If You Can’t Measure It, You’re Just Guessing: Marketing Tracking for Small Businesses
Most owner-operators I talk to are spending money on marketing. Some of it is ads, some is a website, some is a sponsorship or a directory listing they signed up for years ago. When I ask which of those is bringing in customers, the honest answer is usually “I’m not sure”. The phone rings, work comes in, and the marketing keeps getting paid for.
That’s not a criticism. Tracking is one of those jobs that feels less urgent than serving customers. But without it, every marketing decision is a guess, and guesses get expensive.
Start with one question
The simplest tracking tool you have is a question: “Where did you hear about us?”
Ask it of every enquirer, every time. Ask on the phone, at the counter, in the booking form and in your reply to an email. It feels awkward for about a week, and then it becomes habit. Most customers are happy to tell you.
The key is consistency. Use a short, fixed list of answers, such as Google search, Facebook, referral, repeat customer, signage and directory, so the results can be added up. “Online” isn’t specific enough to tell you anything. Make sure everyone who takes enquiries asks the same question and records it the same way.
Follow the source through to the sale
An enquiry isn’t a customer. Some channels bring plenty of enquiries that never turn into work. Others bring fewer enquiries, but most of them buy.
So don’t stop at recording where the enquiry came from. Carry that source through to the quote, the job and the invoice. At the end of each month, you want to be able to say how many enquiries each channel produced and how many of those became paying customers. That second number is the one that matters.
Two numbers worth knowing
Once you’re tracking source through to sale, you can work out two figures for each paid channel.
Cost per enquiry is what you spent on the channel divided by the number of enquiries it produced. Cost per customer is what you spent divided by the number of enquiries that actually bought.
Here’s an example with made-up figures. A business spends $1,000 a month on one channel and gets 40 enquiries, so each enquiry costs $25. Only 5 become customers, which means each customer costs $200. A second channel costs $600 a month and brings just 10 enquiries at $60 each, but 4 of them buy, so each customer costs $150.
The first channel looks cheaper at the enquiry stage. The second is cheaper where it counts. Without tracking through to the sale, you’d probably put more money into the wrong one.
Compare your cost per customer with what a typical customer is worth to you after costs. If it costs more to win a customer than that customer contributes, the channel is costing you money, however busy it makes you feel.
Watch cost per lead every month
Cost per enquiry, often called cost per lead, is worth checking monthly. It’s one of the earliest warning signs you’ll get.
When it starts rising, something has usually changed. An ad may have run too long and stopped getting attention. More competitors may be bidding for the same customers. Your message may no longer match what people are looking for, or the platform may simply be charging more. A rising cost per lead shows up in your marketing figures well before it shows up as a quiet month in your revenue, which gives you time to adjust.
Don’t overreact to one month, since results naturally move around. Look for the trend over two or three months, and act when the direction is clear.
Keep it simple
This doesn’t need specialist software. A spreadsheet, your job management system or a column in your booking tool will do the job. What matters is that the information is captured every time and reviewed every month. Include your unpaid channels too. Referrals and repeat customers are often the best sources you have, and it’s worth knowing how much of your work comes from them.
Once you know where your customers come from and what each one costs to win, marketing stops being a cost you hope pays off. It becomes something you can manage.
Want help with the marketing side?
If you’d like to go further with how your business finds and attracts the right customers, our free Crack the Code workshop is a practical place to start. It runs for 90 minutes and is designed for owner-operators who want marketing that brings in work, not just activity.
