During a recent vacation I found a brochure in the room with advertising of local businesses. One of them was a typical Southern restaurant. What caught my attention waws that they had the following text under the ad:

When you come to our restaurant, mention the following to your server: "The Cactus Cowboy Sent Me!" and you'll receive a free coffee or dessert.

Now, the symbol of the restaurant is a Cactus dressed as a cowboy swirling a lasso (you can see it in the photo), so this ad somehow makes sense.

Although I would prefer to pay for my coffee than to say something so silly to my server, these people have a good point. They are tracking their marketing expenses. Each time that somebody says this silly sentence, they know that these people saw the paid ad displayed in the brochure. They could have included a coupon instead, but this would mean replacing the ad each time that a customer clipped it to bring it to the restaurant.

By saying a unique sentence like that, they can track the results of the marketing without having to replace the ad each time. It is clever and effective.

So what about you? Do you have a way to track your ads? If not, you should be learning from the Cactus Cowboy. After all, he knows what he is doing.