My mother sells traditional Irish Aran Sweaters through her online store. Real merino wool, the whole deal.

She used to have a brick and mortar store but turned it into an online store when she moved back to Toronto.

Her sales, of course, have taken a hit since then. It turns out fewer people buy these kinds of sweaters online.

Nonetheless, sales do trickle in from various places. Mostly due to her efforts on social media.

But here’s the thing… my mother doesn’t ask them how new customers found her.

Recently, someone from the US purchased a sweater online. She assumes they just found her online.

If so – that’s a huge revelation as it means she’s ranking for keywords that people are searching for (unbeknownst to her).

But she has no idea. And that’s a mistake.

So here’s the thing… if you’re going to spend any amount of time or resources on your marketing, you need to track where people found out about you originally.

And the best way to know which of your marketing channels are performing best is to ask how people found you originally and record that information in a CRM.

Later on—several months down the line—you can look at the data and see trends. Trends that make your head turn.

For example, you might see that people who came from Facebook ads only spend on average 4 months at your coworking space, compared to referrals who spend 12 months or more.

Or that hosting meetups is a really great way to attract new members that go on to stay a long time.

That kind of intel would be great to know. That’s the only real way to draw an ROI from different initiatives.

If you don’t have this data already, it’s not too late. Start asking your members how they heard about you first.

Put it in a spreadsheet. Start doing the math and building up the info you need to make better decisions in the future.

Don’t be like my mother (who now knows better). 🙃