Direct marketing companies generate a lot of money from creating fancy ad campaigns for businesses. While that is all well and good, the challenge lies in actually measuring results. How much has your brand awareness increased since the campaign? And did you experience an increase in profitability during the campaign's timeframe? These questions are difficult to answer. In some cases, it takes months to analyze the customer response rates to television, radio, and direct mail advertisements.
Tighter economic times have made companies more careful than ever with their marketing budgets. However, amazingly a huge number of businesses are still not utilizing cheap and easy tools--right at their fingertips--to help them hone their marketing strategy and marketing effectiveness. Instead, many companies are using out of date practices and reducing the amount of marketing they are doing from fear of lost money. Instead, they should be analyzing what is and isn't working so they can improve and maximize marketing ROI. Surprisingly, even business coaches and marketing consulting agencies are making these costly mistakes. Ignoring data and marketing metrics right in front of you is like complaining you are broke while burning a hundred dollar bill.
