The Revenue Chain: Why Your Marketing Isn't Showing Up in Your Bank Account

I care less about likes and more about whether your marketing shows up in the bank account.

That sounds obvious. But a lot of marketing gets judged on clicks, followers and traffic, and none of those pay the bills. What pays the bills is a customer handing you money. Everything that happens between your marketing and that moment is what I call the revenue chain.

What is the revenue chain?

The revenue chain is every step a customer takes from first hearing about you to paying you. For most local businesses it looks something like this:

1. Getting found. Someone sees you on Google, the map, social media, an ad or a friend's recommendation.
2. Getting picked. They look you over, check your reviews and your website, and decide you're worth a call.
3. Getting the call. They call, text or fill out your form, and it actually reaches you.
4. Answering fast. Somebody picks up, or calls back, before they move on to the next business.
5. Following up. You send the quote, check back and stay in touch.
6. Closing the sale. They say yes and pay you.
7. Knowing what it was worth. You can trace that sale back to where it started, so you know what's working.

Your marketing is only as strong as the weakest link in that chain.

Why most marketing problems aren't marketing problems

When the phone isn't ringing enough, the first instinct is usually "we need more marketing." More ads, a new website, more posts.

Sometimes that's right. But a lot of the time, the leads are already there. They're just leaking out somewhere between the marketing and the sale:

• Calls going to voicemail on busy days and never getting returned.
• A contact form that sends to an inbox nobody checks.
• Quotes that go out and never get a follow-up.
• A website that looks fine on a computer but is hard to use on a phone.
• Reviews that make people hesitate.

Spending more on ads won't fix any of those. It just pours more water into a leaky bucket.

The link nobody checks: knowing what it was worth

The last link is the one I see broken most often, and it's the most expensive one to get wrong.

I once worked with a business that thought its Facebook ads were costing about $150 per customer. The real number was about $1,200, hidden by a tracking problem. Once that was fixed, they scaled to more than $1M a month in ad spend.

Bad tracking doesn't just make your reports wrong. It makes your decisions wrong. You end up cutting the thing that's working and spending more on the thing that isn't.

How to find your weak link

You don't need fancy software to start. Grab last month's numbers and walk the chain:

• How many people found you? Check your Google Business Profile insights and website visits.
• How many reached out? Count the calls, texts and form fills.
• How many did you actually talk to? Be honest about the missed calls.
• How many got a quote?
• How many bought?
• Where did those buyers come from? Ask every one of them.

Wherever the number drops the hardest is usually where your money is slipping through. Fix that link first. Then, and only then, think about turning up the marketing.

Two ways to check your chain

If you want a second set of eyes, I've got two free options:

• The Revenue Chain Check. A free 30-minute call with me. We walk your chain together, and I'll show you your weakest link and where I'd look first. Grab a time on my calendar.
• The do-it-yourself audit. Rather poke around on your own first? Run the free audit at prestoncone.com and see where you stand.

Either way, no pressure and no jargon. Just a straight look at where your marketing turns into money, and where it doesn't.

Common questions