Many a marketer will tell you a lot of marketing is intangible. In some respects they are right. How do you place an exact return on activity when you are building a brand presence and contact points but the actual purchase decision may be made well down the line and you can’t attribute it to a single campaign?

We would say that a key factor in successful marketing is integration – understanding who your customers are and using a range of different mediums to reach that customer with the right message. Inherently this can give you a reporting headache – the customer says that they heard of you from an advert but in reality much more will likely have gone into the decision making process. A visit to the website to find out more, perhaps a mention from a friend, some press coverage or the direct mail campaign that landed on their doorstep some six months ago.

It can be tricky, but as with most business decisions you want as much information in front of you when deciding what is working and what isn’t.

Do you currently know where all of your business is coming from? If you aren’t asking “where did you hear about us?” then why not? Asking and understanding where your customers are coming from can not only add value to your decision-making but also to the return on the bottom line of return from marketing spend.

Having processes that place as much information at your fingertips as a marketer or business owner must therefore be a necessity. Online you have Google Analytics which will give you a world of information on where your business is coming from, particularly for those working within the ecommerce sphere. Offline it is just as important to know where they are coming from so get asking!

For more information on how we can help you to understand and gain more from you reporting please give us a call or email hello@mihidigital.co.uk