Making your advertising accountable and why its not straight forward as you might think
Trying to figure out which of your marketing activities is working and which isn’t is a minefield which has puzzled businesses for years.
“We know parts of our advertising is working, we just don’t know which parts”.
In an ideal world we would only put our money into the advertising that we categorically 100% know IS delivering results.
And, if I had to give one piece of advice that would be it.
But it’s a little more complex than that.
Ideally your marketing should be the sum of all parts and deliver a positive return on investment
(A positive ROI).
Good marketing follows a bit of a paper trail and more often the accountability factor
is built in to the last thing that happened.
Example
Ask the question “how did you hear about us”
Answer “I looked at your website”
Ok that’s great you know your website is converting visitors into calling customers.
But this is the end of the marketing paper trail. Not the beginning.
What you really need to know now is where it started.
How did they hear about your website?
Was it from a search engine? if it was - What key word did they type in.
Did they type in your company name and if so how did they hear about your company.
Was it from a leaflet you gave someone at a Wedding Fayre or was it from a magazine article where they read about you and wanted to know more so they searched for you online.
If it was a leaflet from a fayre, which fayre was it from, which leaflet.
If was from a magazine, which magazine, which issue, which ad, which article and then how did they get to know about the magazine.
When the paper trail ends
Sometime when you ask the questions the answers you get won’t lead you to a logical conclusion.
I asked one of my customers the other day who had advertised with me for the first time this year.
His entire marketing strategy previously was to attend wedding fayres – give brides a leaflet and hope for the best.
This year he is in the I Do magazine.
When I asked him about his response - he didn’t credit I Do Magazine for bringing him a single customer.
BUT
He’s having the best year he has ever had by a long way.
He isn’t doing anything else differently.
When I quizzed him further it turns out that he has never asked a bride where they had heard of him anyway.
Now I’m not suggesting that the reason he is having his best year ever is because he is advertising in I Do magazine, but it makes you think.
My version of this…
On every registration form that we ask our brides to fill in we have a little box at the bottom, which asks where they heard about the fayre we are currently at.
Here are the options which brides are asked…
How did you hear about the wedding fayre today? Please tick one of the following…
· Email from I Do
· Search Engine
· Radio
· Road side banners
· Posters leaflets
Funny thing is at least 1 in every 10 brides tick Radio at Fayres and we know CATAGORICALLY that the Fayre hasn’t been advertised on the radio.
Search engine is ticked and when asked further (and we do by the way) we find that they really found out about the Fayre from an email or from the banner outside the hotel and wanted to know more.
The last thing they did was “search on the internet” and they ticked Search engine.
So you see, it’s one thing to ask your customer “how did you hear about us” but it’s another thing to keep asking and really dig out the truth and you’ll find it is the sum total of everything in your marketing mix that makes the difference.
You can actually read proof of this on my blog, I remember reading one bride saying – “I remember seeing an photographer at a wedding fayre, my friend had mentioned him after seeing him in I Do Magazine, so I looked on his website booked him”
Who gets the credit for that one?
I wish you every success
Richard
PS- Please post your comments below and tell me about your version of the Marketing paper trail
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