invisible part of agency marketing, The

Rough Notes, Aug 2003 by Jans, Michael

Magazine, newspaper, direct mail and other media. Here's another example from my own marketing. We will periodically run ads in trade magazines. (Rough Notes, for example.) If we run more than one ad at the same time, I'll assign a different 800# to each ad. The telecommunications company will download those leads directly into my database, sorted by 800#. Cost per lead and cost per sale - per magazine? Easy math.

Some telecommunication companies deliver "all-in-one" tracking systems. One company (See ART report on previous page) requires callers to dial in the "menu option" from their ad in a simple voice mail menu.

This automatically tracks the ad or marketing piece that stimulated the call - and allows you to "slice and dice" your calls according to any number of criteria, e.g., dates, length of call, number of messages, ad source, list data (voice or fax number) left by caller and so forth.

Yellow Pages. Most Yellow Pages companies can set up special phone numbers to track the number of calls that come directly from that ad. Be sure to consider that in your ad when you negotiate with your rep, especially when the ad rep starts promising how many calls you're going to get.

Internet marketing. If you're using your Web site to attract leads, be sure to sign up with a "statistics counter" to generate accurate stats on usage, including pages visited, click-throughs, length of time on site and so forth. Most important, if you're offering an automatic response mechanism (like a special bulletin or free report) as a way to capture e-mail addresses, be sure to use an e-mail marketing system that allows you to track the number and source of leads.

Summary. The "math" is the real secret wizard behind your marketing. Your competition may be able to see your marketing message-but they'll never know what's working and what's not working. (I have a colleague who is so frequently copied by his competitor, he periodically sends his losing marketing pieces to his competitor - knowing that his competitor will roll them out to a large list!)

Your math will tell you when to roll your marketing out to larger lists or more media. It will tell you when a campaign starts to fatigue. It will tell you when to test against it-and which test "wins." It will tell you when to kill the campaign-and save the money.

Do your math! It's the "invisible" part of marketing that will make you a "marketing wizard!"

The author

Michael Jans, CAE, is the president of Insurance Profit Systems, Inc., and the founder of The Quantum Club Coaching Program for Insurance Agents. For more information on High Impact Marketing, visit www.insurancemarketingtips.com or call their office at (800) 606-0477. For a copy of his special report, "7 Deadly Sins Made By Insurance Agents," call (800) 332-1697 or e-mail Michael at thedeadlysins@zipdrip.com.