Measure ROI for your Social Marketing

All you savvy women entrepreneurs and wanna be's too, have a knock out Social Marketing Strategy, right? That's what everyone is talking about - Mashable, Seth Godin, Keith Ferrazzi, Mari Smith.  That's why we're all on FaceBook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and are blogging.  So how is it working for you?  How do you know? 

Google Analytics shows what happens on your website but what if you're a brick and mortar store front; say a salon, spa, or boutique how do you track where new customers find you.

Here's a simple method to measure your ROI for each piece.

ROI Question:  How did you find us today?  (Friendly and engaging works...ask about why they're shopping today....have they visited other stores they found on X, Y or Z site.)

Ask the question of EVERYONE that comes in or phones your shop and write down their answers and ask for their email address too.   When you track like this you have far more accuracy than when you just guess or as I call it the "Shotgun" approach to marketing.   

Your Social Marketing is an investment whether it involves your time and no cash or your time + cash.  Small businesses rarely can waste their time and money without some  kind of return. 

Earlier this year I was in shop I had seen in the Sunday Times
Pacific Magazine for the past few months.  While I was at the counter paying for my goods, I asked the owner how the ads were working for her.  She looked a bit chagrined and said she didn't know.  A friend had suggested she advertise in the magazine so she did.  But with no plan she had no idea how many, if any, new customers she got.

The next time I was in she said she had cancelled the ads and was trying a different approach which involved engaging new walk in's and collecting email addresses...a much better plan.

If you use QuickBooks create a custom field for Marketing and add your customers answers to your ROI Question.  You can then run reports and evaluate where you're getting the most bang for your buck....ads on FaceBook, Google Adwords, Twitter specials...well, you get the idea. 

Ditch the shotgun approach and ask customers and clients where they found you...it's easy and they'll want to share with you.

Any questions...just shoot up an email.