Are you getting the most out of your marketing budget?

You probably spend a lot of money on marketing. The website. The Yellow Pages ad. Those brochures. Listings in professional directories. That email newsletter that seemed like such a good idea a couple of years ago. Attendance at all those networking sessions. It adds up.

We're in a recession. Business is probably down. Now is not the time to cut your marketing budget. But it IS the perfect time to make sure you're getting the most out of it.

Make a list of each of your marketing activities. Calculate how much each one costs. Then determine how much business you got from each activity and do a little analysis.

Which ones are working for you, are bringing you the customers or clients that you want? Do more of that.

Which marketing efforts aren't helping grow your business? Figure out why not. Then drop those activities, or revise them to make them more effective.

But what if you don't know how effective your marketing is? Start collecting some data.

1. Find out where your new customers or clients came from. Ask how they heard about you. Website? Referral? Yellow Pages? That information should be part of your standard intake procedure. Don't just ask the question, record the answer in a way that's easy to tally.

2. Find out how much traffic your website is getting. Sign up for Google Analytics (it's free) and get your webmaster to put the required snippet of code on your home page.

3. If you're sending out an email newsletter, track which offers or messages are most effective. If you're asking people to go to your website to learn more, a separate landing page can help you track response rates.

4. If you've placed an ad with an online directory, ask for traffic reports: how many people searched for the category you're in, how many people viewed your listing, and so forth.

In a month, start looking at your data. What does your intake data tell you? How are people finding you?

Check your Google Analytics reports. How many visitors came to your site? How did they find you (search results, links, etc.). How much time did they spend on your site? What pages did they read?

Based on what you learn, you can start making changes and decide the most effective use for those marketing dollars.