How do you know when your marketing is generating sales?

You might think it’s obvious: Promotional email goes out > bookings come in. Sponsored post on socials > click through to order. It’s not that simple.

Take email marketing. You have a database, you send out an email and track the performance – the opens, the clicks, the orders. You end up with a nice little set of analytics. But whilst that’s valuable info, it doesn’t give you the full story.

Not every response will come to you via a link in that email. It might prompt someone (let’s call them Janice) to browse your website or have a look at your reviews before committing. Janice might make half a decision to buy but get distracted by a Whatsapp message. She might then get in touch via a Facebook post the following week. The presumption is that your socials generated the order, but maybe the heavy lifting was done by the email.

More likely there will have been multiple touch points for Janice before she made the decision to order. Even the buyers that come directly from the email promo were likely influenced by other marketing they’ve seen.

Sales aren’t made from a cold start. Your marketing has done the warm-up. It’s made Janice aware of your service and your brand. It’s informed, reassured, and got you on the shortlist. Your marketing has made her more likely to buy from you and not your competitors.

How do you know where to spend your marketing budget if you can’t track what’s working?

I come from a background of direct marketing. I love to measure and track ROI but I know campaign stats aren’t the full picture. Whilst I’m not a PR or brand management specialist, I’m a marketing generalist and I understand every element of the marketing mix matters, even those you can’t measure so easily.

That doesn’t mean you give up on measurement.

Ask new customers where they heard about you, ask repeat customers ‘what prompted your order/booking today?’  Sometimes it’s straightforward. They might have read an article that mentions you or been sent an offer email.

If you take online orders, give people space/options to tell you how they found you.

Set up landing pages for campaigns and test what creates traffic and orders.

Review your social posts and see what’s generating responses (but bear in mind I’ve had clients that came to me via LinkedIn having never reacted to a single post).

Sometimes you just have to accept the data won’t be perfect and to keep using a broad range of marketing channels.  Record the origin of your bookings or orders but be aware every channel in your marketing ecosystem has a supporting role.

Your marketing should be like a good warm-up act for the headliner (sales).

• Making your prospect feel relaxed

• Entertaining them

• Making them think – ‘yeah I’m in the right place’  

• Giving them a warm, fuzzy feeling about you  

Ready for the headline act asking for their order.

Need some help to make sure your warm up is working? I've got over 25 years of experience across the marketing mix and I'm ready to work with you to grow your business.