Capturing the source of every enquiry makes everything else possible

4 days ago
3 min read

Updated: 2 days ago

Introduction

There is one piece of information that determines whether a business can make evidence-based marketing decisions at all, and it is not a sophisticated metric. It is simply knowing where each enquiry came from. Without it, every question about where to spend, what to stop and what is working is answered by impression.

Most small businesses collect it inconsistently: sometimes asked, rarely written down, categorised differently by different people, and never analysed. The fix costs four seconds per enquiry and a column in a spreadsheet, and within a quarter it produces better information than most analytics installations manage in a year.

1. Capturing the source of every enquiry unlocks every other decision

Why it comes first.

Which channels to expand, which to stop, what a customer costs, which sources convert best — all of these require this one field. Without it, no amount of other data helps. It is also the cheapest data a business can collect, which makes its absence particularly costly.

2. Ask rather than infer

The reliability point.

Analytics records the last click, which for many businesses is a search for their own name by somebody who was recommended. Asking the person produces a truer answer than any system can. The two together are better than either, but the asked answer is the one to trust when they disagree.

3. Record it verbatim first

The data quality rule.

"My neighbour used you" and "I saw your van" are different and both disappear into a word-of-mouth category. Capture the actual words and categorise later, once you have seen the range. A free-text column costs nothing and preserves detail you cannot recover afterwards.

4. Ask the second question

Where the real source is.

If they say they searched, ask what made them look. Half the time somebody had mentioned you first. The first answer is the last step, not the origin. Recording both, where you can get them, gives a far more honest picture of which channels are doing the work.

5. Capture it on every channel

The completeness requirement.

Phone, form, email, messages, in person. A source field on the web form only tells you about web enquiries, which in many businesses is the smaller half. The channels without a form are usually the ones producing the most work.

6. Make it one person's responsibility

The reason it lapses.

Collection that depends on everybody remembering stops during the first busy week. One owner and a weekly check that entries have a source is what keeps it alive.

7. Keep the categories few and stable

The analysis requirement.

Six or seven categories, defined once and unchanged. Categories that multiply or shift meaning make comparison across quarters impossible, which destroys most of the value.

8. Attach the source to the outcome

The step that makes it commercial.

Source recorded against won, lost and value. Volume by source is interesting; revenue and conversion by source is what changes the budget.

9. Review it quarterly against spending

The point of the whole exercise.

Sources by volume, conversion and revenue, next to what each cost. The mismatch is usually obvious and it is the clearest evidence for reallocation you will ever have.

Be careful about acting on small numbers. Thirty enquiries cannot distinguish between two similar channels, and a quarter of data is usually the minimum before moving any money on the strength of it.

Conclusion

Record where every enquiry came from, because it is the field everything else depends on.

Ask rather than relying on analytics, capture the answer in the enquirer's own words, ask a second question to get past the last step to the origin, collect it on every channel rather than only the web form, give one person responsibility for the log, keep a small stable set of categories, attach the source to the outcome and value, and review it quarterly against what each channel cost.