You have a website. You are listed in multiple directories. Your Facebook page and Twitter feeds stay active. You spoke to the Rotary Club and your local Chamber of Commerce. You send an email newsletter once a month to your list of subscribers. And you blog your little fingers off every other week.
A good estimate of your marketing time spent might be 20 hours a month. A good estimate of your marketing costs might be an average of $200 a month.
It’s worth every penny and every minute because you stay busy with new and existing clients…. right?
Maybe not! How do you know?
You know if you ask and track. It’s that simple!
When you get a phone call from a prospective new client, then among the first questions you ask that person should be,
How did you hear about me?
And the next thing you should do is record their answer.*
Track for a little while – probably a minimum of a month, and then assess the answers against where your money and efforts are going. If you take a look at the tracking at right, it’s pretty obvious where your efforts can be saved, or where they could be multiplied.
- Your website is working – people are finding it – and everyone needs a website anyway. It’s cost is serving you well.
- Your listing in AdvoConnection is your most successful marketing, so obviously your efforts and money are serving you well.
- People are responding to your newsletter. The cost and effort are worth it.
- Facebook is working well for you. Even if you are only posting to it on occasion (not spending money on FB ads) then it’s worth your time.
- Your presentation to the Rotary Club – those talks are worth your time for exposure and often have a long-term return. Assess when you spoke against when people called you. But notice that no one mentioned hearing about you through your time spent at the Chamber of Commerce. Tuck that knowledge away for later when they ask you to return.
- And Twitter? Again, assess the amount of time you are spending against its return. Is there a better way to invest your time?
You might track over different periods: monthly, quarterly, annually. You can compare month to month and year to year. But overall, this simple tracking should give you a great idea of where your time and money should continue to be spent – and when and where they shouldn’t.
And, you may want a different system from paper and pencil, but don’t use a system that will cost you time by itself. KISS! (Keep it simple, sweetheart 🙂 )
Ask and track! It’s good business.
*Don’t ever accept just one answer to the question of where they heard about you. Dig a little deeper. It’s very likely they heard about you in once place, and then looked you up, so that’s at least two places they heard about you. And, you need to know all the ways your marketing is supporting your new client contacts.
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