My blog focuses on Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. The food industry is in itself a multi-faceted industry and there are competing brands. The following contributed post is entitled, How Food & Beverage Brands Can Compete With Supermarket Own-Brand Products.
You may have noticed the rise of “supermarket own brand” products as of late. Thanks to having all the distribution methods already set up, supermarket brands have realized that not only can they stock the usual brands of products in their stores, but also create their own, and pass those savings onto the consumer to stay competitive.
In some respects, this can very much expanded. You can now find supermarket-own eggs, cheese, breads, even homeware and electrical product lines. Of course, much of this is manufactured alongside other partners depending on what the item is. But because these can be cheaper (and sometimes even pretty identical) to brands that you’ve been paying for all this time, it’s no wonder they’ve become more popular.
As a food or beverage company (perhaps both), this can present a problem. You may still have guaranteed store space thanks to your sales volume, but how can you compete with supermarkets that already have space on their shelves for their own goods? It’s not always clear. In this post, then, we’ll discuss how certain firms are trying to compete, aided with the advice of F&B consulting agents.
Let’s begin:
Make Your Value Proposition Clear
People need to understand within seconds why they should pick your product over the cheaper shop brand sitting right next to it on the shelf, and it doesn’t really matter if your ingredients come from somewhere special, your recipe has been perfected over decades, or your manufacturing process creates a better texture that people can taste.
The point is making that difference so obvious that customers don’t have to guess what they’re paying extra for. If someone can’t explain to their friend why your product costs more, they’ll probably just grab the cheaper option and move on with their shopping.
Add Romance To Your Branding
Store brands look functional and boring because they’re designed to be generic and appeal to everyone at once. Your brand gets to tell a story that connects with people emotionally, like how your grandmother’s recipe inspired the whole company or how you source ingredients from family farms that have been growing the same crops for generations.
People buy stories just as much as they buy products, especially when they want to feel good about supporting something that feels authentic and meaningful instead of just grabbing the most convenient option available. Use that if you can.
Deliver Your USP
Having a unique selling point means nothing if your product doesn’t back up the claims you’re making on the packaging. If you say your chocolate is smoother, it better melt differently in people’s mouths than everything else they can buy. If you claim your sauce has more complex flavors, people should be able to taste that complexity when they try it at home.
They need to be convinced to spend that extra, which is why consulting agents know that the biggest mistake companies make is promising something special but delivering something that tastes just like the cheaper alternatives, which destroys any mystique or magic, and makes customers feel stupid for spending extra money.
With this advice, we hope you’ll continue to compete with store-brand goods.
My blog focuses on Financial Literacy/Money and Legal Affairs. Driving offences can be costly in many ways if you’re not careful. As such, it’s critical to be mindful of how many you commit and the severity of them. The following contributed post is entitled, 5 Financial Consequences People Forget About After a Driving Offence.
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Most of us don’t really think about driving offences. When you spend a vast amount of time in your car and have rarely received a fine, you get a bit comfy letting the small things slide. Taking your chance on an illegal parking, driving a tad bit over the speed limit, driving after “just” 2 beers or ignoring the seatbelt alarm to the neighbourhood grocery store. One thing most of us don’t think about, being a little too comfortable as a relatively “safe driver,” is the financial fallout of a traffic fine, a fender bender, or a DUI. Getting too comfortable as a driver can cause you to overlook these common financial fallouts of taking chances on the road.
Many jobs now require a clean driving record, even if driving isn’t part of the role. Employers use driving records during background checks as a proxy for judgment, responsibility, and risk. If you’re applying for a job in healthcare, education, government, or finance, a single driving offence can quietly shrink your chances.
Worse yet, if your current job involves company vehicles or transportation of goods or people, you may be reassigned or even let go. That’s not just a loss of income. It could mean starting over at a lower wage or in a different field altogether.
2. License Suspension’s Hidden Costs
Losing your license temporarily isn’t just an inconvenience but also an economic anchor. Rideshares, lost workdays, paying others to chauffeur your kids, or even relocating closer to public transport. In rural or suburban areas, these costs multiply fast.
And then there’s the reinstatement process: administrative fees, required courses, evaluations. None of it’s free. In some cases, especially for repeat offences, installing an ignition interlock device (IID) is mandatory, at your own expense. Those devices come with monthly calibration fees that can quietly eat into your budget.
3. Loan and Credit Score Complications
This one surprises many people. A serious traffic offence, particularly a DUI, can lead to court judgments or unpaid fines being sent to collections. Once that happens, your credit score takes a hit.
That lower score can mean higher interest rates on everything, from your car loans to mortgages. Even a few points’ difference in your credit rating can translate to thousands in added interest over the life of a loan. It’s the kind of damage that lingers for years, long after you’ve put the incident behind you.
4. A Permanent Spike in Insurance That Outlasts the Offence
You expect your insurance to go up, but many forget just how long that increase can last. It’s not a one-year bump. Insurance companies can keep that premium inflated for three to five years after the offence, depending on its severity.
Add in any accident-related claims, and some drivers end up labelled “high-risk,” forcing them into specialised insurance pools. That’s not just more expensive, it can be five to ten times your previous rate. Consulting the best traffic lawyers early can sometimes reduce charges or help you qualify for diversion programs that keep your record cleaner and your premiums lower.
5. Lost Time Is Lost Money
It might sound intangible, but the time spent dealing with a driving offence adds up. Time off work to attend court hearings, mandatory traffic school, or DMV appointments is often unpaid. If you freelance or work hourly, every hour lost is income lost.
Then there’s the mental toll. Missed deadlines, stress-induced burnout, and juggling logistics all bleed into productivity. And in a world where time is currency, those lost hours can compound into something much larger than expected.
The Bottom Line
Driving offences can have ripple effects that go far beyond what’s printed on the citation. The smartest move? Understand the full picture and act quickly. Whether it’s contesting a charge or minimising long-term fallout, knowing where to turn and what’s at stake makes all the difference.
A single moment on the road shouldn’t rewrite your financial future. Stay informed. Stay prepared. And when in doubt, get guidance from professionals who understand the legal and financial nuances better than anyone else.
My blog focuses on Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. If you have a brick and mortar business, you may have to deal with some level of vandalism. If you deal with an incident, you have to have a plan for dealing with it. The following contributed post is entitled, How To Address Vandalism To Your Business Premises.
There can be many nasty surprises in business planning, that’s the nature of competition. But finding your business has been hit by vandals is perhaps one of the worst gut punch moments that can ruin your whole week. It can take many forms, like spray paint across your front window or broken glass scattered on the pavement nearby. The immediate reaction is usually anger mixed with a sinking feeling of knowing you’ve got a mess to deal with and money to spend fixing something that was perfectly fine yesterday.
Vandalism can also feel personal even when it probably isn’t. Most of the time these incidents are random, kids being stupid or someone taking out their frustrations on whatever target happens to be convenient. That doesn’t make it any less frustrating to deal with, but understanding that it’s likely not some targeted attack on you specifically can help you approach the cleanup with a clearer head. If you have protections in place, odds are you have a fair amount of recourse too.
Of course, you’ll want to document everything thoroughly before you start cleaning up because insurance companies and police reports require evidence. That includes photos and any footage you can find. We’ll also believe the following advice can help you:
Catalog Everything
Don’t start sweeping up glass or scrubbing paint off walls, because you need to create a record of what happened. Take photos of all the damage from different angles, including wide shots that show the context and close-ups that give details. Write down exactly when you discovered the vandalism, what time you last saw everything intact, and any witnesses who might have seen something. It’ll help you avoid the frustration that comes otherwise.
You’ll also want to check if your security cameras caught anything useful, and if you don’t have cameras, this might be the realization that you need to install some. Then look around for any evidence the vandals might have left behind like spray paint cans, broken tools, or anything else that could help identify the culprit. Don’t clean up this evidence until after you’ve called the police and they’ve had a chance to look at the scene.
Get Professional Help For Glass And Structural Damage
Broken windows and damaged doors need immediate care, both for security reasons and to limit further damage from weather. You can’t leave your business exposed overnight or over a weekend, so finding reliable commercial window repair and replacement services is a priority. Professional repair companies can absolutely provide emergency boarding services to secure your property while they order the right materials for permanent repairs, should you have larger windows or extensive damage that needs caring for..
Don’t try to handle major glass replacement yourself because commercial windows often have specific requirements for thickness, safety standards, and installation methods that won’t be the same as residential work. Such services also understand how to work with insurance companies and can provide the detailed documentation your claim will require. Most will also have a heart and give you a decent quote.
Implement Security
It’s not nice to think about what you should have done, but we do have time to think about preventing this from happening again. Security cameras are the most obvious deterrent, but proper lighting can be just as effective at keeping vandals away, especially if they’re motion sensor lights that illuminate your entire storefront, making it much harder for someone to damage your property without being seen, and they’re usually cheaper than a full camera system.
You may also consider adding protective films to your windows that make them much harder to break or scratch, and think about landscaping to prevent any of the hiding spots around your building.Work with other businesses nearby so you can be more proactive about protecting your placements, too. It’ll help.
With this advice, we hope you can more easily address any and all vandalism to your business premises!.
My blog focuses on Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. If you’re starting a business, there are some key elements that you need to know be mindful of for your enterprise to have a hope of surviving and thriving. The following contributed post is entitled, Key Essentials For Opening And Running A Successful Business.
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If you have decided that now is the time to open and run your own business then congratulations. You may just be realizing how tricky this field is to navigate, with all the legal worries and whether you can keep your business going. If you are unsure of anything related to opening a new business then take a look at the article for some much needed inspiration.
One of the most important parts of opening a business is your budget. While you may have heard that you can open a business without any money at all, this tends to be companies that have been handed down the generations. To open a brand new business, unfortunately, isn’t free. You need to work out just how much you will need to get everything off the ground.
Once you have worked this out, give yourself some extra wiggle room for emergencies. It can take up to three years sometimes for profits to start rolling in. If you don’t want your company to shut down during this time, then the key is money and budgeting. If you don’t have the money you need to hand right away then consider applying for a business loan or use investors.
Website
Another essential that your business won’t be able to survive without is a website. Before you launch your new company, you will need to build a strong website. When your main doors are closed this is where your customers and clients will place their orders. Typically online shopping happens between the hours of 7pm and 10pm so ensure your website is never down during these hours.
When it comes to designing your website, you need to remember that not everyone who is accessing it will be tech savvy. They could be elderly people who are wanting to buy or browse for a special occasion. Try and include a search bar on your site so there is no need for endless scrolling and clicking.
Marketing
Finally, consider which marketing techniques and strategies you are going to use to boost your business to success. There are plenty out there, it is just a case of choosing which one is most suitable for you and your business. It needs to cater to the wants and needs of your business, for instance, if you are based online then social media and video marketing will be your main go tos. If you have a physical location then you could go for something more old school like leafleting in the local area.
If you need extra help and support with your marketing campaigns then you could work with a marketing agency, hire an in-house marketing team, or even use an SEO expert like Jason McDonald. They know exactly what they are doing and will give you the right marketing ideas to excel your business.
We hope you found this article helpful and that it gave you some ideas on the essentials needed to open and run a successful business.
My blog focuses on Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. A major part of some businesses is their publicity events. Successfully hosting these events can bode well for your business in the future. The following contributed post is entitled, 5 Tips for Making Your First Publicity Event a Success.
When it comes to making your business work, there are so many things you need to put in place. You can dedicate a lot of time and attention to your marketing and never really know what will work. But even as you start to gain traction and realize that things are paying off, you still need to diversify. It’s easy to think that marketing online and on social media is all you need to do. But that can be quite limiting. Instead, you need to branch out a little. This is where the idea of hosting a publicity event can come in.
Regardless of your industry or how far along you are in your career, looking to gain publicity for your company can be key. In this blog post, we’re going to explore some of the key ways you can ensure your first event is a success.
1. Set Goals to Work Toward
When you plan an event, it’s not just a fun party that you get to enjoy. Ideally, you’re going to get something out of it. You might want publicity for a certain product launch or just to raise the profile of your company in general. To do that, you need to set an objective for the event. Then you can plan everything around reaching it.
2. Choose a Suitable Venue
One of the biggest parts of putting on any event is ensuring that you have the right venue. Not only does it need to fit the whole purpose and vibe of the event, but it needs to have the right capacity. Location is key here too. So, don’t rush in making your selection!
3. Hire the Right Professionals
You’ll also need the right team by your side when it comes to executing the event. This means having a catering team to provide any food and drinks, as well as looking to book event videography services and a photographer. That way, you can document the event. You may also want to bring entertainment in too. So, there’s a lot to think about here.
4. Curate Your Guestlist
Then you have the guest list. This can be the most important part of all. Planning your event’s guest list can be quite intricate. You need to ensure that you invite the relevant people, while ensuring that the group will mesh well–especially if it’s an intimate event. So it’s important to get it right.
5. Make Sure it Goes Well
Lastly, you then need to make sure that the event itself runs smoothly from start to finish. As much as the planning phase can feel like a lot of work, it can often be the easier phase. On the day or night of the event, you may get nervous–but as long as you’re flexible and you’re on the ball, it will all go well. There can sometimes be issues that crop up, but as long as you have a contingency, you’ll be just fine. From people turning up late and uninvited guests trying to get in to food being wrong or cold, and your timescale falling behind, it’s all about making the most of the time. You may even find that the guests don’t notice! So relax and enjoy the event.
My blog focuses on Financial Literacy/Money, Business/Entrepreneurship and Technology. In today’s digital age, businesses have a great deal of mobility which did not exist before which is highly advantageous. The following contributed post is entitled, How to Make Your Business More Mobile.
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In business, mobility isn’t just a convenience, it’s a competitive advantage. Businesses that can operate seamlessly on the go are better equipped to serve their customers while adapting to change and scaling their operations efficiently.
Whether you’re running a small start up or growing an enterprise, making your business more mobile can significantly boost your productivity and customer engagement levels. If you’re looking to make your business more mobile, let’s take a look at some actionable steps that you can take to get started.
● Move to cloud based systems. The foundation of a mobile friendly business is the cloud. Storing your data, tools and communications in the cloud allows your team to access what they need from anywhere, under any device. Cloud platforms eliminate the need for bulky hardware and enable remote collaboration in real time. By switching to a cloud based communication system like the one Supreme Call offers, you can ensure that your team can handle calls, monitor interactions and analyse data whether they’re in the office, at home or on the move. ● Adopt mobile first tools. Using software that’s designed to work well on smartphones and tablets is important. This includes project management tools like Trello or Asana, cloud storage like Google Drive or Dropbox, messaging platforms like Slack, and CRM systems that have robust mobile apps. By picking the tools that function seamlessly on mobile devices, your team can remain productive no matter where they may be. ● Enable scalable communication. Communication is the backbone of any business and in a mobile environment it needs to be both reliable and adaptable. Tools like Supreme Court offer scalable voice solutions with real time analytics that can help you to track customer interactions and team performance from anywhere. Their system easily integrates with any CRM or business software, giving your team immediate access to caller data and conversion history without switching between platforms. You’ll get a faster service, better customer experiences, and more informed business decisions as a result. ● Train your team for mobile work. Technology is only part of the solution. Your team has to be trained to work effectively in a mobile first environment. This means understanding how to manage their time, communicate clearly and use mobile tools responsibly. Offer training sessions, establish mobile work policies and encourage the use of secure practices when accessing sensitive data. ● Monitor remote performance. Once your business becomes more mobile, you need reliable ways to track performance and customer service quality. This is where real time data analytics becomes essential to you. These insights can help me to make smarter decisions, respond to issues faster, and ensure that you have your mobile operations running smoothly.
Making your business more mobile isn’t about going fully remote, but enabling flexibility and responsiveness with smarter communication tactics. By leveraging the right tools and training your team, you’ll position your business for growth no matter where the work is happening.
My blog focuses on Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. In any business, you have to think about your Return on Investment (ROI). There are different kinds of ROI in the business world. The following contributed post is entitled, The Hidden ROI of Corporate Gatherings.
The ROI of corporate gatherings isn’t fundamentally monetary. There are many other advantages that come from investing in business events for teams, clients, and partners. From improved employee morale to widening networks, here are some transformative examples.
Brand Positioning and Awareness
Companies are often guilty of overlooking the value of internal and external business events. As a long-term marketing asset, these are invaluable and help raise awareness of an organization and its deeds. When considering evergreen promotional material for blogs and magazines, it helps to book event photography services to document the event. This will help raise awareness even more and ensure materials can be used to position the brand in a certain light in a sector.
Increased Morale and Engagement
Employees are the bread and butter of almost every business. The staff must be reliable, competent, and engaged. Engaged employees are far more productive and loyal, and are typically willing to weather a storm alongside the business. However, engaged employees also lead to direct savings when you consider the costs of worker turnover and recruitment. Additionally, engaged employees with higher morale work supremely well as a wider team.
ROI of Corporate Gatherings Renews Purpose
It is known that 65% of businesses don’t last for more than ten years. There are many reasons for this, including losing a sense of purpose as the world changes. To create a superior brand identity that lasts, companies must find what they stand for and be willing to adapt and change:
● Shared experiences can give teams a shared sense of purpose with a common goal. ● Opening a business up to a wider audience and network facilitates new opportunities. ● Events allow companies to refine strategies dynamically in a way that the sector needs.
Mission statements are a valuable part of modern branding, but things change. What was once a core part of a business can become irrelevant through internal and external influence, and even world events. Corporate gatherings can help a company redefine what it stands for.
Networking and Relationships
Pretty much any CEO or business leader will tell you that networking sits among the most important parts of modern business. Cultivating strong relationships with clients, employees, and partners is a critical and necessary part of ensuring a company stays favorable throughout every layer of the corporation. Events allow businesses to book high-value B2B meetings that can accelerate major parts of the organizational structure, including sales and overall growth.
Nurturing Valuable Clients
A deeper level of relationships is needed in certain industries. Some sectors are more client-focused than others, and attracting and retaining these valuable clients is paramount. Law firms and consultancies are a perfect example. Carefully crafted and personalized corporate events that appeal to these clients will significantly deepen ties and strengthen relationships. This puts a business in the enviable position of keeping clients on board with future decisions.
Summary
Brand awareness is a hidden ROI of corporate events that doesn’t relate only to monetary gain. Of course, a company can also find a sense of renewed purpose with events designed around dynamic internal and external change for employees, while nurturing valuable clients, too.
My blog focuses on Financial Literacy/Money. While qualifying for a mortgage and paying it off are major financial moves, many people also face foreclosure and must know how to navigate it. The following contributed post is entitled, What To Do When Facing Foreclosure.
Facing foreclosure on a property is never a pleasant experience. Like most people, you’d rather stay in your home, and you don’t like the idea of being kicked out.
When these situations arise, it can be tempting to panic. However, we’d caution against that. Instead, we suggest taking the most prudent action to increase the likelihood that you can stay in your home.
Contact Your Lender First
Start by contacting your lender as soon as you can and informing them of the situation. Tell them what’s happened and that you’re finding it much more challenging to meet your home payments.
Usually, if you give them enough advanced warning, you can get them to explain options, like loan modification. These will extend the length of the loan and get you to pay back over a longer period, reducing the monthly payments you have to meet.
Understand The Mortgage Terms
At the same time, you should also understand the mortgage terms. Knowing these reduces risks considerably and allows you to assess the cost of getting out of your current deal.
Many mortgages these days are flexible and have special terms that allow you to make significant modifications. These can be a lot of fun to explore and something you’ll want to check out if you’re in a foreclosure situation.
If you can adjust your repayment plans, that’s also a good step to take. You want to make sure that you are doing everything you can right now to protect your cash flow.
Part of this might be to request forbearance. Banks and lenders will sometimes grant these if there’s been a sudden change in circumstance and you’re not as financially secure as you were.
You can also ask the bank if you can use a special payment mechanism to catch up on missed payments over time. Again, these can spread the cost of the mortgage more and give you a chance to adjust your approach.
Consult A Lawyer
If you can speak to a foreclosure attorney, that’s even better. These professionals really understand the law and how it works, giving you many more opportunities to find solutions.
Foreclosures can sometimes come along faster than you anticipate, which throws you off track. Using an attorney can help in these situations because they can protect your rights and ensure you take all necessary legal steps.
Think About Selling Your Home
Another approach is to simply sell your home. Doing this will prevent you from having to deal with the foreclosure costs.
When you sell, you first pay off the mortgage and then you get to keep the extra equity in the property. You can then use this money to downsize substantially and start a new life without the same level of material possessions.
Explore Bankruptcy
Finally, you might want to look into bankruptcy options with a lawyer. Knowing what paths are available to you is essential if you’re in a lot of debt and don’t know what to do about it.
My blog focuses on Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. An important part of real estate is properly structuring contracts for effectiveness and protection. The following contributed post is entitled, Mastering Property Contracts: Key Tips for Buyers and Sellers.
Navigating the property market involves so many different variables that it can be tough for a newcomer to this world to ensure that they are avoiding costly mistakes and securing successful transactions. Whether you are purchasing your dream home or selling an investment property, understanding the intricate nature of contract negotiation will ensure smoother dealings and greater peace of mind within the ever-changing landscape of the property market. Therefore, it’s vital that we understand the numerous components to ensure that we’re well informed, but we’re going into this confident. So very few of us seldom feel that confidence because of the abstract nature of the law, so what do you need to consider?
Consult Legal Support
Absolutely pivotal, one of the most important steps is to consult a real estate lawyer before signing any contract. Property contracts, as we all know, are packed with legal jargon and binding terms. A lawyer can clarify any confusing clauses, read out risks, and ensure your property and interests are protected. They can also provide expert guidance regarding title issues, contingency, and disclosures, making legal representation invaluable, particularly when it comes to preventing disputes and helping you safeguard your rights.
Understand Every Clause
Take the time to read and comprehend each section and condition in the contract. This isn’t easy; however, contracts cover so much more than we realize. It’s not just about the price, but it’s also the deadlines, the inspection contingencies, required repairs, deposit arrangements, and more. Buyers and sellers should ask questions until they’re confident about their obligations, escape clauses, and remedies for breach. It’s very easy to feel intimidated in this setting, but we should never hesitate to clarify so we can ensure that any unclear or unfavorable terms are more transparent, particularly if we have to renegotiate.
Factor in the Survey and Inspection Results
Survey and inspection results can dramatically impact negotiations and the final contract. If an inspection uncovers problems, for example, structural issues or repairs, these can be leveraged to renegotiate price requests, credits, or require that the seller completes repairs before closing. Ultimately, we should make sure these agreements are formally written into the contract, not just discussed verbally.
Use Market Research as a Bargaining Tool
Understanding local property values, trends in the market, and the motivations behind the seller will empower both sides. We should research comparable sales in the area and figure out the time a property has spent on the market, which gives you offers or counteroffers that can mean more favorable terms for everyone. Showing examples and evidence can give you a very useful bargaining chip.
Ensure Everything Is in Writing
When it comes to contract law, verbal promises very rarely mean anything. All agreed-upon changes, concessions, or additions need to be documented in the contract prior to signing, which will eliminate misunderstandings and protect all parties if disputes arise later on.
When it comes to navigating contracts in the property market, you need to approach each one with confidence, so you can achieve a smoother sale or tighter transaction.
My blog focuses on Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. A key to success is keeping track of your business metrics. The following guest post is entitled, Marketing Metrics That Matter: Tracking Success Beyond Vanity Numbers.
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As the ever-evolving virtual landscape churns out new platforms, social media networks, and vain influencers amassing millions of followers seemingly overnight, it can be tempting to go in the same direction as a professional marketer. However, while likes, follows, and virtual shares can rack up quickly, they can also dissolve just as fast without a solid foundation and a message that accurately represents your brand. Understanding vanity metrics, or numbers, and how to track success beyond them is becoming increasingly vital when it comes to brand equity, customer loyalty, and ultimately, revenue generation opportunities.
1. Learn About Vanity Metrics and Their Limitations
Defining the basics of vanity metrics is critical before diving into their potential limitations in any market or industry. Vanity metrics, or vanity numbers, make a brand or business “look” good on the surface. For instance, a brand that appears to have hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of followers may appear more credible, trustworthy, and reputable at first glance than a brand with just 11 followers to start.
However, while vanity metrics provide positive first impressions, they do not always translate into conversions, loyalty, engagement, and long-term revenue.
● Surface-Level Vanity Metrics: Some surface-level vanity metric indicators include social media followers’ sad likes. A high follower count can help reach more users, but only if they have a genuine interest in your brand and business and what it has to offer. ● Traffic Without Reason: If you receive a spike in website visitors without reason, this does not always mean you are “going viral” or that you’ve hit a marketing sweet spot. If your website’s bounce rate is higher than average, you’re likely losing prospective customers or clients before you have a chance to make a sale. ● False Sense of Achievement: If you only utilize vanity metrics to measure the success of your business and brand, you may run into blind spots. Superficial metrics can cause marketers to become complacent, missing out on growth and expansion opportunities.
2. Define Meaningful Metrics for Your Brand
The metrics that matter for your business and brand may not be as significant to another organization. Shifting to more meaningful metrics will help you remain focused on what is most important for your brand and its future.
● Demonstrate ROI: Demonstrating ROI can help appeal to shareholders, partners, and investors. Metrics such as the ROAS, or Return on Ad Spend, along with CPA, or Cost Per Acquisition, can help those involved with your organization see your marketing efforts. ● Data-Driven Decisions: Making data-driven decisions is much easier to do with data such as SQL, or Sales-Qualified Leads, along with the monitoring of CTR, or click-through rates on specific pages of your website. ● Repeat Customers: Determine and calculate the LTV, or Lifetime Value, of each of your customers. This can help you strategize campaigns to generate repeat business in the future. ● Upselling/Cross-Selling: Upselling and cross-selling opportunities can help you capitalize on shopping patterns and/or current market trends, depending on the industry you represent.
3. Prioritize Important Metrics
Determining which marketing metrics are important to you and your brand will vary based on your industry, products, services, and target audience or demographics. There are several core factors that can help you determine the overall efficiency of an existing marketing strategy.
● Cost Per Acquisition (CPA): The CPA, or Cost Per Acquisition, required for you to obtain a new customer or generate a lead, is essential to understand the efficiency of campaigns. When your CPA costs more than the customers’ overall LTV, or Lifetime Value, it may be time to realign and rework your existing marketing strategy. ● Conversion Rate: The conversion rate of your users when reading newsletters, shopping on your eCommerce site, or even adding an item to a cart is essential to track. Stronger conversion rates indicate that your messaging is currently resonating with your intended audience. ● Customer Lifetime Value: Your customer’s lifetime value, or LTV, is the projected net profit you intend to generate from one customer (even after their initial purchase from you). Calculating the LTV of your customers can help with gauging long-term profitability based on existing and future marketing efforts. ● Engagement Metrics: Beyond keeping track of traditional “likes”, “shares”, comments, and “follows”, it’s also important to track comment-to-like ratios and the CTR, or click-through rate of emails you send in your marketing funnels. Engagement metrics are often more telling than traditional vanity metrics and numbers. Engagement metrics help you get to know more about user psychology and how your prospective customers respond to a wide range of promotions and marketing copy.
4. Measure Beyond
Beyond traditional analytics platforms and tools, it’s also important to track brand sentiment to better understand how the digital climate is evolving.
● Social Listening: Social listening involves tracking brand mentions, keywords, and even specific long-tail phrases or hashtags you are focused on. Tracking mentions across blogs, forums, and social media networks provides real-time data and insights. There are also third-party applications and tools available to quickly analyze sentiment and specific keywords relevant to your industry and/or the specific products and services you provide. Platforms like Brandwatch offer powerful social listening and analytics capabilities. Social listening is also beneficial as you are building a loyal following, as it’s much easier to determine which videos and pieces of content resonate best with your current and target audience online. ● Take Action: When you recognize a spike in negative attention or if your brand’s sentiment is trending negatively, you can address the issues before it escalates or spirals out of control with real-time social listening and analytics in action. When marketing a brand or business, utilizing A/B testing is always advisable. A/B testing allows you to launch more than one campaign simultaneously using varying messaging, color schemes, and even different external links. This is one of the best ways to determine which formats resonate best with an intended audience. ● Media: Measuring success goes beyond the digital marketing realm. Monitor industry publications, blogs, and market leaders who have mentioned your company and/or brand. Influencers also play a significant role in today’s marketplace. Follow recognized influencers and authorities in your industry to keep track of potential mentions that endorse or diminish your brand’s name.
Marketing metrics are the foundation of any successful brand and its campaigns, online or off. Yet, as a marketer or entrepreneur, it’s important to understand that not all data points are created equally. While it may be tempting to chase after clout with the use of vanity metrics and numbers, this strategy can be misleading and not always effective long-term. Understanding that any marketing endeavor you partake in is truly powered by real people is key to establishing genuine loyalty that drives meaningful revenue.
Ashley Nielsen
Ashley Nielsen earned a B.S. degree in Business Administration Marketing at Point Loma Nazarene University. She is a freelance writer who loves to share knowledge about general business, marketing, lifestyle, wellness, and financial tips. During her free time, she enjoys being outside, staying active, reading a book, or diving deep into her favorite music.
