If you can't measure it, you can't manage it.
Despite this rather well-known business proverb, it seems that a majority of small businesses have absolutely no idea what's working when it comes to their marketing.
A new survey of U.S.-based SMBs from InfusionSoft and LeadPages reveals that the top objective for these enterprises was driving sales (51.3 percent). Other objectives for the SMBs surveyed include building brand awareness, collecting leads, retaining customers and running promotions. The objectives are certainly reasonable.
What is shocking about the survey is that most of the SMBs didn't know if the tactics they were using were actually working. In fact, only a small perentage of respondents believed their marketing was effective; a larger group (62 percent) said it wasn't or they didn't know.
How is that possible? Is it that SMBs don't know what to measure? Is it that SMBs don't have the tools, or the time, to measure?