The reasons for this are:



o to measure how well your tactics are working overall

o track individual marketing activities to see any patterns

o know how each marketing activity is contributing to your overall success (or not)

o determine what works best for YOUR business

Some methods for tracking are:

1) Ask your prospects and clients how they heard about your business, product or service when they are making a purchase or getting some information.

This is not an exact science because people often don't recall exactly how they heard about you, especially if they have been exposed to several of your marketing activities.

2) Do a survey.

You can send your clients a satisfaction survey after they make a purchase and include a tracking question in the survey.

3) Build in tracking mechanisms to a specific activity.

For example, if you are doing a teleseminar and you are inviting the attendees to visit your web site to sign up for it, create a special page on your web site to drive them to. Then use some kind of free website analytics program to see how many people visited that page and signed up.

4) Web site links.

Include web site links in your ezine so your subscribers can respond to special offers or promotions. You can track how many people are interested enough to click on the link, and you should also be able to measure sales as a direct result of that promotion or offer (with your shopping cart program).

5) Use unique codes.

If you are creating flyers or coupons promoting a particular product, service or offer, include a unique code and require clients to enter that code on your web site in order to qualify for the special bonus or discount.

6) Track your website statistics.

To find out how many people are visiting your website, be sure to have a statistics program in place and know how to read it. I like Google Analytics, but there are many good ones out there that are free, including www.webstats.com.

You can also create specific web pages for a campaign and track the hits you get from a campaign. You can look at the links that people come in to your site from (referring URLs) - these can be very useful in creating online relationships. Call the people that are linking to your website - they may be interested in purchasing your services or hiring you for a workshop or event.

With all of these tracking and measuring methods, you will be able to determine what percentage of the total pieces distributed or people reached, responded to your marketing offer and how many took the action requested (i.e. downloaded your free-giveaway, subscribed to your newsletter or ezine, purchased your product, and so on).

Then you can cut out what isn't working and expand on what is working.