Tracking advertising effectiveness

[NOAH@aarrkk]

I was contacted by one of our phone book companies today concerning my ad in the Yellow Pages.  He questioned how the response had been this past year.  I had no good(accurate) answer for him.  He suggested putting in a statement to the effect "mention this ad and receive a sportsman's special" so that people would identify that they were using his particular publishing company's phone book.  My question: have any of you used such a technique to monitor your advertising effectiveness?  did it work? what types of "sportman's specials" did you use as incentives.  I did appreciate his advice that we not specify in the ad what this meant so that it could change throughout the year. 

I look forward to your responses and thank you WASCO for making this opportunity available.

jerry

[Becky P]

I always ask new customers how that found out about me. Just yesterday, I had a new customer come in and asked him. His response was "That's an EXCELLENT question. You should ALWAYS ask that." I'm sure I gave him some stupid look, but he was sooo enthusiastic when he said that, it caught me off guard. I told him I wanted to know which of my advertising dollars were working. Anyway, turns out he used to co-own one of the biggest car dealerships here (should have known he was a salesman, LOL) so he knows a bit about advertising. He wanted to change taxidermists and found me in the...phonebook.

[Evelyn Billington (Superpig)]

Since I opened my studio ten years ago, I have always asked people how they found out about us. I then mark it on the work order as well as on a separate piece of paper. At the end of the year I add up where new customers have come from and this gives me the best understanding what advertisement works and what doesn't.

I found out that word of mouth bar none is the best advertisement. I get more customers through it then all the other advertisements added together including website and phone book. The least effective advertisement (at least according to my list) believe it or not are business cards or flyers at WAL MART.

Internet came in second, followed by deer processors, and then Yellow Pages.

[Matt]

I totally agree with Evelyn. Word of mouth is the best advertisement. If you put out a great product, the people will come. However, a small ad in the yellow pages has been a good asset as well. I have had alot of people make an appointment just because of my ad, then when they view the showroom, the work comes in. A website has pulled in people from all over, and that is a good asset as well. I would check out others ads and do one that stands out alittle more.