How can a business figure out which advertising is working for them?

When I go to a business that is interested in advertising with incentive marketing such as REACH Magazine, many times I find that they do not have an effective way of determining which advertising investments are performing for them. I find that if “they only knew what was working” they could reduce investments in areas that are under performing and reinvest in better lead source generators for their business.

So many times I have heard the saying about the 80/20 rule used with advertising expenditures. It is applied to things like sales too. 80% of your sales come from 20% of your customers or 80% of your sales come from the top 20% of your sales team. Or in advertising it might be used like this….80% or my results come from 20% of my advertising investment and I would be a rich man if I only knew which 20% it was that was working.

Well with modern technology, now you can. In this blog I have shared that CALL TRACKING has helped businesses understand that investing in cheaper coupon magazines is not always the most effective use of your advertising dollars. Over the last several years, again and again, my customers have “fired” other magazines that they had erroneously thought were less costly than REACH magazine. The price tag was slightly less so they thought they were saving money by investing in the lower cost product only to find using CALL TRACKING that their COST PER LEAD was less using REACH magazine.

How did these companies get accurate CALL TRACKING?

They used a company like Call Source which can assign a different phone number to each advertising media or in my case, each magazine they advertise in. Call Source then provides a computer analysis which includes the actual calls recorded for you possible review, sorted by source, along with caller ID information, duration of calls and other data that can be used to improve your sales team results.

Not only can they determine which magazine is performing best per dollar spent, but they can determine if their other advertising is providing profitable sales as well. If radio is working, but TV is not or if TV is working, but Yellow Pages are not, or if Internet pay per click is generating viable leads, but newspaper is not, then the company can allocate their advertising dollars where they are most effectively used. If REACH magazine is in the mix and is outperforming many of these other forms of advertising investments, then dollars that are being used ineffectively can be redirected to where they can be more effective, by perhaps buying a larger ad or increasing the frequency of advertising in the programs that work best.

Many advertisers offer a CALL TRACKING phone number to their clients. They provide one call tracking phone number to measure the number of incoming calls generated by their advertising venue only. By doing this they can prove in many cases that their program is producing profitable numbers for their client. However, this will not help you find out which call sources are better than others. When we discuss call tracking with our clients we encourage them to arrange for a bank of phone numbers equal to the number of programs they are using for advertising so that each source can have an assigned phone number. Then Call Source can help them accurately determine which sources they can cut back on and which sources they should invest more in.

So which IS more expensive?

Is it better for you to spend $50 per week on, let’s say the local weekly newspaper or perhaps a very “low cost” coupon magazine with poor results. Or is it better to spend a larger lump sum on something that actually results in calls and sales for your company. Here is what I mean:

$50 seems like an inexpensive ad cost, but if it generates no sales it cost you 100%

$50 —no calls—no results—-Zero dollars revenue for your company and 100% lost investment. That, to me is VERY EXPENSIVE advertising.

Now lets say you spend $1300 on an ad that produces incoming calls (leads) or increased store traffic. Of course depending on the product you sell (for examples a hamburger vs. a major home improvement), let’s just say that the results were very profitable. Now you have this picture:

$1300—calls produced–good results—many dollars revenue for your company and low cost per sale. That to me if a much less expensive purchase than spending $50 over and over again on something that produces no results.

Take a look at the short video clips here at Call Source and see it presented even more clearly. You can go direct to them and set up CALL TRACKING for your company or if you like, with your investment in REACH magazine we can provide you with a set of phone CALL TRACKING numbers for a small fee for each of your advertising investments so that you can determine where to invest more and where to invest less.

Whatever you do, when someone says, “We are just like REACH Magazine only cheaper” red flashing lights should go off in your head, because it is probably not true. Before you believe them give me a call so that I can show you why consumers LOVE REACH MAGAZINE and why in most cases REACH can be a better investment for your advertising dollars. Using CALL TRACKING has lead several of my clients to “fire” the magazines that claim they cost less so that they can reinvest those dollars were they will be more effective. With today’s technology you no longer have to say, ” I know that 20% of my advertising works, but I just don’t know which 20% it is.”

Peter DeMott • REACH Magazine • Dayton, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, and more • 937-478-6222 • peter@photosbypdemott.com