In our last blog post I left you off with some great tactics to begin making 2012 your most profitable year. We were off to a good start, so I think that in this issue we’ll continue along with the same objective.

Let’s jump right in.

One of the biggest mistakes that I see the majority of business owners making still to this day is the fault of not tracking their marketing.

I might sound a little redundant but it is important that you get this fundamental engrained in your mind.

Since the last time I wrote you, I had a conversation with a prospect about his advertising and asked him the question:

“How do you know your advertising is working?”

His answer:

“You don’t.”

After finding his business in the yellow pages, (a dead advertising medium), I knew for a fact that his advertising wasn’t working for him and he didn’t know—but he insisted on sticking with said belief.

Don’t be like this business owner. Take the responsibility for your efforts of advertising, and track your results.

It’s obvious that you don’t and won’t know your advertising is working or not if you don’t know how to track it and refuse to acknowledge how to.

Not taking the time to learn how to do so would essentially be like just sticking crisp stacks of 20’s down the garbage disposal on the first of each month.

And furthermore,

DON’T, I repeat, DON’T advertise in the yellow pages.

Please.

Just because every other business you know of does it, doesn’t mean it works. Actually, that’s a good reason in itself not to do it.

It’s a waste of money. The yellow pages are entirely outdated—a traditional, analog, advertising medium of the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s before every computer and phone were linked together.

That’s right, the craziest thing was invented. The internet.

Virtually any fragment of information you could ever want is available at the drop of a dime, a stroke of a keyboard, hell—a swipe of a finger.

So when someone wants to find a pizza shop, a new doctor, a reliable contractor they’re not going break out their yellow pages book buried in their closet, and sift through it to find your business.

What they will do is a Google search, and choose a business from the first page listings on their smartphone or tablet PC without even getting up from their couch.

Sound believable? Damn skippy.

If the yellow pages aren’t thrown out immediately when they are received by their subscribers, they are surely stowed away somewhere and then never opened.

So when you do decide to advertise your business in effective mediums such as radio, PPC, billboards, direct mail, magazines, mobile, etc. make sure you use some of these relevant tracking tactics.

Continuing from last month’s list we have:

Tracking Method #3: Utilizing Google Voice

When you take out an advertisement, you need to know if it’s working. Google Voice is essentially a free phone number and voicemail service that tracks each call that is made to your business.

It’s best utilized through advertisements with a phone number as the call to action. This service has absolutely no cost for an account.

When a prospect calls the Google Voice number from the advertisement, you set it up so the calls redirect to your business phone.

To see your results you’d simply login to your account, and view from the interface exactly how many calls at what times of the day came from the advertisement.

So if you were to do a direct mailing of a postcard which has an offer redeemable only if you call your Google Voice number, you’d be able to track your results from your account specifically dedicated to that postcard mailing.

It’s that simple.

Tracking Method #4: Utilizing Google Analytics

Google Analytics is basically the go-to website analyzing and traffic tracking software for anyone who has a website.

So naturally this software works best when the call to action in an advertisement is to visit a website. Best of all, this software is free.

When you go to take out an advertisement, you would either create or identify a webpage that you want the traffic directed to. Then login to your Google Analytics account and start the process of tracking a campaign.

(Google Analytics is very user friendly and will guide you through the process.)

When it prompts you, take your target webpage URL and have it tagged by entering some information.

The tagged URL will come out looking something ugly like this:

http://joesplumbing.com/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=radio&utm_content=ad%2B1&utm_campaign=Ad

You don’t want a URL as long as this in your ad for someone to type into their web browser. You want something short and simple that is easy for them to type, and remember.

So what you would do is go to your web hosting account, create a subdomain, and have that subdomain redirected to your tagged URL.

Subdomains usually look something like this:

Buyersguide.Joesplumbing.com

Then put the subdomain into your advertisement and view your results.

Or…

If a subdomain isn’t simple enough for you, then you could spend 10 bucks to buy a separate domain name strictly for your advertisement.

Something like:

Plumberguide.com

Then under your domain management settings, simply have it redirect to your tagged URL.

If all of this sounds too techy for you, then just have your webmaster do it for you when you go to advertise.

This is still, very simple and if you take the required steps to track your marketing efforts you can potentially save yourself tens of thousands of dollars, loads of stress, headaches and heartaches.

Onward.

The next subject that I told you we’d cover is how to increase the value of your average transaction for no marketing cost.

Increasing Your Average Transaction Value

Listen up.

There are many variations of tactics to increase the amount of money your customers spend with you each time they visit your business.

And keep in mind—to do so, you don’t have to break the bank or necessarily spend any money at all.

All it takes is a little bit of thinking power and a drop of creativity.

Begin by taking some time to review exactly what result you offer your customers and clients from a value-based perspective.

When they come to do business with you, are they getting the absolute highest value attainable?

Can you expect them to receive the best result as well as the greatest benefits from your product or service for the money that they give you?

Because as a merchant, it is your responsibility to make sure that your customers or clients are receiving the most effective solution to their problem.

You are responsible for helping them achieve the highest form of their desired result, or helping them get to their most desired outcome.

If you were to do any less, you would be doing them a disservice.

When you look at it from this point of view, it’s easier to realize why it can be most ethical to get more money out of your customer on each visit.

You enhance the desired result your client or customer seeks to attain, thus increasing your profits.

It’s a win-win.

One of the most effective routes to do this is to start packaging your products or services for your clients or customers.

Take a look at all of your products or services that you offer, and identify which ones would go great together, to be sold for one individual price point.

Then take one service and decrease the price 20%, and pair it with another service at full price—but offer it at a single cost and put a fancy name on the package.

For example, a cosmetic dentist would create something like a “Glimmering Whites” package which offers enamel shaping and tooth whitening together for a single value-based price.

Another tactic that can increase your average transaction rate is to offer your customers a discount when they spend a certain amount of money on certain items.

This tactic can work great in retail.

The men’s clothing retail store, Express, has used it for years.

They offer their customers $30 off their $90 regular-priced purchase, or $40 off their $120 dollar regular-priced purchase.

This is essentially just incredibly raw value-based packaging for walk-in traffic. However it can be executed through direct mail as well.

If you want to spend the few extra bucks to increase your results, do a mailing of peel-off cards that fit in wallets, labeled with the discount.

And there you have it.

Two solid ways to increase your average transaction size without breaking the bank on additional marketing or advertising costs.

Stay tuned for my next post where I share the #1 way for any business owner to instantly increase their profits, also for no marketing cost.

It’s gonna knock your socks off!