The classic marketing conundrum – you are running an expensive ad on television, and a couple of cheap ads on the radio. You have yard signs and home show coupons. Of course, your website is generating leads, too. As the sales appointments come in, how do you know where they’re coming from?

You do what anyone would do – you ask “Where did you hear about us?”. After all, you need to know which of your marketing programs are working and which aren’t. Who would know better why they’re calling you than the person who is calling you?

People rarely get the answer right

Doctors have actually put a lot of thought into this, since in a medical setting it can be extremely important to have accurate information. According to the National Institute of Health, when asked a direct question by their doctors, only 30% people answer accurately when compared against their medical records.

(You can do better than 30% accurate – download our tracking guide for step-by-step instructions how!) 

Think about it: everyone values their health, and they know it’s important that their doctor has the right information. Even then, 70% of folks answer surveys inaccurately! You can count on worse accuracy when you ask. Your customers really don’t care where they heard about you, it has no bearing on their enjoying your services.

That’s really unfortunate – some of your customers remember where they heard about you and answer accurately, but the majority will misremember or make something up for convenience. You can’t make good decisions with lousy data!

How do you know what's working?

Like doctors, us digital marketers have also put a lot of thought into getting the truth out of your customers! Using a clever system of incentives and technical solutions, you can record where your calls are coming from without needing to ask the customer. Download our tracking guide below for a step-by-step guide to implement lead tracking for your whole sales funnel!