Ask yourself these questions: "What returns do you get on individual campaigns? Which sales stem from which campaigns? Are you actually getting the revenue you think you are from the money you're spending?". Pearl can help you answer these questions.

Maybe you've run an advert in a magazine, perhaps done some telemarketing or mail shots. If all goes well, then you'll be getting an increased interest in your product or service. But is this increased interest a direct result of your marketing? To find out, follow these four steps...

Step 1: Trace your new leads. A lead is anyone that could potentially be a buyer. If customers are calling you over the phone, then you need to be asking where they found you. To store their response you need to set up marketing campaigns in Pearl (Marketing> Campaigns) and tag the correct campaign to each lead in the CRM screen. Perhaps your sales/leads are coming from your website, in which case there are many ways to automate the process of tracking. Each campaign is given a campiagn ID which can be added to a link to your website, for example http:// www.yourdomain.com /?cid=4, where "4" would be the campaign ID. If a customer visits your website using this link, they would automaically be tagged with that campaign. You can also set up alternative URLs and landing pages for different campaigns. The customer will be directed to your main site but will be tagged with the appropriate campaign ID. For electronic marketing, you can track the number of people that have opened or read your email/newsletter. Pearl provides statistics (Marketing> Mailmerge Stats) on where in the email the customer has clicked, telling you what they are interested in.

Step 2: Trace your sales (conversions) and find your total revenue. Some of these leads will go on to buy your product or become a customer. You should be able to trace which sales were created as a direct result of the marketing campaign, and also show the proportion of your leads that went on to buy; this is the conversion rate. If all leads are tagged to a campaign, any sales that come from them will also be tagged to that campaign.

Step 3: Find your total costs. Add up the value of all the purchases you made as part of the campaign: the adverts, the PR, the paperwork etc. To do this, tag ALL related purchase invoices to the campaign when you enter them into the accounting system. This will provide you with the true costs of the marketing. The total revenue less the total costs gives you a figure which is the total profit generated as a direct result of the marketing activity.

Step 4: Evaluation - was it worth it? If all the steps above are taken, the marketing campaigns screen (see the screen shot below) will show you the return on all marketing activites, including those you have little influence on such as word of mouth. This will tell you how effective your marketing is. In turn, this will allow you to make a more informed decision the next time an opportunity comes up, and will allow you to spend your marketing budget in the areas that give the best return. For more information, click here to download our marketing training pack.