What Are Non-Quantifiable Tools in Marketing?

A marketing program is the plan you use to make your identified customers aware of your product or services and where they need to go to obtain them. The tools for implementing your marketing goals include advertising, promotions, event marketing or sales events and more. Unfortunately, a majority of marketing tools are non-quantifiable, meaning only your sales results tell you whether your marketing plan is working. Advertising Unless you have a way of capturing information from your customers of how they found out about your business, advertising methods includingradio, television, the Internet or print are not always quantifiable. If you run an advertising campaign in a newspaper, a coupon could help you quantify your advertising results, but otherwise you have no way to determine whether specific advertising efforts are successful. Event Marketing Though a good turnout for a special event can generate traffic, it's hard to quantify the results from event marketing. Local home-improvement events at the county fairgrounds give you a chance to get your home-improvement business name known, hand out some business cards, develop leads and interact with locals, but it's hard to quantify the results from these events. Your business might not see results from your event marketing until months later, long after the event has occurred. Promotional Items Merchandising giveaways such as pens, cup holders and magnets for the refrigerator get your name out there, but if your customers don't use the items you've provided, it could be a waste of money. When you plan to merchandise your business through these promotional items, ensure that the item is something your customer wants, needs or will use. That way, your name stays in front of your customer. Even so, it's hard to quantify the results from the free giveaways you offer customers, other than generating good will. Social Media A new and popular marketing tool is using social media sites, but it's hard to quantify the results of these efforts against your business sales. A "like" button on a social media site hardly constitutes an increase in income, but it does validate your business and helps spread the news. At the end of the business cycle, all of your marketing efforts might result in an increase in sales, but identifying the tool that generated the sale is hard to do. Analyzing Marketing Efforts Compare marketing efforts by calendar date with the sales for that same period to better understand the effects of your marketing programs. For instance, if you ran a radio advertisement for a specific period, review your sales results for that same period. If they were up, there's a good chance your marketing was successful. If you have customers sign up for an email list, offering only those customers email specials can help quantify those efforts.It takes some imagination and trial and error to find the marketing tools that best suit your business.