A Year End Marketing Review You Can Finish in an Afternoon

Start with the most important question. Where did your paying customers actually come from this year? Look at your booking records, customer management system, or invoices. If you ask new customers how they found you, tally the answers.

Group them into a few buckets, like Google search and maps, referrals, repeat customers, social media, ads, and other. Even rough numbers are useful.

Add up what you spent on marketing, including ads, agency or freelancer fees, software, printing, sponsorships, and directory listings. Include your own time if you spent a lot of it.

Line up each channel's cost against the customers it brought in. Some channels will clearly pay for themselves. Some will be unclear. A few will obviously be wasting money. Be honest with yourself, especially about things you like doing.

Look at the basics. Is your Google Business Profile complete and current? How many reviews did you get this year, and what's your rating? Does your website load fast on a phone, and does it clearly say what you do and where? Are your hours and contact details correct everywhere? Problems here make every other channel work less well.

Who were your most profitable customers? What did they buy, where did they come from, and what did they have in common? Next year's marketing should aim at finding more people like them.

Resist the urge to do everything. Choose three things for next year. Usually one fixes a weak foundation, one doubles down on what worked, and one tests something new on a small budget.

If you couldn't answer step one easily, make tracking a priority. Ask every new customer how they found you, use tracking on your website, and record it somewhere you'll look at monthly.

Sometimes a second set of eyes spots what you can't. Our free audit looks at your website and Google presence and tells you plainly what's working and what to fix first.