With the kind of statistics we have available for tracking website visitors, we are spoilt for information and ROI tracking in digital marketing and media. There is no reason, however, that we can’t get a firm grasp of our Return for print marketing too, we just need to use different ways to capture that data:
1. Use different phone numbers on different media. It doesn’t cost much to buy an extra phone number – it doesn’t need to be a specific trackable one, just a regular phone number and you can then use the monthly bill to see quantity of calls and where they came from. It would be worthwhile buying one for your business cards, one for leaflets, one for your website, etc. This way at the end of the month you can tally up calls (and if you want, even link them to the customers by checking phone numbers) and work out your revenue/sales as precisely as you like.
2. Mark campaign events in Analytics. If you are featuring your website visibly on your marketing, you can track response to your site based on visitor numbers. Google Analytics allows you to annotate your statistics graphs to mark when certain things have happened, so you can make notes on the timeline when leaflets are sent out, and note the resulting traffic increase.
3. Feature specific print marketing landing pages on your site. You can make the above data even more specific by linking to specifically designed website pages on each piece of print marketing. So on your recent leaflet drop you may link to a page called /leaflet. You’ll want to make it something nice and easy for people to type, but something unique so you know that those visitors have come only from that marketing campaign.
4. For even more precise tracking on links, you can use QR Codes that people can scan with their phones and take them to specific pages. These can then have more complicated URLs, without worrying about customers having to type them in by hand.
5. Ask! Sometimes the simplest methods are the best. As well as making every effort to track using the above methods, ensure you ask all new leads where they heard of you, and take a note.