Traffic alone, however, does not make a site successful. By "connecting dots" between your marketing programs and end results, you can improve performance. Ultimately, site success depends on how well your site performs with respect to your goals. Measuring actual results against those goals tells you how well your site is succeeding.

Have a Plan

Whatever your Web site goals, a marketing plan helps you better meet them. By including two or three general strategies to meet each goal as well as *specific* programs under each strategy, you are better able to evaluate and improve upon performance.

For example, let's say you make high quality, custom-made scarves and wish to sell them regionally:

* A Web site goal could be to begin selling scarves online and achieve "x" amount of sales in first six months online.

* One general strategy for meeting that goal could be to get site known locally by fashion conscious ladies in your community.

* A specific program to support this strategy could be to hold a contest on your site, with prize being a free, customized scarf. To promote contest, you could issue a press release, which you send to fashion editors, etc.

By taking this funnelled approach - planning down from broad goal to specific program - you are better able to evaluate how well each program supports (or fails to support) your goals.

From start - when you are developing your plan and deciding upon site structure - think about how to measure performance. Measures will differ, depending upon situation, but should be both quantitative and meaningful with respect to helping you improve site performance. Choose a set of measurements that tell you not only how your marketing programs are working but also how well they support Web site goals.

Evaluate Marketing Programs

In order to evaluate a marketing program's success, first decide your objectives. Then, most importantly, "connect dots" between those objectives and your site goals. Later, when analyzing program results, evaluate not only whether program succeeded in meeting objectives, but also how well it moved your business toward its Web site goals.

It is possible to meet a project objective while failing with respect to site goals. A frequent example is traffic generation programs. I often read stories of a business participating in "hit" programs with disappointing results. They reach "hit" objectives, but move closer to site goals.

Consider Return on Investment (ROI)

One way to evaluate marketing project results is through a Return on Investment (ROI) analysis. The ROI is a computation that tells you how much you got back compared to what you put into a project. You can express ROI in terms of a dollar amount or as a ratio. Either way, formula itself is simple.

The dollar amount formula tells how much you increased profit in total dollars as a result of project:

(Cost savings and earnings as a result of project) minus (Dollars invested)

In about 6-10 months or so your company is going to have to subscribe to FTC "Do Not Call" (DNC) list of people that do not want calls. Even if it is an innocent prospecting call your company (& you) can get in trouble. The wife may have answered your ad, husband may have put them on DNC list. Bang.... your company (& you) innocently gets burnt. The fines are pretty noteworthy so be careful.

http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/edcams/donotcall/index.html

Here's my general thoughts on this issue:

1. The leads companies will have to be VERY careful. Anyone selling leads had better make sure that they are truly "waiting to hear from you"....opt-in permissive marketing compliant....fresh....yada yada. Any slip shod harvesting of leads without thorough scrubbing of their viabilty will lead to big trouble. I see a lot of leads companies going under....or just plane being scams hoping to make a quick buck and leave customers holding bag.

2. The number of companies offering leads will likely decrease due to effort, cost, and risk involved to ensure leads are compliant. What will be left could be just a few expensive high quality companies....and a few scams after quick score.

3. Those leads companies that "survive" will pass increased cost on to consumer....you. Meaning cost of leads will likely go up significantly....regardless of source.