hey what do you guys use to track your marketing? Im trying to come up with something so that i will be organized and always knwo whats working best.
I tried so many different marketing methods till I found couple that worked best for me. My advice is to try them one at a time rather than all at the same time because you will lose track.
As far as tracking, you need to ask every incoming call how they heard about you. They will tell you. From there, you can just maintain it in Excel if you like, or on a whiteboard.
Tracking is easy if you have a system and you ask “How did you hear about us”
…through phone calls or your website where the same question should be mandatory.
When I was wholesaling, the couple of leads that I used for tracking I reported them using my Marketing Numbers '08 spreadsheet, I will probably use the same for when I start rehabbing. Below are some screen pics,
http://i244.photobucket.com/albums/gg1/onlinesales20/Picture3.png
http://i244.photobucket.com/albums/gg1/onlinesales20/Picture2.png
http://i244.photobucket.com/albums/gg1/onlinesales20/Picture1-1.png
it is easy if you have a 1800# because each campaign can use a different ext. - personally i use the following system…
direct mail - all direct mail leads go to a phone system that we only use for direct mail
web - for web marketing, it is done via ad-tracking (www.clickaudit.com - free service) and via campaign specific url’s
it also helps to simply ask every lead what made them call, simple but effective and the most cost efficient…
I am glad you’re asking this. Many people just don’t to it! BAD IDEA!
When you are organizing your marketing, segment your contacts and approaches by target and group. Create several structured approaches to each group. Use separate copy and a different offer. When people call about offers you’ll know which you get a greater response from.
Your data consultant should help you to break up segments and provide separated lists for you using powerful selects.
For real estate investing thats a load of crap… It might work for a company that has an ad budget larger than 500 a month but most investors dont…
Which is why you must ask the question “how did you hear about us” and that is it…
I love these guys who have never bought a house try and tell us how to advertise… When you get to 200 in a single year let me know…
Michael Quarles
You know, people may consider it outdated, but working with Excel works great. Yeah it’s a manual method to track your marketing tactics, but it still works great. Then again, maybe I am just an ol’ timer :biggrin.
Marketing goes out each month.
Call comes in we ask where did they hear about us.
The lead is then added to our database that we use. Each name we already have in our database it is both online and on ACT.
If it is a property that we are going to look at then it is assigned to a BUYER (me) and then I take it from there.
Each week we take the calls or website leads and update them to an excel spread sheet.
Our marketing is outlined over 30 days.
We have Out of area, Houses with Lots of Equity, Referrals. that is our direct mail pogram. When a TEST program is in play then that is something that is tracked by a seperate spread sheet. Inputs are general in nature.
Excel and a notebook 
Awesome, I am not the only one :biggrin