Tracking - How Can You Track How Many Business Cards Get Taken?

Posted on March 2nd, 2007.

Here you will find various topics on how to track how many cards are taken from your business card dispenser…and information on how to report results to your clients

Dean

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11 Responses to “Tracking - How Can You Track How Many Business Cards Get Taken?”

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andrewinaustin |

Dean,

You mentioned that if you print your own cards you can track exactly how many get taken. How do you do that exactly?

Feb 26, 8:04 PM —

deanc
March 2nd, 2007

Hi Andrew,

When I say tracking cards, I mean it in the sense that you can do a pretty good guesstimation of how many cards have been taken from the display.

Tracking response rates for the actual business owner is a different thing. This isn’t exactly easy unless you’re willing to invest time and money into designing cards that can be tracked. To me, this still won’t give the business owner a true short-term indication if people are going to redeem them.

I have the beleif that if at the top of the display you mention about a ‘15%’ discount from any of the businesses from this display, people will mention it…your almost guaranteed of that!

You can progress into designing and tracking etc, it’s not a bad thing to do, but when your starting out…just keep it simple.

Dean C

Feb 27, 10:45 AM —

deanc
March 2nd, 2007

Just to add to the above comment, you can ‘report’ to the business owner via email or phone each month as to how many cards have been taken.

You can also let them know that you are going to move their cards to another display if the response for their particular industry is slow from a certain display location.

Thoughts and Feedback please.

Dean

Feb 27, 10:48 AM —

deanc
March 2nd, 2007

This is an interesting question Andew that could have quite a few answers…

Proving to advertisers how well there marketing is working can be kind of hard in this business. I’m not sure about you, but there have been plenty of times I have picked up a business card…but not used it immediately. So how to explain that to a business owner?

You say it like I just said it. You need to educate them how the LONG TERM value will work for them i.e. people store cards in their office desks, in their wallets…we’ve all done it at some point.

When I speak to business owners, I ALWAYS think for them….never think they can handle their own objections….beat them to the punch.

After educating them on every single benefit in the course of your conversation (and use the words ‘which means’ as per above post), then you have ask quality questions to draw out any objections…then close the deal from there.

I did speak to a guy recently who offered to print cards for me with a bar code on each card per different location. And as a part of the package for business owners, I would say “If you advertise in ten or more of my displays, I will include this bar code scanner gun PLUS the software so you can track your cards”. This is still I good ideas, but slighty more work involved. This offer is still available if anyone wants to investigate further (it’s a great packaging idea to add value and certainty to the advertiser). I can give you the guys name and email if anyone wants it.

At the end of the day, the most simple way is to report monthly to the advertiser as to how many cards have been taken.

Dean

Mar 1, 2:09 PM —

deanc
March 2nd, 2007

Here is a message thanks to Dave in NY that was posted in another section that I thought should also be in this section. Nice simple idea Dave!

heresmycard |

Although I pitch the printing of cards in the offer, I have given a discount if the business person wants to use their own cards. When you print the cards, an offer or incentive can be added to make the card valuable as a redemption and tracking tool. One way to add value to a cusotmer’s card is to buy a rubber stamp with an offer and stamp the reverse side of the card. Stamping cards is no thrill, but doing a batch of 50 at a time is not a big deal.

Dave

Mar 5, 6:57 PM —

deanc
March 5th, 2007

My first thought of how to help your customers track their business cards was to do a manual count and reply back to the customer that out on the 200 which each compartment holds you get back with them stating over the last 3-6 months now there is 100 left and I need to go back to them to collect more cards, but reality is the business owner will need physical proof that their cards coming from the displays are actual customers going to their store because of it and not someone just taking the cards out from no apparent reason. In the same matter as stamping a 10-15% off which is a great idea or putting a bar code on the back which is also a great idea but more time consumming is just write on the back of their business card ” Received this card from a Card Display” and then the business owner knows that their new customer received their card from one of your displays and figures that the $$ they invested in you is actually working for them. But would also keep the relationship there as well and getting back to them via email or phone that they have 50% of their cards left in your displays.
My 2 cents worth.

devans1

devans1
March 6th, 2007

Thanks Dave, good thoughts.

The idea of stamping each card with a ‘10% off’ offer is a good idea. You know how at the post office they use the ink stamp…the ones that they bang onto the letter and it makes enough noise to wake up the manager in the office out the back?…one of those. You can change it to 20%, 30% just by moving the digits on the stamp around…but it could be time consuming (unless you have children who want to make a couple of dollars

I have another suggestion which one person has used in the past.

This person very slowly ran an ink marker pen down one side of each stack of cards. Slow enough so the ink would absorb into the card slightly. He would then educate the business owner to look out for this as a tracking indicator. This does work, but you would need to clearly state across the board on the top of your business card display dispenser “Present this card for XX% discount”.

Bar coding is also a good idea and it’s actually not that expensive. I know a guy who does this, and he’ll even put a seperate bar code on the business cards to track which of your business card display locations it came from…but I think one bar code would do the trick across all displays. Just let me know if you would like his details to investigate further.

Dean

deanc
March 7th, 2007

Do you count each card in each slot? Or, do you give an eye-ball estimate for the number of cards taken in reporting cards taken to the client? What is the frequency of reporting to clients? How much time does this usually take at a display counting cards taken and counting the cards to restock the display?

maryl2010
March 9th, 2007

Maryl2010,

Good questions, i’ll be happy to answer those for you.

You could count the cards, although if you have 20 business card displays out there in full swing, multipled by however many slots in your display, then you might be in for a long day (re-stocking day). Eye-balling the slots would be best. Know how many cards you spaces can hold, and give it your most accurate guess.

I suggest that once per month is a good time between reports. In this report, be very clear with them on the results, and you can even tell them that you have noticed reports that traffic and people in the area is on the increase. Comfort them in knowing you actually care. People will be more inclined to renew if they trust you.

If you find clients cards aren’t getting taken, let them know this. You can say “Mr/Ms business owner, your cards in my business card display dispenser haven’t had a high take rate this month, so I just wanted to let you know I have moved them to the bowling alley down the road to see how it goes there”. Just let them know your trying to find the best location for them.

It takes little time at each display to restock…10 minutes.

Dean

deanc
March 9th, 2007

I ran my first count this month. I marked 30 cards with a marker down the side of the stack of cards, then counted how many were left 4 weeks later. How do these results compare with anyone else who has counted? I averaged 5 cards per advertiser per location in one month.

The count was very valuable. I found that one of my locations wasn’t turning any cards at all. And I found that the number of cards taken was pretty random–from the same display, one advertiser would have zero taken while another would have 10.

andrewinaustin
April 2nd, 2007

Hi Andrew…

That’s great what you did…because testing and measuring is the fastest way forward in some cases.

If I were you, I would

1) Pay close attention to where in the card dispenser the cards were taken from (which quadrant). You might then notice a common theme throughout your displays. For example, if you notice that most cards get taken from the top righthand quadrant, you may be able to get more money for placing the card there

2) What was written on the business cards that got taken over and above the others. This marketing world can be strange…sometimes the business cards you would expect to get taken don’t.

3) For customer service purposes, maybe you could send your clients an email telling them that you are moving your display to a better location in your constant effort to get more of their business cards taken.

Why would I suggest #3 when they’ve most likely already paid you for a 6 or 12 month contract? Retention. If your advertising clients can see you’re putting in a pro-active effort that is in their best interests, then you increase your probabilities of them re-newing in your dispenser next time around.

If you ‘touch base’ with your clients via email just once per month and let them know how their ‘investment’ with you is going, some of them will re-new simply for the fact they can see you have substance to your business, and that you’re ontop of it. You MUST stand out from other avertising mediums they have to choose from.

Sending all your advertising clients an email takes no time at all. Just create a template email (just a few paragraphs will do), and use that template for all of them.
You could even send them a gift in the form of an ‘marketing tips’ e-book, or just copy and paste some marketing tips from a website somewhere (credit the author) and write at the bottom of your email ….”Here’s some cutting edge marketing ideas that you could use in your business to make more money for yourself”. This is a very good look for you and your business.

Keep us posted Andrew on your progress and ideas…your earlier posts were great.

Dean.

deanc
April 3rd, 2007