One of the most important aspects of web site marketing is research.

Accurate research is GOLD.

Following on from yesterday's article, "Which form of advertising works best for your business?".

One of the simplest things to can do to find out which advertising works best for your business is ask everyone that comes into your business.

Let's say you sell furniture, and you have 25 couples come into your showroom on a Sunday. Of those 25 couples lets say 3 (12%) end up buying some furniture.

As you're going through the sales process you can easily ask how they found out about your business, but what you've missed on is all of that valuable market research from the other 88% of customers who came into your business, but didn't buy anything.

You need to know how they heard about your business.

Write up a small template that looks like this:

Store sign
Vehicle
Advertisement - Newsletter
Advertisement - Magazine
Advertisement - Newspaper
Advertisement - Yellow Pages
web site
Word of mouth

Every time someone enters the store make sure you offer them a small complimentary treat - lollies, chocolate, anything. Then ask your visitors, "Thanks for coming in, can I ask how you found out about our business?".

In my experience visitors are more than happy to answer your question as long as you're not abrupt or threatening in any way. You may get the odd person that doesn't want to answer, but the majority will be helpful.

Now you have FREE market research from 90% - 100% of the visitors to your store on which advertising works for your business (with the exception of the cost of the lollies/chocolate/gift).

All you need to do is ASK!