While limited budgets remain a challenge, 50% of small businesses now say rising costs top their list of concerns this year. If there’s no wiggle room to expand your budget, you can get more impact out of it by testing your marketing tactics to find what works best and generates the most leads.
Successful marketing is all about knowing which activities drive specific types of leads and which tactics are creating the most influential touchpoints along the customer journey. Uncover these insights by testing out your own tactics, gathering customer feedback, and tracking lead attribution to see what’s engaging your target audience.
Run test campaigns and scale top performers
One way to test out a new marketing channel or tactic for your business is to first run a pilot program to see how well it performs for your audience and how many quality leads it brings in. You’ll be able to see initial results and use them to decide whether you want to continue, without wasting valuable resources on an unproven tactic.
Potential marketing channel pilot campaigns could be:
- Marketing on a new social channel, like LinkedIn or Pinterest
- Running paid promotions on a social channel for the first time
- Targeting a new keyword for your Google Ads
- Running an ad in a local print magazine
Set a small test budget when you’re running a new ad campaign or promoting content for the first time on a new social channel. For example, say you’re a local pool company that wants to explore Instagram for the first time. Instead of dedicating the maximum budget possible to a brand new channel, start with something smaller, and gauge what kind of performance you’re getting first.
If your new strategy doesn’t work, you’ll know early on and won’t waste money. If a new strategy does work, you can build it out.
Your test budget should be relative to your overall marketing budget. For small businesses, many allocate between $5,000 and $15,000 per month for marketing. That means a test budget for a new campaign—whether a social media ad, PPC, or video campaign—might start at 5-10% of your monthly marketing budget. Testing for at least one month gives you the data you need to make informed adjustments before scaling.
Pay close attention to key performance indicators (KPIs) like conversion rates for qualified leads and cost per click (CPC) on digital channels. Focus on KPIs that matter most to you and the quality of leads coming through to get a true idea of how impactful a new campaign really is for your business.
If your new strategy doesn’t work, you’ll know early on and won’t waste money running a fully-fledged campaign just for it to fall flat. If a new strategy does work, you can build it out and dedicate more budget to it, increase your ad spend, or start posting content more frequently.
A/B test variables across your channels
A/B testing is a great way to see which aspects of your existing marketing tactics are delivering a strong ROI and which can be improved. You begin an A/B test by isolating one very specific variable in your marketing and testing two different versions side by side. A/B testing helps you optimize each tactic and figure out what specific changes are going to resonate with your audience so you can bring in more qualified leads.
There are many variables you can A/B test. Some common ones include:
- Keywords
- Target audience filters for ads
- Email subject lines
- Call-to-action (CTA) button colors
- CTA button language
- Google Ad background images
A/B tests are a great method because they’re relatively low effort and can give you insights almost immediately. Here are four easy steps for running an A/B test yourself:
- Select one variable to change. Decide if you want to test CTA button colors in an email or different types of imagery in a brochure. Create two versions that reflect those changes.
- Split your audience in half and launch version A to one half and version B to the other. Launch your test with different audience groups, such as two separate email lists, or simply run two different ads side by side on Google or out-of-home (like a billboard).
- Measure relevant metrics. Use metrics like click-through rates and conversions to decide your winner. You can also use software like call tracking to determine which version in your A/B test is bringing in more qualified leads for both digital and traditional media.
- Implement changes. Based on those results, proceed with the version that’s generating more conversions and leads for your business.
Run customer and audience surveys
Surveys are tools you can use to pose questions to your audience anonymously and receive feedback related to your business, marketing and sales tactics, and customer satisfaction. They can help you get a pulse on how familiar people are with your business and how loyal your customers are to figure out if your marketing strategy is making a tangible impact.
They also give you a chance to gather feedback on your customer experience or buyer’s journey to uncover which marketing touchpoints have the most value in terms of generating the highest-quality leads.
To test your marketing, you can deploy surveys at various points along the customer journey. For example, you could send quarterly or yearly surveys to your email contacts asking which educational content pieces they find most helpful.
Run a survey using a tool like Google Surveys to test your business’s recognition and recall among your target audience. Your survey might ask respondents to name all of the brands they can think of in your particular industry or ask them to check off brands they recognize from a provided list.
Apply insights from survey results to adjust marketing tactics so they’re more effective. If you’ve been running product or brand promotions and results aren’t showing great recall, you know you need to adjust messaging or try different marketing channels. While surveys can provide useful insights to improve the buyer’s journey and customer experience, tools like call tracking and form tracking show you exactly which marketing materials drove prospects to call your business or submit a form, without needing to ask. Features like self-reported attribution can also reveal previously untrackable sources, such as personal referrals, giving you a more complete picture of your lead sources and marketing performance.
Track and attribute leads to marketing tactics
The ultimate goal of your testing and your overall marketing strategy should be to attract qualified leads that match your ideal customer profile. Use marketing attribution to pinpoint which activities are driving the highest-quality leads.
Many small and medium-sized businesses are fielding more calls than ever. According to CallRail’s research, the top three sources driving prospects to call businesses are Google Ads (37%), Google Business Profile (23%), and organic search (22%). With so many leads coming from digital channels, it’s more important than ever for small businesses to quickly qualify calls and focus on the ones that are the best fit for their services.
Marketing attribution and call tracking software show you which marketing channels, tactics, campaigns, and ads are driving calls to your business. Pinpoint exactly what qualified leads are interacting with along your buyers’ journey to see which materials have the highest value for you. Amplify those tactics to bring in more quality leads, and eliminate tactics and channels that are not driving the same quality phone calls to your business.
In addition to Call Tracking, you can unlock deeper insights with Premium Conversation Intelligence™. This AI-powered tool automatically provides conversation summaries, flags key moments, and identifies customer sentiment, helping you pinpoint what drives prospects to call and which conversations lead to sales. By understanding the emotional tone and intent behind your calls, you can refine your marketing strategy to attract more of the leads that matter most.
Tip: On average, customers using Call Tracking and Conversation Intelligence experience a 200% - 400% return on investment within just one year, according to independent research of the CallRail platform.
You can also use tools like Convert Assist — which uses AI to generate follow-up messages, conversation coaching, and action items — based on customer conversations. Voice Assist then helps you handle calls more efficiently by automating common tasks like lead qualification or appointment scheduling.
Discover what’s driving your best leads with CallRail
CallRail can help you uncover which marketing tactics are driving qualified leads, improve lead quality, and make sure your marketing efforts deliver measurable, high-impact results.
Wondering if your marketing tactics and campaigns are working for your small business?
