More marketing enquiries, but is the business better off?

More enquiries can make a marketing report look encouraging. They can also leave a business owner wondering why there is so little to show for the extra work.

For Lancashire businesses reviewing their marketing, the first question should be simple: what are we trying to improve?

Website visits, enquiries, customers and profitable work are connected. They are different outcomes, and progress in one does not guarantee progress in the others.

A report might accurately show that more people are finding the website and completing the enquiry form. It might say very little about whether those people need the right service, are within reach or have a realistic budget.

It may also miss what happens after the enquiry arrives.

Was anyone responsible for following it up? Was a quotation sent? Did the business win the work? If not, why?

Without those answers, it is easy to mistake a sales, pricing or capacity problem for a marketing problem.

Start by agreeing what a good enquiry looks like. That could include the service requested, location, likely value, timing and whether the business can deliver the work profitably.

Then follow those enquiries through to their eventual outcome.

Consider two hypothetical campaigns. Each costs £1,000. One generates 50 enquiries and wins five customers. The other generates 20 enquiries and wins six.

If each customer contributes £250 after the cost of delivering the work but before acquisition spend, the first campaign leaves £250 after that spend. The second leaves £500.

A report focused on enquiry volume would favour the first campaign. Following the numbers through to customers changes the picture.

These are illustrative figures, not campaign results. They assume no repeat customer value and leave out wider considerations such as fixed overheads, payment timing and differences in the work involved.

The lesson is to make sure the measure supports the decision.

Before changing a website or campaign, record a useful starting point and its date. Note what changed and what else was happening. Compare periods that make sense for the business, allowing for seasonality and the time it takes enquiries to become completed work.

If several things change together, be cautious about giving one of them all the credit.

Numbers also have limits. A page receiving visits but few enquiries tells us where to investigate. It does not establish whether the problem is price, relevance, trust or usability.

Speak to customers. Listen to the people answering the telephone. Look at the questions prospective buyers keep asking.

At your next marketing review, ask:

• What commercial outcome are we trying to improve?
• What does the evidence tell us about where progress stops?
• Which information is missing or unreliable?
• What change are we proposing, and why should it help?
• When and how will we decide whether it was worthwhile?

Sometimes the answers support more investment. Sometimes they reveal that the next useful step belongs with the sales team, operations or the offer itself.

I explore this further in You Can’t Improve What You Can’t Measure. But Are You Measuring What Matters? on the Froogle Media website.

A useful report should help a business owner decide what deserves attention. The improvement on the page needs to mean something to the business paying for it.