Blog
So when you’re doing anything at all throughout your business (and again I’m talking mostly about marketing), what you want to do is measure anything and everything that can you can get your grubby little paws on. What I mean, is whether it’s something that you’re doing to garner views on social media, or whether it’s money that you’re spending for advertising or for hiring somebody to do a job, you need to be able to measure these things. (more…)
We have a client who runs a tiny, local restaurant review site. As you may know, we advise our clients that advertising – paying to put yourself in front of others – should be the last thing they consider when putting together their marketing plans. Not because "it's a rip-off" or some other negative reason, but because there are a ton – hell, two tons of things you can do for free or at minimal cost that will put you in front of your audience before finding a medium and paying them for some space.
But in examining or client's options, we had to agree that is was time to begin to advertise. We wanted to put their web site in front of people in their area who were looking for "restaurant reviews" right now, but we didn't want it to cost an arm and a leg. This is a tiny site, and is still not breaking even. So we went with Google AdWords, and set a daily budget that would barely get you a cup of hot stuff at your favorite coffee house.
I used to have lunch at a chain sandwich shop near my office a few times a month. When they first opened, they were doing a good business. I enjoyed the place enough that I signed up for the corporate emails, which sometimes included coupons. I’d print them off and use them in the restaurant.
Granted, the town where I had my office has slid far, far downhill in the last 15 years. Three major factories closed around 1998, and a lot of the people left in town don’t make anywhere near as much money as they used to. So any business there is kind of hard.
There was (and still is) another franchised sandwich shop in town. For years, that chain had been my favorite. But they’d begun raising their prices to what I consider a ridiculous level, and I was really enjoying the new place anyway.