How intentional are you with the money you spend on advertising?  Do you know which ads pay off for you?  Do you know which ones do not?  (These same questions could be asked of any of the ways that you promote your business: networking, PR, etc.)  Advertising can be one of your biggest budget items and if you aren’t tracking the results, you could be losing a lot of money.  This is called tracking the RETURN on your advertising INVESTMENT (or advertising ROI).  Let’s break down the steps in making advertising decisions and tracking ROI.

Set Sales Goals that Tie to Promotional Activities

When you are setting your sales goals, decide HOW you are going to achieve those sales goals.  It’s easy to pull a number from the air and say, “In 2012, I want to book 15 weddings.”  But what happens after that?  What are you going to do to get those 15 weddings?  This is when you have to be intentional about how you promote your business.  For everything that you plan to do to promote your business, decide what you expect in return.  For example:

I plan on booking 15 weddings in 2012.  Based on the time and money I am investing, I expect to see the following:

  • 2 weddings from ad in XYZ magazine
  • 0 weddings from ad in QRS magazine (it’s great brand exposure and I don’t expect any return)
  • 2 weddings from networking at LMNOP events
  • 3 weddings from vendor/colleague referrals
  • 2 weddings from client referrals
  • 2 weddings from being featured in ABCD blog
  • 4 weddings from WXY bridal show

Once you have these goals in place, you can start to work proactively for the return on investment.  On advertising, your dollars are doing the work.  But, for the other promotional activities, you’ll want to ensure that you are putting in the time to see the results.  If you want to be featured on a blog, you’ll need to put in the time to make it happen.

By being intentional with your promotional decisions, you are taking the first step at ensuring that your money (and time) are achieving results.  Come back tomorrow, when I teach you how to track your advertising ROI.