A practical playbook for the small business whose customers live, work or shop within a few miles of the front door. Each chapter is a working set of moves an owner can run alone in two to four hours a week.
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Chapter 6
Tracking Local Marketing That Works
A small, honest set of numbers that tells you what's earning, what isn't and what to keep doing.
Most local marketing fails not because the ideas are bad but because nobody tracks honestly which ones are earning. The owner runs the Google Business Profile, the flyer drop, the partnership and the sponsorship all at once and at the end of the quarter has more customers but no idea why. Next quarter they keep doing all four because dropping any of them feels risky. Cost rises, return doesn't, and slowly local marketing starts to feel like guessing.
The cost of not tracking isn't just wasted money. It's wasted time on the moves that don't work and missing the chance to double down on the ones that do. A local business that knows three of its ten ideas earn 80 per cent of the new customers can quietly stop the other seven and grow faster on the same budget.
This chapter sets out the small, honest set of numbers that tells you what's working. Not a dashboard. Not analytics for analytics' sake. Five numbers, a single page, a fifteen-minute monthly review.
The full chapter sets out the five numbers that matter, the fifteen-minute monthly review, the simple 'where did you hear about us' habit and the quarterly review that decides what to keep, change or drop.
The five numbers
Five numbers, tracked monthly, on a single page or spreadsheet.
First, total enquiries: how many real new customer enquiries arrived this month, by phone, message, walk-in or form. Second, new customers: how many of those became paying customers. Third, where did they hear about you: the rough source, written down. Fourth, total revenue from new customers this month. Fifth, repeat or referral revenue this month from existing customers buying again or referring others. Five numbers. Fifteen minutes a month. The clearest picture of what's earning you'll ever have.
The 'where did you hear about us' habit
Almost every other piece of tracking advice is harder than this and produces less. Ask every new enquiry, in a friendly natural way: "how did you find us?" Write the answer down in five rough categories: search, recommendation, social, signage, other. After three months you have an honest picture of where new customers are actually coming from, and it nearly always surprises owners.
Make it part of the conversation, not a form field. Most customers happily say "I saw your van," "my neighbour recommended you," "I found you on Google." Trust the rough categories. The pattern matters, not the precise count.
Where did you hear about us, the five categories
Search (Google, Maps, other search).
Recommendation (named friend or partner).
Social (Facebook group, Instagram, Nextdoor).
Signage (van, shopfront, flyer, signage at event).
Other (worth a quick note - sometimes reveals a new channel).
The fifteen-minute monthly review
First Friday of every month. Coffee. Single page. Look at the five numbers for this month next to last month. Look at where the customers came from. Write one honest line: "this is working," "this is unclear," "this needs to change." Then close the page and get on with the work.
Don't analyse single months. Local marketing produces signal over three months, not three weeks. A bad month after two good ones is usually noise. A flat trend after three months is signal.
The quarterly review that decides what to keep
Once a quarter, sit longer (an hour, paper not screen) and look at the trend across the last three months. Three honest questions per active marketing idea.
Did I run it consistently. Did it produce a measurable lift in any of the five numbers. Would I be proud to keep doing it. Keep the ideas that pass all three. Change the ones that pass two. Drop the ones that pass none. Pick the next quarter's two or three.
What to track for specific channels
Google Business Profile
Built-in insights: total views, calls and direction requests this month next to last. Reviews count this month next to last. Don't track every metric. Three are enough.
Vehicle signage
The 'where did you hear about us' answer 'I saw your van.' Not perfect. Better than guessing.
Flyer or postcard drops
A specific phone number, code or web page used only for that drop. Without that, you can't honestly tell if the drop earned.
Partnerships and sponsorships
Ask the partner. Ask new customers if they saw your name there. Track named referrals from each partner over a quarter.
Reviews
Count this month, count last month, look at the trend. The eBook goal is steady - five to twelve a month for most local businesses.
What to do this week
Set up a single-page tracker (a spreadsheet, a notebook, a notes app). Add the five numbers. Add the five-category 'where did you hear about us' list. Practise asking the question on three new enquiries this week. Schedule the first Friday review for next month and the quarterly review thirteen weeks out.
Review results and improve the system: the recurring principle this chapter is built on. The next chapter pulls the eBook into a calendar a busy owner can run alongside the real work.
The rest of this chapter walks through the practical steps, the templates and the checklists you need to put it into action. It includes worked examples, copy frameworks and the small decisions that make the difference between a plan that sits in a drive and one that gets used.
Inside you'll find a step-by-step playbook, a downloadable template, a checklist you can run this week and a short list of common mistakes to avoid before you start.
The full action plan, broken into weekly steps.
Ready-to-use scripts, templates and checklists.
Worked examples for different sized businesses.
Common mistakes and how to avoid them.
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