At the very least you should track where all your new enquiries come from.   This can be a great indicator of which marketing activities are working better than others.

1. Try and centralise the recording of all sales enquiries – they will typically come through by phone or email.  If you don’t have a salesperson, try and make one person responsible for recording enquiries.
2. Set up a dedicated email account if you haven’t already eg. sales@….. Then promote this in your marketing and route these emails to the person responsible for recording enquiries.
3. Create a simple Excel spreadsheet that lists all the possible ways that somebody could hear about your company/products/services. eg. Yellow Pages advertisements; trade magazine advertisements; referrals/recommendations; networking activities; website; online marketing etc.
4. Find out from potential customers how they got your phone number/email address or how they heard about you.
5. Nowadays many people will say ‘your website’ but dig deeper and ask whether they knew your company name or not.  This can indicate if they Googled generic search terms that led them to your company (hence your Search Engine Optimisation and/or Pay Per Click activities are working), or they Googled your company name (which they could have got from a recommendation, advertisement, media coverage etc).

You don’t want to interrogate your potential customers, but asking two simple questions is not unreasonable.  It will give you useful information that you can use to measure and tweak future marketing activity.

Vary your approach. There are literally hundreds of ways to get your message out to customers, so don’t limit yourself to just one or two. If something is working well for you, keep it up, but don’t be afraid to try something new – just make sure you’re keeping track of what works and what doesn’t. Also, talk with your customers (both online and in person) to get their feedback and opinions.

Make it personal. Looking for a way to separate yourself from the competition? Share your story. People love to know about how and why you started your business, who you are, and what you do outside of work. If your company makes an effort to give back to the community in some way, either through donations or through volunteer work, let your customers know by sharing information on your website.

Take care of your customers and keep your eye online. People have more ways than ever to tell others about your business, which means that whether you like it or not, a good or bad review can spread to thousands of people in just minutes. Watch what’s being said about your company and if necessary, do some online damage control. Even if someone’s vocal about a bad experience, people will see that you made an effort to put things right. To start, set up a feed reader (like Google Reader) and sign up for Google Alerts and Yahoo Alerts (both free). You may also want to look into getting results through options like Technorati, BackType and Social Mention.

Make sure you’re mobile. An astonishing 75% of the world’s population now has access to mobile technology, and an ever-increasing number of people use their phones to search and find things they want to buy. If your website isn’t mobile-friendly, you’re losing customers. Think it’s time to revamp your site? Do it now.

Need help with any of these ideas? Contact us!