Tracking Prospects and Clients: How Did They Find You?

You already know that attracting new training clients to your facility requires some upfront marketing costs. However, not all marketing strategies are equally effective. Since your time is truly your most valuable asset, wasting it on efforts that don’t have a high return on investment is a big mistake.

Analyzing Success

After any marketing campaign ends, it’s time to analyze the effort’s success. To measure the campaign’s ROI, you’ll need to calculate that campaign’s cost per client and its cost per prospect.

For example, let’s say you set up a promotional booth at a local event; the booth costs $500, but 10 people sign up to receive more information about your facility, and four of those 10 later sign up for 12-month contracts at $1,500 each for a total of $6,000. In that scenario, your cost per prospect was $50, and your cost per new client was $125.

These are the kinds of numbers you’ll need to compare which marketing methods really pay off.

How to Track Prospects

However, such tracking is often more complicated than it was in the previous instance.

For example, you may have purchased an ad on the radio or in a magazine. The first step in analyzing these types of campaigns is adding a “How did you find us?” question on your client intake form. Make the process easier for your training clients and for yourself by listing the various ways they may have found you. Primary methods probably include hearing about your services from a friend or staff member, noticing your facility from the street, or finding your web site or Facebook page online. Along with these general options, list all the other marketing campaigns you’ve tried recently, including any advertising you paid for and any events you had a presence at. Always add an “other” field where clients can write in their own answers.

Limit yourself to 6-8 options to avoid overwhelming the client. If your form is electronic, make the question required and add a “none of these” check box option at the bottom. (Usually, if the field is too easy to skip, clients will skip it – especially if it’s part of a form that’s already relatively complicated.) If the form is on paper, encourage your staff to remind new clients to fill it out.

eSoft Planner, the online software my company developed to automate the scheduling and management of sports facilities, generates cost-per-prospect and cost-per-client reports automatically. If you don’t have eSoft Planner or another software program that can generate such reports, it’s a good idea to enter the data in an electronic spreadsheet, which will make it easier to track and sort.

Conclusion

Keep in mind that these methods are not 100% accurate, and that people may have become aware of your facility through an ad that they just didn’t remember or bother writing down. However, collecting the data can often be very helpful as you move forward with new marketing efforts.

P.S. — Don’t forget about other analytics that can be used along with client reporting to give you insights on how people find your facility. You should have analytics set up that track where your web site’s visitors came from. You should also be able to tell who opens your emails and who visits your Facebook page.

To learn more ways to improve your facility, book a free consultation with us.