It has been a while since I have written much about marketing and promotions but I was talking to another business owner recently and she asked me a great question: “How do you know if you are getting the message out?” How indeed?! We know we need to spread the word but how do we know if we are successful in our efforts or if we need to do a little more to make sure we get the message about our home business operation out and about?
One of the points I like to make is to remind people that it is not just about getting the message out, but it is important to get it to the right people. If you are in the business of doing educational consulting, for example, you do not need to advertise in senior citizen publications. You need to target your message and your marketing efforts to get to who needs to hear it. You can get away with less—if it is carefully targeted to just the right people.
If you are getting feedback, you are getting the message out. You do need to ask yourself what sort of feedback you are getting and if it is leading to increased business. Again, you also have to ask yourself how much business you can handle and whether you are getting the inquiries that lead to growth. Additionally, it can be helpful to simply ask—ask people where they heard about your business and ask people in your sphere of influence if they are hearing anything about your business “on the streets.” Of course, you want them to be honest and not simply saying pleasant things that they think you want to hear. Large corporations pay big money to do market research and discover how well they are saturating their target market. You may not have those resources, but you can do a little research on your own to evaluate whether you are getting the message out or not.
Also: How Can You Make Your Business More Visible?
Getting Started with Marketing