Your Very Own Progress Report

With all that you're doing to grow, promote, improve, and market your startup...do you actually know how well you're doing?

Sure, people are visiting, leads are coming in, you're acquiring users. But how are the results actually panning out?

Even when things are going well (or not), we need to assess our progress compared to...ourselves. Not to feel bad, not to generate more marketing headaches, not to beat ourselves up (which in marketing we'll do regardless), but to see our progress clearly and start asking the questions that help us understand what we want to achieve.

Have I improved from last week? If yes, what changed? If not, what brought on the decline?

Are results this week distinguishable from two weeks ago? What changed, and why?

If the trajectory is positive, figure out what drove it and how you can rinse, repeat, duplicate, and improve. If you're seeing a downward spiral, figure out what was done differently to cause it and how to avoid it.

Sometimes it was a fluke, a seasonal shift, a technical issue, or something that happened completely outside your control.

Whatever the reason: doesn't it interest you to find out so you can learn from it and get better? Shouldn't you adopt a 'Yes, and' approach, accept what happened, and adapt accordingly?

This ongoing optimization mindset is a constant in marketing. Sometimes it's euphoric, sometimes it's painful, and most of the time it's more than worth it.