How well is your agency’s marketing performing? About average? Getting better? Could work harder?
 
What about your new business pipeline? Is it growing? What does ‘good’ look like? And which marketing activity is producing the best leads?
 
And what about your clients? Are they happy? If so, how happy? Are they more or less satisfied than last year?
 
If you are asking yourself some or all of these questions then you are off to a good start. A successful marketing and new business programme requires continual monitoring, not least because budgets are always limited and resource is stretched – so efficiency and effectiveness are paramount.
 
I’ve written much about the importance of measurement before. And not just measurement of results, but of activity too.
 
Even the most beautifully crafted marketing and new business plan can fail miserably if the small, manageable steps required for implementation are not being tracked. Momentum is lost and suddenly weeks, then months have gone by without action.  So measure everything – with digital tools to support so much of our marketing and sales activity, pulling this information together has never been easier. The data is all there, waiting to show you what’s working and what isn’t. Use it, analyse it, report it. Audience numbers, site visitor numbers, content view numbers, sharing numbers, database numbers. What’s gone up, what’s gone down, by how much, why?
 
Tracking your new business pipeline seems obvious, of course you’re going to track monetary value, but try tracking and cross referencing volume of leads at the same time – this fluctuation alongside marketing campaigns will be revealing in itself.
 
And then there is client satisfaction. The benefits of measuring your relationships with your clients go far beyond simply identifying service shortfalls or promoting referrals. In fact there’s a dedicated post coming next month to detail exactly how a well-executed programme can impact your bottom line.
 
But for now let’s focus on the numbers. Client interviews are always enlightening, the conversations shedding light in the most unexpected ways but it is when you combine this qualitative insight with quantitative data that you can truly understand how you are performing. Did you do better this year than last year, overall, by client, by individual, by service, by team…. What’s gone up, down, by how much, why?
 
To find out more about Gunpowder’s bespoke Client Satisfaction programmes contact Lucy Mann.