After implementing a new marketing strategy, you don’t want sit back and hope it’s working – especially if you’re paying for it! In this article I’ll cover a few ways to know if you’re marketing efforts are paying off.

First and foremost, start a marketing calendar. It is unlikely that you will be able to remember what you did three weeks or months ago that resulted in an increase in traffic. If you track your activities on a marketing calendar, you can quickly refer back to specific dates and figure out what could have contributed to the increase in traffic or sales.

Second, track the traffic coming into your shop. Set up Google Analytics if you haven’t already for your shop and blog. Google Analytics is very user friendly and contains valuable statistics such as where your traffic is coming from, how long pople stay on your site, and what time of they day they visited your site. It makes it almost a no brainer to follow the trends in your traffic.

Third, although you may think that a mere increase in traffic increases the probability for a sale, this isn’t always the case. If the people who are finding your shop aren’t in your target audience, you’ll need to switch up your strategy. An increasing in traffic is certainly nice, but you need to target people who are actually interested in your items. Don’t waste money and time with broad marketing strategies. Although you may get lucky and score a sale or two using broad marketing strategies, you will have spent more resources than the few “luck of the draw” sales are worth. Figure out who your target audience is and focus your efforts there.

Forth, if you have a steady increase in sales, you can assume something is working for you. To find out what that something is do a bit of research by check your marking calendar and your Google Analytics stats. Additionally, if you have an ArtFire shop you can see what website people surfed to your shop from under your studio stats.

Fifth, give your marketing strategies enough time to work effectively. The typical turn around time for most marketing plans is 3 months. Make sure you give your strategies at least this amount of time to work. During those three months you might not start to see an increase in traffic or sales until late in the 2nd month. Hang in there to know for sure if your marketing strategy is working.

Sixth, start with the right information. I cannot stress this enough. If you start a marketing strategy that is costing you money or a decent amount of time, make sure you’ve researched it enough to know what the odds of it working for your are. There are a lot of “quick solutions” offered out there – many of which cost a pretty penny. Don’t be tricked into thinking that buying the latest “e-book” is going to solve all your marketing dilemmas. There is enough cost-free information on the Internet to get you started in the right direction. If you are well informed of a strategy before you try it, you’re more likely to succeed at using it effectively, and less likely to waste time and money on something that’s not right for your business.

Seventh, ask your customers what they think. Feedback from a non-bias source may be scary to hear, but it’s crucial to knowing what you’re doing right – and what might need some tweaking. Be careful not to bombard your customers with requests for their opinion, but do ask for it at some point. Everyone likes to know that his or her opinion matters so why not use this to your advantage? Use your creative muscle to find fun and unique ways of getting your customers talking. This can also become a promotional plus for you if they are spreading the word about how great your handmade goods are and how much you really care about your customers!

In summery, track what you’re doing, find out where your traffic and sales are coming from, and do your research before diving in head first!

Photos courtesy of Aunti Frannis Sunny Day Embroidery on ArtFire.com, Huckleberry Arts on ArtFire.com and Notty Pooch on ArtFire.com.