How To Measure ROI From Online Marketing

All right, business owners, I have a challenge for you! I challenge you to stop asking the question, “How did you hear about us?” 

"Why did you choose us?"

You may think I’m crazy. How are we supposed to know what marketing efforts are working – or aren’t – if we don’t ask that? But what if we changed the wording and instead asked, “Why did you choose us?”

Sometimes, “How did you hear about us?” does not tell the whole story. Let’s say you have a mailer or some kind of print literature. I might get this mailer and notice the Facebook and Twitter icons at the bottom. If I search out your Facebook page and see that it has a lot of good content and it’s helpful, I’ll think “Wow, this company is really on the ball!” And that may be the deciding factor of me choosing to use your services. But afterwards if I were to fill out a form that asked, “How did you hear about us?” I would check “mailer,” when the real reason I chose you was because of content on your Facebook page. You’d never know that from my feedback on your form. 

Was it the mailer or Facebook posts? Or both?

Another business might have the opposite scenario. It could be you’ve been following a brand or company on Facebook for years but never really did business with them. One day you get a mailer or an email that really sparks your interest. You think, “Wow, this is really cool, I think I’m going to go ahead and take advantage of this offer!” Well again, when they ask “How did you hear about us?” you’re going to say you heard about them through the Facebook page. And yes, you did hear about the from Facebook at first, but it was really the mailer that sealed the deal and brought them your business.

So by asking the question, “Why did you choose us?” you get an idea of how all your marketing efforts come together. Social media is important but it is not the end-all, be-all. It’s a complement to your other marketing efforts such as email campaigns, in-person networking, etc. What you’re really doing with all of your efforts is building relationships. And if you were to change that one simple question from “How did you hear about us?” to “Why did you choose us?” you’ll get a full understanding of how this relationship-building is working for you, and which of your marketing efforts are really paying off.

If you have any other ways to check ROI from marketing efforts, please add in the comments. Thanks!