Click here| What made your Customers come to you? Can you Trust the Answer? |
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How Did You Hear About Us? by Vicki Lenz That is a question that many advertisers want to ask in order to track results of their advertising dollars. Whenever I get the "tracking" or expected results question from advertisers, I mention Rule #16 from Michael Corbett’s book: The 33 Ruthless Rules of Local Advertising. The rule is: "Don’t ask customers what brought them in." Corbett cites the example of a new super lumber-type store. Customers were polled as they entered the store on grand opening weekend and asked "What brought you in?" 50% said radio, 30% said TV and 20% said newspaper. Guess what? The grand opening was advertised only on radio and in the newspaper. Yet 30% were very sure that they saw the ad on TV! Why is that? Corbett states several contributing factors that affect polling or tracking results:
He advises: "Never change your media advertising plans based on what people say brought them in." It’s Corbett’s belief that "The only foolproof way to evaluate business advertising effectiveness is by setting measurable growth objectives for your business, and by monitoring the results in the cash register. Period." Or you might consider how my computer repair advertiser "figured out how this works," as Wayne recently shared with me. "Our ad in Coffee News put us on the map. People see the ad all the time, but not necessarily when they need our services. Then when they do have a need, they pick up the phone book to look for a company. They see our name there and remember it - rather than our competitors - because they’ve been seeing our ad. I ask a caller how they found us, they might say the phone book. But I know it probably started with the name awareness generated by our ad in Coffee News." |
