Track Everything in Marketing

Today I had lunch with two co-founders that have built a nice business the brute force way: they started in 2000, tried to raise money unsuccessfully, and bootstrapped things to a multi-million dollar revenue business. All their leads come from Google PPC ads and existing client referrals. They were lamenting that they’ve tried other marketing avenues like SEO, direct mail, and more but could never justify the cost. Of course, I mentioned marketing automation and how it can help track many marketing activities and close the loop on ROI reporting.

Here are things that can be tracked with marketing automation and other tools:

• Phone calls by way of vanity 800 numbers that are campaign specific
• Direct mail pieces with personalized links
• Social media using referrers and tracked links
• SEO through referrers and source analysis
• Advertising campaigns through tracked links
• Companies on your site through anonymous visitor lookup
• Email marketing and landing pages/forms are typically already tracked

As a marketer, the Internet is boon since everything everywhere can be tracked and correlated with outcomes. If someone tells you it can’t be tracked, it’s time to talk to a different person. Marketers should track everything.

What else? What else can be tracked for marketing?