Creating Opportunities with a Marketing Feedback Loop
If you are a small business owner, have you asked yourself this question:“If I can’t measure it, how can I improve it?”
One of the best ways to measure your progress is through a marketing feedback loop.
If you’re not using a feedback loop, how do you know how well you’re doing in your business strategy?
Create Great Business Outcomes
Hubspot defines the feedback loop as: “… a process in which the outputs of a system are circled back and used as inputs. In business, this refers to the process of using customer or employee feedback (the outputs of a service or product), to create a better product or workplace.”
The concept is simple… but not always easy.
As we’ve discussed in previous posts, evaluating your marketing foundation and developing a strategic plan is the beginning of the journey. Next, you will focus on executing your plan, but the work is still not done.
If you aren’t measuring, then how can you improve? The short answer is that you can’t. So how do we measure? Enter the marketing feedback loop. By getting feedback from your customers and, yes, your employees as well, you are able to measure how well your plan is working.
What kind of feedback are we talking about? There are several ways to measure, for example:
- surveys to focus groups or employees
- or even just an old-fashioned chat with a customer or an employee
- web analytics
- open and click-through rates in your email marketing campaigns.
- social media comments / reactions
If you are trying to evaluate how well your marketing strategy is doing, choose the methods you want to use to measure and be consistent with collecting and reviewing the data.you can use data from your own website analytics as well as the open and click-through rate on your emails.
Negative and positive: The two types of feedback to paint whole picture
When you are talking “negative” feedback, that usually means the feedback you get from your customers about their concerns. Simply put, you listen to what they have to say and then you take that feedback and make your product or your service better. There is tremendous value in those customers who do give you feedback as they are typically the ones who care most about your business. When you listen and make improvements based on their feedback, they feel valued in return which helps build brand loyalty.
Negative feedback is not always the easiest feedback to take, but it is also where you will find the most valuable nuggets of information. Small Business Today cautions that it’s really best to get out in front of any negative feedback you might have to turn it around fast.
“Positive” feedback is what you get when you go to your own team and listen to their suggestions. Getting feedback from your team is super important. Remember, your team members are the ones who will ultimately help you carry out your marketing roadmap.
As we mentioned in an earlier blog, sometimes the difference between the success and failure of your plan could be an engaged team who feel like their input counts. They need to know they are making things better for the business and for themselves.
The changes you make from their input will make a positive difference in their job and how well they are able to help you carry out your marketing roadmap. Remember, the members of your team are the ones who will ultimately help you carry out your marketing roadmap.
“Lather, rinse, repeat”
Maintaining a solid and effective marketing foundation is a continuous cycle that requires solicitous care and feeding.
- You’ll do your assessment.
- You’ll engage your key folks.
- You’ll execute your plan.
- You’ll get feedback on how it’s all going.
- Use the feedback to modify your plan (if needed).
And then you start again. Though the bulk of the work has already been done, making refinements along the way is crucial to being successful in your marketing foundation strategy.
Want to know more?
If you’re wondering where to start with all of this, we’ve got the place! Try our free mini-assessment and discover your marketing foundation score today. Regardless of where you are in your business journey, it’s always helpful to take a step back and look at the big picture.
And if you want to know more, book a free 30 minute strategy session today and let’s see if we can figure out your next steps together.
