Find out if the leaflet drop paid off.

The oldest question in marketing

Offline marketing is still a big part of how local businesses win work. Van livery, leaflets through doors, signs outside jobs, local radio, parish magazines, trade directories. But most businesses have no idea which of them actually work, because every one carries the same phone number.

The fix is simple

Give each one its own tracking number. A number on the van, a different one on the leaflets, another on the Yell listing and another on the radio advert. They all ring your phone as normal. Your report shows how many calls each one produced, and with recording and AI turned on, how many were real enquiries.

Ideas that work well

• Test leaflet areas. Use a different number for each postcode area in a leaflet drop and see which ones respond.
• Compare directories. Checkatrade, MyBuilder, Rated People, Yell and Bark each with their own number. Most businesses find one or two earn their fee and the rest do not.
• Signs on jobs. A number on site boards for a few weeks after a job shows how many neighbours call.
• QR codes. Point a QR code at a page with its own tracking so scans that turn into calls are counted.

Events and trade shows

A stand at a trade show or an open day does not come with a phone number. Upload the attendee or enquiry list as a sheet instead. You will see who later called or enquired, and the event gets its share of the credit in the multi-touch attribution models.

Cash and offline sales

Plenty of jobs are paid in cash or by bank transfer and never touch a CRM. Upload your job diary as a sheet and the revenue lands on the channel that brought each customer in. See Revenue tracking.

What it costs

Each extra local number is £3 a month. If it shows you a £60 a month directory listing has not produced a call in six months, it has paid for itself many times over.