Have you ever jumped from one activity to the next because you’re unsure what type of marketing you should be doing?

Maybe you tried a particular activity that failed, so you quickly pivoted to something new.

Or perhaps you got distracted by the latest trend and tried to get the same results you saw others obtaining online.

Whatever the reason, I want you to remember this…

Marketing success is achieved through a continuous cycle of testing and improvement.

Even if you feel like your recent marketing campaign was a complete failure, there will always be something that worked well and that you can build upon and improve the next time.

However, the thing is, if you keep jumping to the next thing or starting over again from scratch…

And if you don’t build and improve upon what you’ve already tested in your market… you’ll only slow down your business growth.

And worse still.

If you aren’t measuring and tracking your marketing performance to determine what type of marketing would work best, you won’t just slow down your growth…

You’ll likely also struggle to see a sustainable and profitable return on your marketing investment.

I often hear people in my community say they don’t know what’s working well (and what’s not) regarding their marketing.

And I worry that this missing information is massively getting in the way of them growing their service business sooner.

It means they’ll stay stuck at the same level each month because they don’t know what marketing activities they should focus on to see better results.

And they don’t realise that you don’t have to start all over again (and waste time) to achieve the outcomes they want and deserve.

However, you can start asking a few questions and tracking simple measures to give you the insights you need to grow faster.

Yes, putting this tracking process in place will require time, effort and perhaps investment.

But it will be worth it over the long term when you start marketing your business more effectively and efficiently and free up time so you can spend it doing what you really enjoy.

So, where do you start?

And how can you figure out what type of marketing you should be doing in your service business to achieve success sooner?

In the post below, I outline five ways to figure out what type of marketing activities you should do to market your business more effectively and eliminate the marketing guesswork once and for all!

1. Add a question to your new client contact form or questionnaire

If you want to know what type of marketing is working well in your service business, start by asking your potential and new clients.

A simple thing you can do is add a question to your online contact form that asks them, ‘How did you first hear about me’ or ‘Where did you first hear about my services’.

If possible, I recommend adding a few drop-down responses to make answering the question easy.

The responses will help you realise what marketing activities are working the best to generate awareness, so you can focus on doing more.

If your enquiries don’t come via your website, you could add the same type of question to your new client survey as part of your onboarding process.

Not sure where to start when it comes to marketing your service-based small business? That’s where I can help. Get started by downloading my free Ultimate Marketing Checklist by clicking the button below:

2. Monitor your competition

It’s essential to be aware of your competitors so that you can monitor the type of marketing activities they’re doing.

If you see multiple people in your industry implementing a specific type of marketing, it will likely work well for you.

However, it’s not always possible to determine the true success of your competitor’s marketing activities, as you can’t see behind the scenes.

So, remember to be mindful of this before you decide to implement the same.

3. Track your sales leads and enquiries

If you don’t have a way to measure your leads currently, then you need to implement one that is manageable for your business.

To do this, start by determining what you would count as a lead.

For many service businesses, this is a new subscriber to their email list. Or a new member who has joined their Facebook group.

Alternatively, it could be the number of people who sign up for an event or visit your website’s sales pages.

You may have various sources of leads that you want to count weekly or monthly (whatever best suits your business).

As you start to track these leads, you’ll see which marketing channels or lead magnets are working best to deliver leads for your business.

You can use this insight to inform your marketing plan and decide what type of marketing you should do more (and less) of.

RELATED: 7 Marketing metrics every service business owner should track

4. Analyse your website data and insights

You’ll need to have a Google Analytics 4 tracking code installed on your website to track your website data and insights.

This tracking code will enable you to see where your website traffic is coming from to see the impact of the marketing activities you’re investing in.

If you see a significant spike in a particular marketing channel, such as social media, you can refer to what you posted on that day to enhance your content.

You’ll also be able to see how many people visited your website’s booking or sales pages, which is a critical first step for someone buying from you.

If you’re blogging and using search engine optimisation (SEO) to generate leads, I recommend verifying your website on Google Search Console.

This online tool will let you see what SEO keywords drive the most traffic to your site.

Not sure where to start when it comes to marketing your service-based small business? That’s where I can help. Get started by downloading my free Ultimate Marketing Checklist by clicking the button below: 

5. Understand your strengths and what you enjoy

Lastly, I recommend reflecting on your strengths when it comes to business and aligning your marketing activities with these.

For example, if you enjoy and are good at writing, blogging may be a great type of marketing for you.

However, if you don’t enjoy writing, it will be challenging for you to maintain good habits around your marketing because you’ll try to avoid it.

In this scenario, it may be better to consider podcast or video content to raise awareness instead.

When you’re implementing marketing activities that you enjoy, you’ll find yourself doing them more often and executing them better, which will help your results.

RELATED: How to start a blog for your service-based small business

Figuring out the most effective marketing strategies for your service business is crucial for sustainable growth.

So, rather than constantly jumping from one marketing activity to another or starting from scratch, adopting a continuous testing and improvement mindset is essential.

When you implement the steps above, you can eliminate the guesswork from your marketing and achieve better results.

While implementing these steps may require time, effort, and investment, it’s also important to remember that the long-term benefits of effective marketing outweigh the initial challenges you may face.

Tired of trying to figure out what you’re missing when it comes to finding clients and making sales in your service business?

Break through the barriers that are holding you back with the support of an MBA-qualified Marketing Coach and Business Mentor who will tailor a 1:1 program specifically for you.

BUSINESS BREAKTHROUGH is a 3 or 6-month 1:1 Coaching Program for service-based business owners who want to develop the strategy, systems, and structure they need to find clients and make sales, so they can stop feeling stuck and start gaining massive momentum in their business.

Did you find this blog post helpful? Don’t forget to PIN to Pinterest and share on Facebook.