There are plenty of great quotes that’ll improve your marketing.
Unfortunately, this, which advisers/planners often mention to me, isn’t one of them:
“Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.”
Let’s be honest, it’s much worse than simply being unhelpful. It’s downright dangerous.
For those who believe it, it gives them an excuse to avoid the pain of data collection and the analysis necessary to understand the effectiveness of their marketing and where their return on investment (ROI) is coming from.
It legitimises the view that understanding ROI is impossible. It means the people who believe it will spend more money on their marketing, while it prevents others from investing in their marketing.
So, what’s the better way?
- Collect relevant data
- Analyse it regularly
- Amend your marketing strategy based on what you find.
That means you need a marketing KPI dashboard.
It’s something, in our experience, that most advisers/planners don’t have. In fact, many don’t have a KPI dashboard for their business. It always amazes us how many don’t know basic information about their business such as the number of clients, their AUM, and so on.
But that’s a different story for another day. Back to marketing dashboards.
If you don’t have a marketing KPI dashboard, or you do but you’re not 100% sure that you’re recording the right information, then keep reading.
Find out why you need one and how to get your hands on our free template.
Dashboard = focus and better decision-making
Let’s start with considering the consequences if you don’t have a marketing KPI dashboard:
- Every decision you make is a guess, and it’s impossible to make evidence-based decisions
- You don’t know whether you’re on track to achieve your objectives
- It’s impossible to understand which elements of your strategy are working, and which aren’t
- It’s harder to hold the person responsible for your marketing to account
- You will miss opportunities
- You can’t calculate your ROI.
A dashboard solves these problems because it:
- Gives you the data to make educated decisions, which will help you allocate your marketing budget and reduce waste
- Helps you focus on what’s important
- Highlights changes you need to make
- Gives you the confidence that you’re on track, or if you’re not, the information to fix problems
- Helps you understand what’s possible, allowing you to play ahead with confidence
- Shows the marketing cynics in your team (if you have them) how marketing is helping you to achieve your common objectives.
A free template for you to build a bespoke dashboard for your business
Your dashboard should be focused on the things that are important to you.
Be ruthless. There’s no point collecting data for the sake of it.
Some data points will be consistent from firm to firm, while others will depend on your marketing objectives and the tactics included in your strategy.
If you want to understand all the data points you could include in your dashboard, then all you need to do is request our free template.
There are endless systems you could invest in to monitor your marketing.
However, we like to keep things simple. Most advisers/planners don’t record any of this data, so let’s not run before we can walk!
All you have to do is click here and you will receive:
- A copy of the dashboard, which you can start using today
- A video explaining how to use it.
The dashboard really comes into its own when used alongside your new enquiry database.
If you’d like our free enquiry recording spreadsheet, just click here and you’ll receive one.
Update the dashboard every month
You should allocate time each month to update your KPI dashboard and analyse the results.
Doing this will allow you to pinpoint things that can be improved and the actions you need to take.
For example, your dashboard will highlight online reviews plateauing.
You can then solve the problem by:
- Looking back to see when the problem started
- Reviewing the implementation of your processes
- Consider how processes could be improved to change the outcome.
As we said last week in relation to newsletters, don’t miss months, and don’t let things drift.
Get into the habit of updating and reviewing the dashboard monthly.
Get your free template
The template and video are free, all you need to do is click here to request them.
If you have questions, or would like to know more about how we help our clients develop and implement a marketing strategy, please email hi@theyardstickagency.co.uk or call 0115 8965 300.