Where did your last ten jobs come from?
Tracking that counts every call, form and booking, and shows which marketing paid for itself. So you stop guessing where to spend.
Someone rings every week. A directory. A local magazine. A man who does Google ads. Each one has the answer. Each one wants a few hundred pounds a month.
So you try one. Three months later the direct debit is still going out.
Did it work? You got some calls. Were they from the ad? You'd have to ask every caller, and you're busy doing the job.
So you do what most owners do. You keep paying for the things you're scared to stop. You cut the things that felt quiet. And you never find out if you got it the right way round.
You're running your marketing on feel.
Read this to the end. It takes ten minutes. It could save you a direct debit or two.
Your website isn't counting
Most small business websites have Google Analytics on them. Somebody added it years ago. Almost none of them count the things that matter.
They count visits. Visits don't pay the bills. Calls, forms and bookings do.
Here's what I usually find when I look:
- Phone taps aren't counted. On a phone, most people tap your number to ring you. If that tap isn't counted, your best enquiries are invisible.
- Forms aren't counted. Or they're counted twice. Either way the number is wrong.
- The cookie banner is hiding your visitors. Set up wrong, it blocks the counting for almost everyone. Or it does nothing at all, which puts you on the wrong side of the privacy rules.
- Your ads are flying blind. Google and Facebook can aim at the people most likely to enquire. But only if someone tells them which clicks became enquiries. Usually nobody has.
- Your Google map listing isn't joined up. Calls and clicks from it look like they came from nowhere.
None of this is your fault. The person who built your site wasn't paid to check it. And it doesn't show. A site that counts nothing looks exactly like one that counts everything.
What guessing costs you
Say you spend money on three things each month. One brings in most of your work. One brings in a little. One brings in nothing at all.
Without counting, all three look the same. So you can't cut the dead one. And you can't put more behind the good one.
You're paying for the dead one every month. And the good one never gets the money it has earned.
It goes beyond ads. Counting also shows which of your services people ask about most. Which pages they read before they ring. Which towns they come from. That tells you where to put your time as well as your money.
The fix: count what pays
What I set up
Every enquiry counted. Phone taps, forms, bookings and WhatsApp taps. If someone gets in touch, it's on the list.
Every enquiry tagged with where it came from. Google search, your map listing, Facebook, an ad, a directory. No more "came from nowhere".
A cookie banner that works properly. It asks the right question and respects the answer. So your counting stays inside the privacy rules and your numbers hold up. If your web person asks, this is called Consent Mode.
Your ads told what worked. Google and Facebook learn which clicks became real enquiries. Then they find more people like those.
One plain report. One page. Enquiries by source, what each one cost, and what to do more of. No charts you have to squint at.
Fixed price. Fixed scope. Agreed before I start.
What you'll know afterwards
- Which marketing to keep. It brings enquiries and you can see them.
- Which marketing to stop. You'll have the numbers to cancel it without worrying.
- What an enquiry costs you from each place you advertise.
- Where your next pound should go. And where your next hour should go.
The Your-Numbers Promise
Every account is set up in your name. Your analytics, your ad accounts, your reports. I work in them as a guest. If we stop working together, you keep all of it and you can lock me out in one click.
Is this for you? Be honest.
This is for you if
- You pay for ads, directories or leads each month and can't say what they bring in
- Someone else runs your ads and you have no way to check their numbers
- You have Google Analytics and never look at it, because it tells you nothing useful
- You're about to spend more on marketing and want to know where to put it
This is not for you if
- You don't have a website yet. Start with the website letter.
- You want a forty-page report. You'll get one page.
- You'd rather not know. Some people wouldn't. That's fair.
Why listen to me?
I've spent more than fifteen years in marketing. A big part of that has been tracking. Working out which pound brought which customer.
I don't hand the work to a junior or an overseas team. I set it up myself, and I'm local, near Yateley on the Surrey and Hampshire border.
Here's the catch
I do this alongside my day job, so I only take on a few new businesses each month. That's how every job gets proper attention.
When the month is full, the next business waits.
Here's what to do right now
Email me your website address and what your business does. I'll look at it and reply personally with the three things I'd fix first, including what your site is and isn't counting. Even if you never work with me, you'll know where the gaps are.
hello@honegrowth.co.uk
Send my websiteYou can keep guessing. Keep paying for all of it and hoping some of it works.
Or you can count it.
Talk soon,
Damian
Hone Growth, Hampshire
P.S. If you skipped to the bottom, here's the short version: every call, form and booking counted, with where it came from. One plain page that tells you what to keep, what to stop and where to spend next. A few places each month. Send me your website.
P.P.S. Not sure it's worth an email? Try this. Write down your last ten jobs. Next to each, write where the customer found you. If you can't fill in the list, you're spending money in the dark.