I sold another copy of my book Magnetic Marketing, at a networking meeting last week. I seem to sell quite a few copies to people I meet at networking events, so I thought I should measure the sales properly, to see exactly what’s working. Of the last 40 copies I’ve sold, the numbers were really interesting.

The pie chart below shows that an amazing 72% of these 40 copies have been sold to people I speak to at networking meetings. I do a lot of networking because it’s a great way to meet potential clients and get to know them. (From another measurement I’ve done recently, I know that 41% of our new clients come through networking!) What I found even more interesting is that of the total, just over half of the copies have been sold through one particular networking group – 4Networking. This blog is not meant to be a sales pitch for 4N, but there are aspects of the meetings that really help me promote Appletree very effectively. One of these is the opportunity to give short presentations at the meetings, to share my knowledge (and the contents of the book) with other members; another is the fact that there are many different groups I can attend; and that at the meetings you have time to sit and chat to someone else for a decent length of time, without trying to ‘work the room’. All of these really suit my networking style, which is probably why I sell more copies of Magnetic Marketing through these networking meetings than any of the others I go to.

Like I said, this is not a sales piece for 4N – what’s important is that you measure all your marketing and look at what’s working and why. You need to be really specific too. If your numbers show that networking is more effective, look at the particular events that work for you and work out why. Are there groups you should stop attending if they’re not working?

These numbers also show that we don’t sell many copies through our website or social media channels. Since these marketing tools have virtually no cost, perhaps we should be doing more to promote Magnetic Marketing through them?!

When did you last measure your marketing? How do your numbers look and what do you need to do differently as a result?