One of the secrets of good marketing is to find out what works and do more of it. So how do you find out what works? You measure your marketing!

I am always amazed by the number of people I meet who don?t measure their marketing. Are you one of them? When a prospective client calls or emails you asking about your service, do you ask them how they heard about you? Do you record what they say in a database or spreadsheet? Do you look at those numbers and draw any conclusions from them?

We measure all our marketing, by asking prospects how they heard about. We store the details in a database, so that we know how many enquiries this year have been generated by networking ? and by which networking events. We know how many referrals we?ve had and from whom. When prospects turn into clients, we know exactly how they heard about us.

In April I carried out a thorough review of all the new clients/projects we?ve won so far this year. The results were very interesting. They show that 40% of our new work this year has come through networking ? people I?ve met a various events. After that, 27% of our work has been generated by referrals, either from happy clients or other people who know us. A further 13% of new business is as a result of workshops we?ve run, while 7% has come through presentations I?ve given at networking events. People I?ve met at workshops I?ve attended account for another 7% of new work, while the remaining 7% has come through LinkedIn.

So what does this say about our marketing? It says that as a service business, the most effective ways of promoting what we do are by getting out there, meeting people and showing them how we can help them. We do this through networking, running workshops, giving presentations and using every opportunity to network. It shows that we actively encourage referrals. It also shows that we use LinkedIn to share our knowledge and expertise. And it shows us that while we need things like our website, our email newsletter and Twitter to support us, we don?t need to spend money on advertising our business or cold calling!