Answering your SOS for more ROI

This has to be a quick one, but it could not be more important.

Are you getting work from an agency that has absolutely no idea whether it is giving you any return on investment (ROI)? Worse still, are you among the vast majority of agency clients who doesn't even ask about ROI? Shame on you.

In today's economic market, you can't afford to just "do advertising". You have to do advertising that delivers response. You have to monitor and measure that response, and keep making adjustments until you get a measure of your ROI. This involves some heavy lifting by you -- the client. You have to set up systems to capture and record the source of every lead -- and what happened after that lead came in. Then you have information -- and information means you can make an informed decision, which is a heck of lot better than just guessing or relying on your agency's "gut instinct".

Start by going to your web site response form (you have one, right?) and adding a field for "How did you learn about us". Put in a drop down list of every possible response and make it a mandatory field. Make sure the person answering your phones has the same list and asks the same question whenever a prospect calls. Pretty soon you will some real marketing data on what works -- and what doesn't.

Got a topic you want me to address? Send it along. I promise to respond within seven days.