When a potential client asks whether their current marketing plan is working, the first thing we ask is how they’re tracking the information.
Digital tracking can help connect an advertisement or website visit with an inquiry or purchase, although it won’t capture every influence on that customer’s decision. Traditional media can be more difficult to pinpoint, especially when a business advertises through several outlets.
The tracking system you use has to match the time and ability your business is willing to put into it.
Ask customers how they heard about you
If you have a larger operation, like a car dealership, bank, or insurance office, customers may already be filling out initial paperwork. You could include a question asking, “How did you first hear about us?”
You can provide options or leave it open for them to answer in their own words.
For a smaller mom-and-pop business, a questionnaire might be too much. It could be easier to ask during conversations with customers when they come in.
When the conversation allows, you can also ask, “What made you decide to visit or contact us today?”
Those questions can tell you different things. Someone may have known about your restaurant for years but decided to come in because of a weekday special.
You won’t necessarily be able to ask everyone. But you can start learning from the conversations you’re already having.
You don’t need a fancy method
You could keep a sheet near the cash register and put a mark next to the place a customer mentions. Date the sheet or start a new one each week so you know when those answers were collected.
The important thing is having somewhere to record the answers, rather than trying to remember them later. Choose something you and your staff can realistically keep doing.
If you only ask a few customers, treat their answers as clues rather than a picture of everyone who visits.
Someone might mention a friend even though they also saw your ad. Their answer is useful, but it may not tell the whole story.
Look for information you can use
Knowing more about your customers can help you decide which services, specials, or information to share with them.
For example, imagine your business publishes a blog post explaining how to fix a specific item in someone’s home. If a customer tells you they read that article before calling your service business, that gives you a reason to explore more content on the subject.
One customer doesn’t establish that every similar post will work. But it gives you something useful to investigate.
Look for repeated answers and connections between what you’re publishing, what customers ask about, and the inquiries or sales you receive.
Use what you learn
Review the answers alongside your inquiries and sales for the same period. Consider what you spent and how much time went into the marketing, too.
The source customers mention most often isn’t automatically the best investment. You also want to understand whether those inquiries turn into business and whether the return makes sense for the cost and effort involved.
You don’t need to track everything perfectly before you can learn something useful. Start with a method you can maintain, and use what you learn to decide what to continue, change, or investigate further.
