Trying to guess at your marketing strategy and effectiveness is a guaranteed way to fail. People and market dynamics are just too complicated. Everything you do in your business will be a test. When you try something that produces good results, you’ll keep it. When you do something that doesn’t produce, you need to stop doing it. Sounds simple, but a surprising number of businesses keep repeating a marketing strategy because its easier, or they don’t have another, or they’ve convinced themselves it’s a good approach with willful disinformation.

To grow your business effectively, it’s vital that you know what is working and what isn’t. There just isn’t enough time, energy, and money to waste on things that produce nothing for your company. Tracking is simply keeping track of what marketing efforts you are using, and exactly how many responses you are getting from each one. Ask customers how they heard about the business, collect coupons, code sales offers and mailing responses. Without this information, you’ll waste a great deal of time and money, and lose even more in missed sales.

Abandoning your program too early can be a waste of money too. Create a sensible plan and try to stick with it long enough to see if it proves itself. How long is that? Three months if you’re lucky, but at least six months. It may take a year.