People who resort to counting clicks on their web site as an indication of the success of their marketing efforts and advertising campaigns really don’t have a good handle on what marketing truly is. In fact, taking any too narrow view of a campaign by focusing on just one aspect of the program is a very poor indicator of what a campaign is delivering.

Marketing is a true mosaic. It is made up of a number of facets, all of them contributing to a fully holistic marketing effort. This marketing effort has to consist of everything including advertising, messaging, branding, content creation and distribution, SEO (search engine optimization) and social media right down to guerilla marketing.

Each of these tools by itself is just one cog in the marketing engine of a company and taken and measured alone means almost nothing.

In the end results mean everything. In the end we can refer to the famous quote from Philadelphia Store owner Mr. Wannamaker who said, “I am convinced that about one-half the money I spend for advertising is wasted, but I have never been able to decide which half.”

So, in the end when someone tells me that he is not getting enough clicks, or he has placed a number of ads during the last few months and has not received a single order, or she has put out their newsletters and the phone has not rung once, I take them to be uninformed (to be kind) in the ways of marketing.

So, what is one to do? How does one evaluate whether or not their marketing is working? There are a number of ways to do this. Here are a few.

1. Sales conversion: Ultimately the purpose of all marketing is to drive sales. Rather than checking how many clicks you have received you should be studying and evaluating how many sales conversions you have accomplished in recent times.
2. Brand awareness: How many people know who you are? How engaged is your audience? When your salespeople visit customers, do those customers know who you are?
3. Content performance: Is your content getting a good and significant following of readers? When you post something on Linkedin or Facebook or publish an article in a trade publication like Iconnect 007 are you getting a good number of readers? And remember a publication can offer your presence in front of their thousands of subscribers, but the number of those who choose to stop and read your content is entirely based on the quality, and the attractiveness of that content. Good content draws readers that can become customers, it’s as simple as that.
4. Customer Feedback: Ask your new customers how they found out about you. Ask your customers what they like to read, ask them what kind of content they find interesting and valuable. Question them on what it takes for them to want to click on through to a web site. And then take their advice.
5. Customer Focus: Is your marketing customer focused? Or is it based on what you like? Oh man, this one drives me crazy! I can’t count the times that a client wants to change the advertising or the branding because he or she does not like it. Who cares if they like it or not? That has nothing to do with advertising. It is all about whether or not the messaging appeals to the customers. They in the end are the ones buying the product…not you, or your spouse or the receptionist. 
6. Competitor Analysis: How are you faring against your competition? Is your marketing better than their marketing? The answer to that question can be one of the leading indicators of whether or not your marketing is working. Most of the time you and the competitors you deemed the worthiest will be selling pretty much the same products and services so whether you win the sale, or your competitor does can get right down to the advertising message you are putting out there. In these cases, the company with the best marketing, with the most appealing message will win the business.

Okay so you’re a meat and potatoes kind of person, you want to see facts. You want the kind of marketing that is going to show you real demonstrative results. Results that you can actually count. Well, I am going to give you a little gift. Here are two ways, tangible ways, that you can realize if your marketing is working.

1. Start putting out a valuable newsletter on LinkedIn or Constant Contact or some other similar app and you will actually get to see not only how many people have opened and read your newsletter but who they are as well.
2. Write a comprehensive Micro-E-book with Iconnect and when the book is published you will not only see how many people downloaded the book but their contact information as well since they will have to give it up to download the free book. How is that for direct correlation between your marketing and your customer acquisition?

In the end it is all about effort…the sincere and caring effort you put into your marketing, and like everything else in life, the more time and effort and passion you put into your advertising – all aspects of your advertising – the better your results will be.  Number of clicks indeed! It’s only common sense.