Last week, FEI marketing whiz Marka gave the tribe some tips on creating print ads that get results. This week, the tribe learns how to measure those results. Remember, fire = print.
Marka sat on a bench in the lobby near FEI’s main entrance. Behind her loomed a wide fountain consisting of three gorgeous marble sculptures: Org, Org’s father Autho, and Org’s grandfather Prometheus—three generations of FEI leadership. The three sculptures stood side by -side, with steady streams of water gushing from their mouths into the aquamarine pool below.
Zoot joined Marka on the bench.
“I’m confident our print ad will help drive sales of our new matches,” Zoot said. “There’s just one problem.”
“You’re wondering how exactly we can determine conclusively that our ad’s performing well,” Marka surmised.
“Bingo,” Zoot exclaimed. “If we run this ad, and our sales grow by 10 percent next month, that’s great. But I want more. I want a rock-solid connection between our ad and specific match purchases.”
“Agreed,” Marka said. “There are a few ways we can determine precisely how well our ad is working.”
[Marka pulled a stone tablet from her purse and began writing on it.]
• Track referral source of all job opportunities.
“Our CSRs, estimators and all other customer-facing employees must be trained to identify and track what gets our customers—especially new customers—to pick up the phone and call us,” Marka explained. “We start by asking them one simple question: ‘What prompted you to call us today?’”
“But that information is useless without a process to make sure it’s captured,” she continued. “That’s why we must create a foolproof system that allows our employees to easily record this data and store it in a master database that anyone at FEI can access.”
Zoot was following Marka’s train of thought, and remakes, “I see. After three months, we might look back at this data and find that we can connect the print ad with $40,000 Drachmas of sales. Hello, ROI!”
[Marka wrote more on her tablet.]
• Incorporate Google Analytics.
“If you remember my tips from last week, we should—whenever appropriate—include a QR code in our print ad that sends readers to a custom landing page,” Marka said. “Using Google Analytics, we can track how many people visit this custom landing page, and how many click ‘order.’ Then, we can clearly connect new sales with the ad.”
[Marka returned to writing on her tablet.]
• Include discount codes.
“Sometimes, when encouraging our customers to try a new product, or one that’s not selling so…hot, we’ll want to offer a discount in our ad,” Marka began. “In these cases, we’d be wise to also include a discount code. This makes it easy as baklava to track how many fire products are bought because of the ad. After adding up every purchase associated with that code and weighing them against the ad’s cost, we can answer a very important question: ‘Was this ad worth it?’”
“I have a very important question for you,” Zoot said.
“What?” Marka asked.
“Don’t you think I’d look good as the fourth statue behind us?” Zoot teased.
Marka rolled her eyes.
Today’s FIRE! Point
Three ways to measure your print ad’s effectiveness are to have CSRs and sales reps track the referral source of all job opportunities, incorporate QR codes so landing page visits can be tracked in Google Analytics, and utilize discount codes to identify resulting merchandise sales.
FIRE! in Action: Ticket City Relies on Print Ads to Grow
Direct merchant Ticket City uses aggressive newspaper advertising to generate new client growth of up to 50 precent in a given month.
Next week: Marka brings the tribe tips for crafting an effective company brochure.
- Categories:
- Business Management - Marketing/Sales
Very much alive and now officially an industry curmudgeon, strategic growth expert T. J. Tedesco can be reached at tj@tjtedesco.com or 301-404-2244.