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For an entire industry of home improvement enterprises, a typical kneejerk reaction in a bad economy — this current economic disaster included — is to start cost cutting. And, typically, the very things that fall under the axe are the very things that drive profit — marketing.

You see the problem with this situation?

There are several reasons behind the measure. The most fundamental issue with marketing up to this point is that business owners have very little insight into how their marketing works for them. Because, if they did, there would be a lot fewer worried ad salesmen out there.

Marketing strategy for many business owners is primarily based on what has been done in the past. Door hangers, yard signs, local ad pages all get budget and that’s the end of understanding how they perform. And, very often, no efforts are made to understand the bigger picture of advertising effectiveness. Split testing of advertising copy, pitting one ad against another, listening to phone calls, and other measurements are the mode in which enterprises can better understand how to make higher returns on their marketing budgets.

Up until this point, getting the data that actually mattered to business owners — lead costs, closed business to name a couple — was a tedious process. No longer.

The following is a story about a window retailer who found the way to higher profitability — in this economy — through marketing accountability.

Gerry Rogers is a traditionalist — meaning, he doesn’t like to pay for services that don’t return for his business.

His company, Mr. Rogers Windows, operates two locations: one in Norfolk, Virginia, and the other located in Charlotte, N.C.

Bottom line: Gerry tracks everything now — but that wasn’t always the case.

“Things became ambiguous and I couldn’t keep track of it anymore,” Rogers explained. “After 25 years, things began to just start to run together and I needed clarity. People would say they saw my trucks or they saw me at a show or whatever, but we never really knew.”

He added, “CAP gave me the opportunity to take back control of the marketing dollars I was spending.”

The Conversion Action Platform (CAP) is an online application that allows Gerry to see the effectiveness of all his marketing in real time. For a business owner that has much more to do than search for obscure analytics, this access has proven invaluable. Additionally, Gerry added, he uses the recorded phone calls to train new customer service associates, which has proven “invaluable.”

Gerry explained that in a good economy, business owners such as himself have a tendency to become complacent in their marketing. In a strong economy, money is coming in, marketing is seemingly performing, and there is no shortage of leads. And, while it is vitally important to track even in that type of scenario, in a bad economic environment, tracking should be a top priority, he believes.

“You should never stop tracking, no matter how good your lead costs are,” Gerry adds.

Gerry rediscovered tracking in the fall. At first, he began using the program to track three different advertisements. Each ad contained a unique phone number so that Gerry could understand exactly how many calls he was getting from each.

The results — compelling.

So compelling, in fact, that Gerry decided to up his ante. With the program, he was able to immediately understand that his marketing investments were paying off.

Armed with data that essentially exposed his advertising’s effectiveness, Gerry went to the local television affiliates with an offer: They would be paid by the call only. After agreeing on a call price, Gerry provided access to the program’s dashboard so that the television ad reps would be able to monitor their ad success.

The result? Gerry went from tracking three numbers initially to now keeping a stable nearing 60 numbers today. Every television spot, every radio ad, all web sites — pretty much every marketing channel is now held to accountable standards.

In fact, if the television ads weren’t performing up to par for Gerry, the television ad reps would run more television spots until the desired call volumes were reached.

“With CAP, they had to put their money where their mouth is,” Gerry chuckled.

What now for Gerry? He’s learned which channels provide the biggest bang for their buck and can now negotiate pay-for-performance deals on his advertising that guarantee results or the ad salespeople don’t see a dime — see a trend?

Gerry took control of his marketing and is driving profit in the worst economy in years.

For more information, contact Jeff O’Neill, Conversion Associates. 617-202-3244. joneill@conversionassociates.com