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Key Marketing Indicators And Tracking Your Marketing Strategy

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A great way to look at your key marketing indicators to understand whether your marketing strategy is working or not is to look at your sales revenue in relation to your key marketing indicators listed below. If your sales are up-it is working. If your sales are down-it is not.

However, this is not enough. Sales revenue alone gives you no feeling for your marketing dynamics and provides no way to focus on the key elements of your marketing operation. Try creating a marketing funnel by looking at the following starting at the top and working your way down the funnel:

1. The size of your market as a whole.
2. What part of the market you cover with your marketing activities.
3. How much of your market coverage can be converted into interested potential buying customers?
4. Measure how many of those potential buying customers actually convert into customers.

This funnel narrows at each step of the process. You can quantify each level of the funnel with key marketing indicators and track how well your strategy is really working or not working and how to correct it.

The key marketing indicators are

Market Size:Your Target Market Population.
Market Growth:Target Market Changes
Market Potential:Business Available from your Target Market with a
Maximum Dollar Value
Market Coverage:Effective Marketing Activities that Reach Your Target
Market
Lead Generation:Quantity of Motivated Potential Buying Customers and
% of Target Market
Lead Conversion:Quantity & % of Leads Converted to Sales
Market Share:Market Share of Business in Your Target Market
Average Sale:The Dollar Amount of Each Average Sale.

To be effective in your marketing strategy, you should measure this information monthly and be consistent in the measurement of this information. To do this more often, the information may be skewed in that there are too many daily variances to get a clear picture and understanding of the underlying dynamics of your market and business practices if you look at the information on a daily or weekly basis.

Monitoring the above information will tell you what is and what is not working in your marketing strategy. You will know if your market is growing or decreasing, in addition to how much business is out there for you and your competitors. You will know if your advertising and other integrated marketing communications are bringing in sufficient numbers of qualified leads for potential buying customers. You will also be able to determine if your market coverage needs to be increased or not and if your sales people are converting leads into customers effectively. You will understand the trends of your business and will be able to spot areas that need more attention than others.

Using this information will allow you to have a complete understanding of your competitive analysis that will give you a solid feel for ways to increase your share of the target market.

When compiling data for your market size, it should consist of the number of people in your target market who meet your demographic study discussed earlier. This information would be updated annually rather than monthly, as it is a demographic comprehensive study of your potential probable customer.

To gather the data for your market growth, consider the average frequency of purchase for your type of product or service. Unless you have great market research at the tips of your fingers, you will have to estimate this one based on your knowledge of your markets and common sense at the same time. In the exhibit industry, I would want to know how often my customer purchases an exhibit item and what they purchase to determine this demographic information.

The next step is gathering Market Potential based on the first three steps in looking at your marketing exposure. Does your marketing reach someone in your target market? If so, the potential buying customer is exposed to your marketing message. A great example is a direct mail piece that has been mailed to 5,000 people and you would have created 5,000 exposures if all the addresses were known and correct. If you do this twice a year, you would be creating 10,000 exposures. Additionally, if you run an advertisement in the local business paper or magazine that reaches 15,000 of your target market customer, then you have created a total of 20,000 total exposures by this time. If you continue to circulate 2,500 newspaper inserts per week for four weeks, then that would be another 10,000 exposures for a grand total of 30,000 exposures to your target market potential customers.

In generating leads, it can be done in many different ways for your company. A lead would be any person who has expressed interest in your business or its products and/or services by walking into your store or showroom, submitting an email, responding to your direct mail or viral marketing piece, making a telephone inquiry indicating interest in your product and/or service, or filling out a call to action form on your web site responding to a product and/or service inquiry. This person would be considered more than someone in your target market because they exhibited a motiivation to buy and an interest in your product. Leads are a process of someone having already begun to work their way through the Purchase Decision Buying Cycle and have made an expressed interest in working with your company.

When you convert these leads to sales, you have already most likely collected sales information by this time. For the purpose of tracking your marketing strategy, you will need the exact number of each sales transaction and the number of each lead generated to calculate your true lead conversion rate.

When compiling your sales dollar totals, you can find this on your business financial statements or in your sales reports in your accounting program. This information represents one type of marketing data most people can find fairly well.

Now that you have created your key marketing indicators, it is time to use metrics and evaluate this information to keep you informed of what your quantification efforts are and will give you accurate, objective and an ownership point of view of your business rather than the usual collection of random numbers with personal impressions most small business owners rely on. You will know what your business is doing and what to do about it. You will be able to constantly adapt to change by being in the know of your business strategies and using metrics for quantifying your data.

This is the last section of What is Marketing Strategy and Why is it Important? I hope you found each of the six components to your marketing strategy of value and will use this information to grow and strengthen your business by using metrics along the way.

Employment Background Screening

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About fifty years back, hiring a person was a simple process. All you had to do after receiving the application was a quick cross reference with previous employers and hire the person. In many cases, even that was not done; people were hired simply because a neighbor or a friend had something good to say about them. Hiring was a matter of gut instinct.

Not any longer. Today, this casual attitude towards hiring your employees could cost you billions of dollars in lost lawsuits.

A security agency had to pay $3 million after their guard had stolen from a client. Subsequent checks revealed that the employee had a colorful criminal record. ?A sales firm had to pay $175,000 in negligent hiring lawsuits when its sales representative was caught forging signatures.

Many companies have lost millions of dollars in negligent hiring lawsuits because they did not uncover vital information through employment background screening.

The Society for Human Resource Management says that 95% of HR professionals in charge of hiring employees conduct employment background screening before they hire. This is a whopping 35% increase from the 60% who used to screen employees in the 1990s. There seems to be a reason for this sudden jump: more than 40% of job applications submitted in the US contain false or fabricated data. More than 9% of the employees who have agreed to get their backgrounds checked are hiding criminal histories. Thus, it is obvious that hiring is contingent on successful employment background screening.

A thorough employment background screening exposes information that was intentionally withheld or mistakenly omitted. Often, employees embellish the truth, particularly when it comes to educational qualification, expertise or experience. Such hidden information may have serious repercussions if it is discovered in a tricky situation. Needless to say, access to such data will stop you from hiring antisocial elements.

Employment background screening consists of a number of checks: background checks, drug tests and psychometric testing. This helps employers ascertain claims regarding qualification, education, previous employment and criminal history. It also helps them uncover any blemished in the person’s character.

Background searching services are offered by a large number of online services and private investigators. When choosing the right company, select a company that has access to a wide network of information. Most screening companies retrieve data from a common pool of data stored with government agencies. They then dig further for criminal history, credit data, sexual offense registration information and other sensitive material. All the data collected on the potential employee is then compiled into a single background check report. The company you employ must be able to give you quick results, because you obviously don’t want to lose a good employee to your competition.

Whether you conduct an in-house background screening or employ the services of a background screening company, it is necessary to go through the claims of your potential employee with a fine-toothed comb. Companies that fail to perform their due diligence before hiring may have to close shop if the worst happens.

The leather jacket in popular culture

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Leather jackets occupy a unique place in fashion history. Theyre one of the few items of clothing that almost never go out of style, even though they do experience phases in their popularity.

This is partly because of the special place leather jackets occupy in popular culture, particularly in films. If youre wondering how the leather jacket became so cool, heres a quick introduction.

The history of the leather jacket

Leather jackets are commonly thought to have been popularised by the military and pilots in the early 20th century. Indeed, some of the most iconic images of leather jackets are from World War Two, when they were nicknamed “bomber jackets” since they were worn by fighter pilots. During the war, leather jackets were reinforced with thick insulation, to protect pilots from cold weather while flying. However, leather jackets were also said to be popular in Russia with the Bolsheviks, and the exact origins are often disputed.

The popularity of leather jackets in the immediate post-war period is often attributed to a combination of their wartime importance and their appearance on film. David Niven, for instance, glamorously sported a bomber jacket in the film A Matter of Life and Death (1946), in which he played a RAF pilot. Actor Jimmy Stewart a real-life US bomb squadron leader during the war also wore one in the 1957 film Night Passage, as did Marlon Brando in The Wild One (1953).

But the most famous wearer of leather biker jackets in the 1950s was James Dean. His iconic turns in films like Rebel Without a Cause, coupled with his tragic death, only helped to boost the stylishness of the fashion item.

Leather jackets after the 1950s

Punk bands like the Ramones kept leather jackets fresh in the 1970s, as did films like Grease and the TV series Happy Days. And Tom Cruises fleece-collared leather jacket in Top Gun sparked a new trend in the 1980s. Leather jackets are still popular today, though they have largely lost the associations with the military. And since they are generally quite warm, leather jackets have become a practical choice as well as a stylish one with many people across the UK.

Traditionally, leather jackets are made from animal hide. Today, leather jackets may be made from this material, but are more likely to consist of an imitation material like PVC or polyurethane. As a result, theyre usually vegan friendly and often cheaper than those made from real animal hide.

Prize Bonds Investment And Interesting Facts

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Our family (including Late Father) has been investing in prize bonds for last thirty years when there were 5, 10 and 11 rupees prize bonds. I was a little boy at that time. My father won two big prizes but I never won any big prize. I request Pakistani government to eliminate 10 percent tax on the national prize bonds prizes. We hardly win few prizes and pay huge tax on it.
We are invigorating Pakistani government by our prize bonds investment but government never encouraged us. After all it is our own obsession since government did not force us to purchase prize bonds. Can you believe it that I did not win a single prize on my Rs. 750 prize bonds draw despite having 800 prize bonds? There looks manipulation in these draws. Government should generate random computerized numbers lists instead of using these Heavy Mechanical Complex mechanical machines.

I am not claiming it due to any grudge. It is scientifically proved. Go to the URL http://www.savings.gov.pk/draws.asp and download lists and see how badly skewed many of the lists are. Statistical dispersion is high. Ask any statisticians and check all lists. Such skewed lists indicate corruption. People can fix many prizes in limited numbers. Computer can generate evenly distributed random numbers
I am loser on my investments with Pakistani government. I earned very little return on prize bonds investment during last twenty years. However, our loss is nothing in comparison with our loss in Bahria Town (Pvt.) and stock exchange investments. Anyhow, I am in the process of changing prize bonds with government securities which gives fix return.

I learnt strange thing about prize bonds today. On April 16, 2012, I checked my 47 prize bonds of Rs. 750. There was no prize but these bonds did not win any prize for last 13 since the time they were issued during 1999 to 2003. Are these any blocked numbers? Many of them were of series 097900+. Government issue many bonds of same numerical numbers with different alphabetical serials. So see how much they could save if they block serials which they issue. I am not sure but it is my apprehension. We often take prize bonds from State Bank, Lahore. Less chance of prize may be due to huge serial of 1,000,000 (a million). In the past total numbers of bonds were 100,000. By the way Pakistani government sometimes cannot pay employees salaries how they will pay profit.

Next Generation India – beyond servicing, drive the world with innovation…Where is Odisha’s share

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India, as a nation, is going through a transformative stage during the past 2 decades. On the IT-related business front, India has made great strides by creating software giants like Wipro, Infosys, Mindtree, TCS, Cognizant etc., and many more smaller companies sprung across the country of more than 1.2billion people. The entire world respects India for her leadership in services industry – means doing more with less than the rest of the world can do.

How did India get there? It is because India’s educated graduates with good English speaking skills substantially contributed to the revenue of the country – from a foreign currency deficit country to foreign currency surplus country. But as world becomes flat, doing services business in other parts of the globe like Africa, China and Russia becomes competitive, and things move to those countries too. So what is next for India? How can India go to the next level? Let us take the special note that it is just the education system of the India has contributed to where India is now, but to go to the next level, we need to change the way we educate our kids now. When can a country of 1.2billion people step up to architect and develop world-class products instead of servicing to the successful manufacture of somebody else’s product? When can the universities in India germinate companies like Google, Facebook and Yahoo. This is not an easy task – it comes from the way the minds are cultured.

So how do we culture such minds to innovate? It is a long nurturing process – a combination of the society around us, the education system around us. Is our society business friendly? Does our parents encourage us working for ourselves or working for somebody else? Does the environment around us encourage to take my passion to the next level? Probably not.

Based on the Kaufmann foundation, America’s non-profit promoting entrepreneurship, 500,000 people started companies in America in 2009 alone in the midst of global recession. The venture funding has created 35 million jobs in America during the past 35 years until 2005. Based on a recent Survey, young people between the age of 8 through 24 likes to start companies, thus contribute to the community. This age group believes that better community is built with the quality of people plus the small businesses in the area – not by the government and not be the mega companies. This itself speaks something about the way education happens in America. Most parents encourage their children to take up high profile government jobs like administrative services etc. and private jobs in large so-called multinational firms. The job security is still a curse in disguise around the country. The education system tells us what has happened, but not how and why certain things happened.

An concerted effort needs to be built to inform people, educate people, and tell them that what see around them is not the whole world. Demonstrate them how to make money, how to make investments, go by examples. The government may consider starting a course on entrepreneurship and social values at the high school level. This is where the global organized effort is required, and so global organizations – InvestBhubaneswar and TiE Bhubaneswar are required.

In contrast, if we look at major US universities like Stanford and Harvard, the culture is different. There is no bureaucracy, and everybody is called by their first name, and everybody commands respect by the capabilities. The professor position is not a permanent position until the professor demonstrates his/her capabilities during the first several years of the career to get tenure. Being in Silicon Valley, in the midst of world class startups who have made it big to create billion-dollar companies creating employment for best-minds around the world, I must say that it is the society and education that matters. The Stanford University in Silicon Valley fosters an environment for the minds to bring out the best. The university strives to attract the best minds around the world – not limited to home country, and then have the best minds around the world interact in one environment conducive to innovate. When innovation happens, this gets translated into business. That is how CISCO, Yahoo, Google and several others started. It is to be noted that Stanford University is not supported by government, but is a private university that lives off of endowments from its long list of patrons and tuition fees.

How long will a country of more than a billion people only be driven by the world by providing services instead of driving the world with class products proudly saying – Made in India? Why cannot India create the conducive atmosphere to attract the best minds of the world even leave their mother country to immigrate to India, and help innovate? I think India can do this, and it is the private sector, who could more efficiently do this than government. As long as governments sets policies right, clears hurdles fast as they come, treats and cares for the businesses with dignity, it will work. Currently, India is trying to get innovation universities around the country, but does the country have the right mind-set – even if policies exist, to create innovation universities like Stanford University in the current context. Probably the answer is no. When IIT kind of elite institutions are marred by irregularities, how can we expect them to innovate? In several cases, the top decision makers of such institution does not have the vision and capability to make the right call for key positions. When you approach such schools to innovate, first item on the agenda that comes up is the money that you can put on the table for your activities, and then talk about innovation with the industry. This comes from people who do not have any intention to do any good for the society at the end of the day, no respect for innovation, and no motive to innovate. When innovation university comes up, most likely such people become the heads of innovation universities, and so you can imagine what is next. Just to put in context, why are private institutions like Indian School of Business in Hyderabad and Great Lakes Institutes of Management, Chennai doing better than government-run IIMs. It is the vision and passion of the people behind such institutions to only create the best. And it comes with a price, which is worth it. As a matter of fact, Government cannot create such institutes of excellence in the modern era. By the time Government springs into action taking its own time, several processes may be already obsolete.

In India context, the proposed Vedanta University, with the large endowment from one of the world’s billionaires, has the vision and the financial strength to create the best in class university similar to Stanford and Harvard in US. Looking by the vision plan of the university, it seems conclusive that this is an opportunity of a lifetime for the local people in India to get bestowed upon such a world-class university. The university has the layout to attract the best minds – both students and faculties to the university, and the preserved nature of greenery and rivers, and ocean is key to free-flowing of the minds to dream and innovate. The self-contained campus ensures everything in a striking distance conducive for a 24×7 research environment, providing safety and atmosphere to the staff and their families. Just imagine, when innovation happens, businesses shape up around it, and thus creating high-paying jobs in the area, and in return creating several support downstream jobs.

Currently, it is Puri, the coastal town of Odisha is lucky to have been chosen for the university. Living in silicon valley for decades close to the Stanford University do realize what it takes to build a university of Stanford’s stature, and happy to learn that a similar university, Vedanta University, is coming up in Puri, Odisha. It is up to the local people to realize themselves the benefits of such an university in their city, co-operate only to expedite the set up of this university, create world-class employments in their city, and thus helping to shape up the future of Puri like Silicon Valley in California, USA.

Purna Mohanty is a member of the Invest Bhubaneswar effort to globally brand Odisha as a business destination, an entrepreneur and semiconductor professional based in Silicon Valley, CA.
This initiative by- Invest Bhubaneswar is supported by SEO service provider AuroIN LLC.