How to Turn Marketing Goals Into Achievable Business Goals

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goals1Setting goals for your business is an important aspect of your business plan, but did you know that many business owners don’t realize that marketing goals should also be aligned with business goals?

Many small businesses acknowledge that they need help with Google rankings, so they can attract more website visitors, which leads to increased sales. You may be trying to generate more leads through your website email sign up list, in order to increase your sales figures. These are all great goals, but they need some more work, to help you take your business to the next level.

You need to ask yourself more detailed questions about setting values for the number of people you wish to sign up for your email list, your exact sales figure goal totals, and whether you want to be Number One in the Google Rankings, or just on the First Page.

Start by defining actual sales figures desired over a twelve month period. For example, set goals of how many actual website visitors you’re aiming for. Of those visitors, set a realistic percentage that’ll convert into leads, and from those leads, how many actual paying customers will you have. Of those customers, how much income will they bring to your business?

Consider how many sales leads your email list needs to generate. Do you want to focus on providing content for the remaining potential customers on your email list, so they can be a source of sales in the future?

Exactly how high do you need to rank in Google Rankings, and if you can make it to the number one spot, what is your best estimate on how many customers do you think it will bring to your website over the course of a year? Of that figure, estimate what percentage of those visitors will actual purchase products or services through your website.

Exactly how much revenue do you need to generate over the course of one year? Your marketing efforts should be focused on meeting your financial business expectations. Keeping in mind that you need to cover your business expenses, you may need to adjust your expected sales figures.

How much traffic do you need to lead to your website, in order to cover your financial goals? Is your website performing well in that area, or is it dead in the water? It may be time to do an overhaul, in order to attract more traffic. You only have about ten seconds to make a positive impression. A mobile website can also increase your conversion rate, by impressing potential customers through attractive graphics, inviting them to give your business a call.

Set quarterly benchmarks for your business plan. At the end of each quarter you can sit down and see if you hit all targets. If not, where does your marketing plan need to be tweaked? What sort of impact did your marketing budget have on your goals? You many need to refocus your marketing plan.

Now you can see how you’re just taken your business plan to the next level, by aligning marketing goals with your business goals. If you have a separate business management team, then be sure they keep the marketing group in the loop as well. Please contact Direct West Media Group Inc., for help in taking your business to the next level by aligning marketing goals with business goals.

Start Right Here with Pay-Per-Sale Advertising

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As a small business owner, you have a tight advertising budget. You can’t afford a multi-media campaign like the big businesses. You may be a contractor, plumber, electrician, or even a lawyer. You may have a painting company, or install swimming pools & spas. You likely have under 10 employees at any given time. Running a business is an expensive venture, but you’re starting to see results.

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You don’t have to rely on traditional methods for advertising. Sure you may have your Yellow Pages ad, and a listing in Google. But it’s important to extend your reach, so you gain more customers. More customers means you can expand your business, pay off debt, and take a much-deserved break.

One modern method of advertising which you likely haven’t heard of before is called Pay-Per-Sale Advertising (PPS). This type of advertising is strictly performance-based. The only time you pay is after you have made the sale. You simply pay DWMG a commission out of the sales you have made. This is great for those who don’t have the extra capital for a large advertising campaign. You simply pay-as-you-go. You don’t pay for what you don’t need.

Direct West Media Group handles their end of the advertising, and uses their expertise to create landing pages with optimized SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Customers looking for your type of services will search online. They’ll call the number, and DWMG will screen the calls for real customers. DMWG advertises to find customers for you, and then sends you the local calls from interested parties. They generate the sales or service jobs, so you don’t have to.

With PPS online advertising, you can get free online exposure for your business. There’s no monthly expenses or maintenance fees. Your leads will call you directly, and they’ll always be local and located within your city. You won’t have to waste your time with telemarketers or people who are only bored and looking for some way to waste people’s time on the telephone.

DWMG does all the work, spending time creating your online advertising. They find local paying customers for you. You won’t have to worry about handling the advertising yourself. You’re too busy and perhaps you weren’t certain about the best way to market yourself. Let DWMG handle it all for you.

DWMG spends the time handling the inquiries and narrowing them down to real customers who are looking for your services in their city. Now you don’t have to hire employees to handle your telephone calls, when DWMG will handle this aspect of your business for you.

How it works is that after your calls have been screened down to actual interested paying customers, and you have made a sale, you will then pay a commission on that lead. So for every sale that DWMG generates, you pay a small fee. If you aren’t able to convert a lead, then you don’t pay. This is a highly-efficient method of advertising, and it really works.

Let Direct West Media Group handle your Pay Per Sale Marketing, so you can begin to see direct results in your business. When you have higher sales then you can begin to plan and grow your business from here.

Five Reasons Traditional Advertising No Longer Works

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It wasn’t that long ago when the only methods of advertising were placing ads in newspapers, magazines, and the Yellow Pages. In the pre-computer era there were no computers where you could search for businesses, nor Facebook, Twitter, or web or mobile-based websites. A potential customer would pull out the Yellow Pages phone book, and search by hand through the pages, to find the desired business. Businesses would place ads in newspapers and magazines.

With the advent of the computer age, suddenly everyone has a website and all companies are listed on Google, Yelp, and other review-based sites. New technology calls for new techniques. Mobile marketing is the wave of the future, with more people snapping up smartphones each month. Retargeting is an effective advertising technique where your ad follows a buyer around the internet.

Here are five reasons why traditional advertising methods don’t work anymore and you need to move to the internet.

1. Does anyone actually use a phone book today? They don’t even drop them off at homes anymore, you have to go and pick one up if you want one. Most people have no room to store them, and hate wasting a tree, only to toss them in the recycling bin at the end of the year. Why waste money advertising in a directory that no one looks at anymore? Even the Yellow Pages has moved online.

2. Newspaper advertising is so cost-prohibitive now that only the most successful companies do it. Do you really want to compete with big corporations? Will your local customer even notice your store ad, when the Big 3 are also advertising in the paper? Most newspapers are discarded after two hours, and your ad with them.

3. People hold onto a magazine a bit longer, and may even pass it along, before tossing in the trash. Most magazine readerships are so specialized now, that likely your business won’t align with its readership. Not only that, but magazines usually have national readership. If you’re trying to attract local customers to your business, it’s just not cost-effective to place an ad in a magazine that your customers will never read. Does your business have anything to do with cats, cars, or fashion? Because that seems to be what is on most store shelves nowadays. There’s no point in advertising in a cat magazine if you’re a parts manufacturer or a dentist.

4. Newspapers and magazines have been laying off workers in the tens of thousands. Every day in the news, there’s an article about yet another publisher shutting down their print operations. Tons of employees are being laid off, because the business failed to move online. That should tell you right there that it’s time to try the newest online advertising methods.

5. Everyone looks to the internet for information, and your company should be on there too. The internet is the one-stop-shop for finding information about businesses. Even the 411 telephone directory services have been suffering, so even they have been offering internet-based directory services. The internet is the first place your company needs to be.

It’s time to brush off your advertising campaign and start afresh. There are many modern-day advertising avenues open to you, that produce results. Contact Direct West Media Group Inc. for all your advertising solutions.