Your website’s statistics package gives you a load of information about site visitors. But are webstats the whole story?
Most website visitors find you via a search engine. Their visits show up on your webstats, as do visitors from sites that are linked to yours.
But what if someone found you in the Thompson Local directory, read about you in the local or national press, saw an advert in a trade magazine, heard you were good on the grapevine or saw your van parked in their street?The original source of these enquiries isn’t a search engine. These searchers heard about you somewhere else first.
Tracking = knowledge = wisdom
It makes sense to track the success of all your Marketing and PR efforts. How else do you plan your marketing wisely and hit your return on investment targets?
Some businesses include the question ‘where did you hear about us’ in their online Registration and Enquiry forms. Most have a drop-down list to pick from: personal recommendation, radio advert, TV advert, press advert, trade press etcetera.
This is all great stuff. But there’s another category… the all-important ‘other’ which lets you identify unexpected marketing and PR exposure.
Here’s an example
Perhaps a customer has recommended you on a trade forum. People who enquire or register because of his recommendation use the ‘other’ field to tell you where they heard of you. The benefit? The potential commercial value of your advocate is made clear and you can act accordingly to capitalise on the relationship. In marketing terms, you’ve struck gold.
Asking where visitors heard of you won’t irritate or put them off provided the form is clear, simple, short and fast. Keep your drop down list accurate and up to date, offer a freeform ‘other’ option and the simple question ‘Where did you hear about us’ could prove a little goldmine.
