This one marketing practice makes all the difference in the world, and on your bottom line: ASK YOUR CUSTOMERS WHERE THEY HEARD ABOUT YOU! Please do this for yourself to achieve some real marketing magic!
If you’re thinking, “Oh Kelli-Rae, I already do this,” make SURE your team is actually doing it for every single person, every single time. You also need to make sure you are executing on the analysis and strategic follow-through every month, in the right way. Don’t let your business suffer by assuming!
Ask Every Customer, Every Time
If you’re aren’t asking every single customer how they heard about you, you need to—and you need to record it. At the end of the month, all of the answers need to be tallied up and taken as a percentage of total “how did you hear about us” answers.
For example, 10 people heard about you by googling “shoes,” and you had 1,000 people tell you this month how they heard about you. 10/1,000 = 1%, which is a terrible example because far more people are probably finding you by “googling.” As long as you’re doing a half-decent job at your SEO (at least better than your competitors), it’s probably closer to 50% or more. But you won’t know this until you ask (do the research), track (write down the answers), and analyze each answer as a percentage of the whole.
***Note: if you have a large amount of returning customers, you should also ask them (and track separately) “what brought you back in today?” Oftentimes they’ll tell you they drove by and saw your sign, or saw a Facebook post you made. THIS IS VERY GOOD DATA!!! Track this data!***
Back To Tracking Customers By Asking How They Heard About You…
Once you see that a lot of your customers are finding you on Google, you can put increased effort into posting more and better content there, updating your website with relevant and interesting content more often, and getting more Google reviews with comments. *Remember one very important thing though—don’t even think about asking for those reviews until you deliver EXCEPTIONAL products and services. Here is a great article about maximizing the Google data.
If you see most new customers are coming from referrals from current clients, GREAT JOB! Now you can creatively find ways to get more of those—posters, draws, handwritten thank you cards, thank you ecards, etc.
What you might also find is you’re paying a lot of money for something that is NOT working—you need to stop that.
Build Your Monthly Marketing Report
Remember to incorporate all of your online tracking like Google analytics, Google business insights, and all of your other social media insights. Getting people to click on something is good, but having someone actually BUY something is better. That’s why our monthly marketing report template includes a well-rounded collection of data (online and IRL). Click here to find a simple template you can make your own.
Lastly, people need to see an impression of your brand MULTIPLE times to take action, so there is most likely more than one answer to the question, “Where did you hear about us or see us?” Ask the follow-up question about where else they have heard about or seen you.
Shift Your Paradigm! Really!
If you’re thinking, “My staff will never do this—they are too busy,” then please, for your own sake, change your paradigm. This is critical to getting true marketing magic.
If your staff doesn’t do this we won’t know what is working and what is not, and we will continue to throw money away. Here is a video of me giving you some more ideas about how to maximize your marketing efforts:
https://www.facebook.com/1492001847736027/videos/2932861700308923
Also, watch the blog next week, when I will teach you how to make your staff more efficient AND HAPPY. 😀
…and the following week when we deep dive into SEO (so you can always be found on Google).
If you need more help creating marketing magic, contact TMH Business Coaching and Consulting today for a confidential, free, no-obligation consultation to propel you forward. Also, please feel free to add yourself to our weekly coaching tips email!
