Measure advertising
Big shock this......Howdy. Hope you are well.
Big shock coming....................I'm not very smart. Yes, I know. You can't believe it either!
We took an ad in a resort industry magazine yesterday (Tuesday) promoting our web site work. The ad was on the same page as a client's resort profile. In the profile the client talks at some length about the success of his web site - generating 20% of the resort's business.
On Monday we posted out the second part of a direct mail campaign to resorts in our city. The very same people who will be reading the ad.
We generated quite a few enquiries yesterday (and today already).
Measure each campaign
Any marketing we do must be measurable in terms of impact. With the ad and the direct mail campaign all coming together on the same day, it's been a little difficult to find out where the person contacting us first heard of us.
So we do this....
We ask that all important question:
Where did you first hear of us?
From that simple question we can measure our various campaigns and see what actually works. (Keep in mind that although someone may have first heard of us through the ad, the choice influence for contacting us may be the testimonial in the magazine profile by our client. Makes it a touch harder to ascertain what really works - but it usually is a combination.)
And here's my thinking on the marketing:
Tuesday: Resort magazine ad
Tuesday: Mentioned in resort magazine profile (same page as ad)
Tuesday: Resort managers receive direct mail letter
Tuesday: The ad and the letter both mention the FREE Report - Increasing online bookings
Tuesday: The online bookings free report link is added to the front page of our web site
Wednesday: Our local newspaper ad (looks similar to the resort ad) runs in the business section
That all ties together pretty well and should, I hope, generate additional interest beyond a one-off ad.
BTW, I'll put the online booking report and the web site success secrets free report at the top of this blog so that people responding to the ad can see them straight away.
Cheers
Brendon
[ comments ]
i.e. tailored.com.au/increasebookings
or something similar? I'm not all that convinced that managers of these resorts would be interested in hearing about how you market your business and what you did on the weekend vs. information and case studies on how you can increase their business, in addition to the free report.
We've tried the unique url ad before and it doesn't work as well as the general ad directing people to the home page of the site (we actually generate more enquiries from phone calls).
Our thinking with the general marketing blurb and blog posts (such as the personalisation I try and do) is that we need to demonstrate our expertise and approachable nature.
And our research (stats, ancedotal and sales increases) back that up.
Case studies are a great way to provide info the visitor wants - the difficulty with them is that it's hard to be specific and provide firm numbers without disclosing commercially confidential information. We can't do a case study without the client's permission.