Don’t get into a rut!  Your prospects may be tired of what worked yesterday–or you may have reached everyone you’ll reach with yesterday’s marketing approach.  Keep looking for new ideas, and keep trying them.  But be sure to keep Laws Two through Four in mind!

Measure the results of each thing you try

If you don’t measure effectiveness, you’ll never know if it works.  There are a lot of different ways to measure–when I was sending a newsletter in snail mail, I put in a postcard into each envelope once in a while asking recipients if they still wanted to receive the newsletter, and giving some space for a comment.  This simple step provided a lot of useful feedback.

When you find something that works, do more of it

Marketing changes, and when you find a good technique, expand its use!  Don’t waste too much time, because your competition is looking for new methods also.  If you move quickly to capitalize on new marketing methods, you can play a leadership role in acquiring  prospects who are in the market.

When you find something that doesn’t work, do less of it

This Law is the least often followed.  Often companies have sacred cows, that weekly ad in the newspaper that’s gotten more and more expensive, or that direct mail piece that brings in fewer returns each year, while it costs more to send each year.  Be ready to reduce your use of methods that aren’t working as well any more.  If you don’t take this step, you won’t be able to give the proper attention and resources to new methods that are working for you.

The Bottom Line

Marketing is a process of continuous improvement. Markets don’t stand still, so your marketing can’t either. Keep experimenting and improving. And consider killing some sacred cows!