their tracking system and pulled up the reports to show the consistency of a rather low return on investment over the past five years. In real numbers, they were handing over 46% of each sale directly to advertising costs! Not too many of us, especially in the trades industry, can afford to put 46% of our sales directly to marketing. With numbers like that, the only one who was profitting was the radio station.
On the other hand, they also tracked another radio station that obviously has the listening audience they need. The sales and profits were much, much higher for a similar cost. My advice to them was to quit advertising on the one station and put those funds toward the marketing that works on the other station. Let's see what happens now that they've done that. I'll keep you in tune.
Do you know your numbers? Do you know that your advertising is benefitting you no matter what the "experts" are saying? Can you prove it? Winners know their numbers!
Make it a great day!
Susan
