As someone who sells advertising, I ask the question all the time: “Where does your business come from?” And you’d be amazed at the vagueness of the answers I get! The reality is many of the business owners I meet have at best a rough idea of how their clients are finding them, and in too many cases, they don’t have a clue.

How on earth can you plan an advertising spend or campaign without knowing in detail where customers are finding you, and how much they are spending with you?

Unless you’re in a high transaction retail environment, it isn’t that hard to track it either. At the point of sale, simply build the question into the process – so if you use an order form add it to that, or if you’re taking cash at the till, then add it to your patter: “Thanks for coming in, can I ask you how you found us?”

After each order or transaction, jot the details down – “One sale, €55, our website.” And then daily or weekly, transfer that information to a spreadsheet and build up a picture of what’s happening.

You’ll soon spot trends – maybe you ran a larger advert over Christmas and that brought more people to you. Perhaps you’re getting loads of customers from one source, but their spend per head is lower than another source.

You’ll create a picture of what each customer from each source is “costing” you, and how much money you’re making from them. And armed with that knowledge, you can shift your advertising spend to the most cost effective medium for your business.

Many people are saying now that print advertising is dead. And it may well be for some types of business, but how will you know if that’s the case for your business until you start to really measure it?

If you’re not doing it already, start today!