How do you know if your marketing is working?
Every business owner has asked this question—and the answer is critically important to your success.
Here’s the problem: ad vendors are great salesmen. They stroke your ego while reaching for your pocketbook. They’ll offer reports and metrics and numbers (and if they don’t offer anything, walk away NOW!), but the motive behind those reports is often just to prove that what they’re selling works.
The numbers they share tell the story they want.
The Iceberg Problem
Marketing is like an iceberg. Above the surface, things may look good—you see an increase in sales, new customers coming in the door, and it looks like growth.
But it’s what’s under the water that can sink your business.
Customer retention—along with its counterpart, customer attrition—is the silent killer. It’s just your best customers, slipping away one at a time, until you wake up one day with empty chairs and no idea why.
You won’t feel it at first. A customer here, a customer there. But it doesn’t take long for even a “normal” rate of lost customers to destroy a business if you stop bringing in new ones—or if you’re bringing in the wrong ones.
The 20% Rule
Here’s an uncomfortable truth: about 20% of your customers will leave every year regardless. They move, change situations, or just move on. That’s uncontrollable.
But what about the customers you lose because of something you did? That’s controllable attrition—and it’s often invisible in the reports your ad vendors send you.
What to Measure Instead
Stop asking “how many new customers did we get?” and start asking:
- What’s our retention rate? Are we keeping customers longer than last year?
- What’s the lifetime value? Are new customers spending more or less over time?
- What’s the quality? Are we attracting ideal customers or discount shoppers?
Your marketing needs to support your goals, your business, and your customers—not just generate impressive-looking reports.
Hold your ad vendors accountable for real results. Not vanity metrics.
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Need help measuring what actually matters? Let’s talk about marketing that builds lasting customer relationships.
