How do you find out how your new customers heard about your business? It is important to ask every first-time customer this question:
“How did you hear about our business/service/product?”
It sounds so simple, yet most of the businesses we talk to do not have a policy to ask this question, and simply don’t think of its importance. I hope that when you review the following information you will not only consider the value of the question, but the useful information the answers can provide.
The growth of online marketing has had a significant effect on every business and organization. Trying to get word out about your service has become a very complicated endeavor. It can be a drain on your time and money. How do you determine where to allocate your marketing dollars without a measurable way of knowing the results?
It is not only the time to ask customers how they heard of you, it is time to get very specific with the details you request.
The more specific you get, the better and the clearer you will understand where your marketing resources are having the most success.
Let’s try a few out!
Having some ideas on how to get more specific with your questioning is a great place to start! Even if you have a pretty clear idea based on their initial answer, learn to dig deeper.
“I saw your ad in a newspaper.”
Ask them what newspaper they saw it in, or perhaps what attracted them to the advertisement. Were they aware of your services or product before they read that paper?
“I heard your advertisement on the radio.”
If you are only advertising on one radio station you will want to get clarity on what time of the day they heard your promo. There are significantly different costs associated with different radio time slots. You need to be able to assess if the money you are investing in these ads is giving you the return you hope for.
“Someone I know told me about your business.”
This is a wonderful response to hear and you should celebrate! This is an example of “Word-of-Mouth” marketing and it speaks highly of you and your business. Having other customers give you a referral or recommendation means you deliver at the door. It is typically considered the most effective form of promotion. We humans have a tendency to “trust” recommendations from people we know, over all forms of advertising.
It is a perfect time to follow up with these specifics.
- Find out if the customer is a regular client of yours.
- Get the name of the customer and give them a special thank-you when they visit again. These are people doing your marketing for you. Free of charge! Reward them if you can.
- The customers that recommend you to others are often the ones who write positive recommendations and reviews for your business. We call them “Brand Ambassadors.”
“I found you online.”
This is the typical answer we get when we ask new contacts, “How did you hear about Cktechconnect?” Asking the right questions when you hear this response will assist you in collecting the information you need to make smart strategy, time and budget decisions.
Ask the customer if they searched the name of your specific business, or whether they did a general search for the service or product.
Was it a social site that they noticed you on? If so, which one and what caught their attention.
Was it a specific piece of content they noticed or perhaps one of your blogs?
The more specific you get the better you can evaluate!
Remember, asking your customer is the most accurate way of finding out what is really working for you!
We do highly recommend that you monitor the traffic to your sites using Google Analytics and social platform insights. However, while these tools can provide you with a great amount of useful information, they “Will Not” tell you what brought that customer through the door.
Asking all of your new customers “How they heard about your business?” will provide you with important information to help you make smarter choices with your marketing resources.
Sa
ndi Booth is the CEO, web developer, content strategist, graphic designer, social media manager and trainer at Cktechconnect Inc. located in Chatham-Kent, Ontario. Sandi’s creative style and dedication to clients has ensured that Cktechconnect has become the online marketing company it is today. Since its inception in 2009 Cktechconnect Inc. has helped dozens of businesses and professionals around the world with focused, successful, dynamic multimedia marketing campaigns.
Join Sandi on Twitter – @cktechsandi