Education

How To Know When It’s Time To Change Your Marketing Efforts

The only constant in life is change – and this applies to advertising and marketing as well.
Even if the advertising/marketing you’re currently doing works, there still comes a time when you should shake it up a bit. Do so, adhering to the following guidelines:
Learning Firsthand: A Personal Story
My website has been live since 1999. But, I was pushed into getting it by the circumstances of my business. What do I mean?
At the time, Inkwell Editorial was an editorial staffing agency in New York City. Clients and candidates alike were asking things like:
Can I view resumes from your site?
Can I download the timesheet from your site?
Can I fill out your application online?,
Etc.
When I’d sheepishly say, “We don’t have a website,” the silence was deafening.
Once Inkwell got a site (InkwellEditorial.com), I couldn’t imagine how I’d done business without it. Candidates were able to download timesheets; I put up an informative Q&A section for clients and candidates alike; a sample client contract was there; etc.
The Direct Benefits Received from Changing My Marketing Efforts
Having all of these things online did four things for my business: i) it propelled me into the 21st century, hence improving my professionalism in client eyes; ii) it saved me time in that I could always direct answer seekers to the website; iii) it built my client base – over the years I received untold inquiries from clients who just happened across my site on the web; and iv) I was able to fill job orders quicker because I e-blasted job openings to my entire database – many of which came from candidates who signed up for these blasts via the website.
The moral of this story: To keep pace, I had to get a website. Even if it was on a static/brochure site, having one was critical to the success of my business because the age of the Internet was upon me – and I was stuck in the stone ages.
And, staffing is one of those industries where online interaction is a must.
Before having a company website, I’d done a lot of fax blasting to get clients. This method was quickly replaced by email marketing because now I had a destination for them to go to – InkwellEditorial.com – for further info.
I haven’t looked back since.
One of the main reasons to change your advertising
Long story short, one of the main reasons to change your advertising is when it’s clear that that’s where your industry is headed. Don’t fight change – flow with it.
Another reason to change/supplement your advertising
Another time it’s good to change your advertising is when you seem to have reached a peak with your current advertising methods.
For example, I do a lot of networking – and I can count on this for a certain percentage of my sales. But, I’m only one person and can only do so much networking. So, I must supplement that to keep my sales volume at a certain level.
A couple of years ago, I added cold calling to the mix. On a really aggressive day, I can place 70 calls. I rarely do this. I do make it my goal however, to reach a certain number of prospects a week. If I’m falling short via my other advertising methods, the quickest and easiest thing to do to make my “client contact quota” is pick up the phone.
Marketing Tip: I remember years ago when my sister and I first started marketing Inkwell heavily, we used to track our client contact quota on a big bulletin board we put up in the office. That way, we could physically see our progress day in and day out.
This was extremely helpful in making marketing a habit. After five or six months, we no longer updated the board because it became the norm for us to make our marketing part of our workday duties.
Marketing, like any good business practice, is something that should constantly be upgraded. Paying attention to your marketing efforts means that you are paying attention to the lifeblood of your business.

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