Targeted marketing Stage 7: Recording, measuring and monitoring

Improving your targeted marketing can only be achieved if you record, measure and monitor your targeted marketing strategies.

Marketing is not a precise science, so the results of any actions cannot be predicted. Targeted marketing will require some experimenting to find just the right approach that works for your business. And if you are experimenting, it's important that you keep records of what you do and what the results were.

Also, it can help to motivate you (or whoever you have delegated the work to) if you know what sort of success rate to expect. If you hit a 2 per cent conversion rate this week, you might feel disappointed - unless you realise that in the previous two weeks it was only 1 per cent.

Further help on this topic...

You'll find further help on this topic, or closely related issues, in the side columns on this page..

If you are using a database or some sort of contact management software, then this recording can be seamlessly integrated into your targeted marketing process. Ideally, you should be recording and retaining the following for each batch of letters you send out:

• The source of the names and addresses
• The date(s) when they were researched
• The actual letter sent
• How many follow-up calls in total you made
• How many of these resulted in a contact with the person you were aiming to reach (a 4:1 calls:contact ratio is not unusual)
• How many of these contacts got the results you wanted (e.g. a sales meeting)
• Subsequently, how many sales (and the value of the sales) resulted from this particular mailshot.

• Market sector
• Source of mailing names
• Wording of a sales letter

Good luck!

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