How To Decide Which Marketing Channel To Invest In

Last week, I was talking to Chris Walker, one of the leaders of the Demand Gen and "Dark Social" movements.

He sparked my interest, with this comment:

"Those who are relying on google data have no idea"

I dug deeper to find out what he meant.

He was basically saying, Google is giving us data that validates their existence. It shows us how many found us via 'organic' or 'paid' google search.

It's capturing demand and intent.

It fails to show us, why they performed the search on google.

What created the demand? Which is harder to measure.

Was it because they saw you on LinkedIn? Maybe heard you on a podcast? A referral? Maybe a combination of those which led to them then searching for you.

If you attribute your marketing success to Google, based on Google search data, you are misunderstanding the true reason behind what created that demand for search.

What we recommend, is you measure the true reason behind search and website enquiries.

How?

Simple: Ask the question "How did you find us?" in your conversations with potential clients and on enquiry forms, like so 👇🏻

A couple of tips:

• Avoid drop down fields as these bias the responses
• Use a free form text field, so you can truly understand how they found you.
• Make sure this is a required field [do not allow this to be an option, as this data is essential] 
• Ensure their response is filtered and attributed in your CRM for this contact
  
  

Now use this data

Analyse it to understand the reasons for your search/website enquiries. Let me know what you find?

Your learnings will surprise you. They may have been following and watching your content for the past 2 years before they decided to enquire.

Track their reasons through your sales pipeline to understand which ones led to the highest sales win rates. What were the Sales cycle lengths?

Allocate your marketing budgets accordingly.

Remember, not everything that matters can be measured.

Not everything that can be measured matters.

But we will keep trying as marketers.

Happy Attributing,

Mellonie Francis | CEO | Are You B2B | areyoub2b.com

PS

1. In case you missed it last week - I gave away our 50+ best Linkedin Opening lines for companies looking to create content and inspire their employees to be micro-influencers.

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