How Was Your Day?

How do you know when you’ve had a good day? Many people say they just know. And that is true for a lot of us. But there’s a difference between feeling good at the end of the day and knowing that you’ve met your goals. Most management gurus will tell you that the way to know is to check your measurements on your goals. Follow the trendlines. The numbers rarely lie. You’ll know if you had a good day.

SO WHERE DO YOU START?

You start by setting goals that are tied to your business plan and marketing objectives. That part isn’t that hard but we often come up with goals that are very subjective (I want to be the best XYZ company in this market) or goals that are way too big (I want to have top-of-mind-awareness for every potential customer in town.) Both of these are great but how do you determine when you’ve met your goal? And can you really afford to reach every potential customer and make a positive impression?

measure

So try to start with more tangible measureable results. The key here is that you are ABLE to measure the results. You may want to increase sales from your internet marketing by 7%. Do you have a way to track your sales leads to determine if they came from the internet? If not, how will you know how much they have increased? We work with clients to establish these measures when possible.

A good marketing partner will insist on goals that can be measured.  They want to be sure that they are helping you move your company in the right direction. They also don’t want to be responsible for goals that they can’t monitor. Top-of-mind-awareness is a great example. You can measure this.  However, most medium-sized companies don’t have the budget to survey hundreds of consumers in their market to find out what the awareness and perception of their company is and then pay to do it again after a marketing campaign has occurred.

A good SEO partner like SEO Rocket can help you discover great metrics that go beyond the typical number of sessions and bounce rate. Some examples include:

  • Watching traffic to specific pages or blog posts to determine if the content is “sticky” and keeps the viewer’s interest.
  • Setting up call tracking to see how many of the people who visit your site from an organic search or paid ad then call your business.
  • Implementing our RocketReviews product to help with online testimonials, reviews and service recovery!

Once you’re sure you can measure the results then you need to establish a benchmark. You’ll never know how much you’ve improved a metric if you don’t start with a benchmark. Often, it is important to have this information before you set your goals. It is awkward to state that your goal is 500 page visits per month and then your benchmark says you’re already at 700. Not a bad problem to have but the more information you have the better you can plan.

Plan, Act, Measure, Improve

You’re never done but you knew that about being in business. You have to plan your business growth, act on the strategies, measure the effectiveness and then improve of the plans and strategies to keep you moving forward. You won’t get everything right the first time. We often help our clients discover new aspects of their business from the data that we gather and report on. These new aspects may have never come into play before in their planning. Now they can’t imagine doing business without addressing them. Mobile is a great example. Businesses that have been on the internet for a while may have worked hard to get their website presence and message just right. We discover that all of their work has been on the desktop environment. When we tell them that over 40% of their audience is getting a less than ideal message because they visit the site from a phone then the business has to re-look at their plan and tactics. From that day forward mobile and responsive design move near the top of the list of objectives and maintenance of the company’s marketing efforts.

What is happening with your site and did it have a good day?

Why is an SEO company talking about effectively setting your goals? At SEO Rocket our goal is to help you meet your internet marketing targets. Without effective goals that are measurable from your web traffic neither one of us will know if we succeeded. And we are known for success so we want to continue that trend. Contact us today if you would like to hit your goals with a winning internet marketing plan.

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Zane Tuck

Zane Tuck

Zane joined SEO Rocket in 2014 after working in internet marketing for 3 years.