Getting accurate answers to "How did you hear about us?"

Let's just get one thing straight.

It's not the job of your potential customers to keep track of your marketing efforts, it's yours. So don't leave their response to the question "How did you hear about us?" open for interpretation. The response should be pretty simple. Comparing your marketing plan.. it was either.. your print ad, your online ad, a friend, or recent PR coverage, etc.

Assuming your new client is a bride.... Give the girl some options. Do you think that after looking through a handful of magazines, perusing thousands of web pages .. when a she finally picks you to contact.. she's going to remember where she saw you ? NO.. help a sister out and give her obvious options.

If you can list the options that you KNOW you are doing.. why wouldn't you? Are you expecting or rather hoping to hear something different?

On the example below, I compare a before and after contact us page. The before leaves an open ended, fill in the blank option on the "Where did you hear about us?" line. The second has been modified to guide the the new client towards possible options. The switch is simple and may lend more precise results. Instead of leaving an opened ended option, where they could quite possibly not even fill it out, listing all the possible avenues where she COULD have heard of you just may jog her memory and help you keep better tabs on your marketing.

A good way of rearranging that question would be, "We market our business across multiple platforms so, knowing where you found us helps to streamline our marketing plan and keep costs low. Could you tell us each avenue you saw our advertisement or heard about our company?"

Then, list them with the opportunity to check multiple options.

If you leave it up to the client to tell you how your marketing is working you're not going to get the feedback you might expect. After all, she doesn't know how important it is to you, she's just worried about what's important to her. So tell her. It may seem lengthy or long to you but it's your money. Do you want to know what works or always be left wondering?

How do you keep track of your marketing efforts?