Tracking Your Marketing Results to Grow Your NDIS Business

Will, EnableUs Community

So, I- I- I was talking to this support provider last week, and they were telling me they just spent three thousand dollars on a local flyer drop, right? And I asked them, okay, well, how many participants did you actually get from that? And there was just this... this massive silence. They had absolutely no idea. It's like throwing darts in a dark room and just hoping something hits.

Winter, EnableUs Community

Three thousand dollars! That's, uh, that's a massive hit to the budget for a small NDIS provider. But it's so common, isn't it? People think tracking is this massive, complicated beast with expensive software, or they think, oh, we're too small, we only have ten participants, we don't need to track. But that is the absolute trap.

Will, EnableUs Community

Exactly, it is a massive trap. The reality is, if you're a small provider, every single dollar matters even more. You can't afford to waste money on stuff that isn't working. And the research actually shows that businesses that track their marketing performance grow their revenue twenty-five percent faster than the ones just flying blind. Twenty-five percent!

Winter, EnableUs Community

Wow, twenty-five percent. That is not a small number, Will. That's the difference between a thriving service and one that's constantly struggling to keep the doors open. But, okay, how do we actually do this without spending hours on admin? Because providers are already buried in paperwork.

Will, EnableUs Community

Yeah, yeah, the NDIS admin mountain is real. But it doesn't need to be complex. You literally just need a simple spreadsheet. Six columns: enquiry date, the person's name, how they found you, the specific channel, whether they converted to a participant, and a few notes. That's it.

Winter, EnableUs Community

Right, so just a basic grid. But how do you get that "how they found you" data? Is it just... asking them?

Will, EnableUs Community

Yes! It is literally one question during your very first conversation. "How did you hear about our services?" But here's the trick—you have to write down exactly what they say. If they say "Google search," don't just write "online." Write "Google search." If they say "my support coordinator, Sarah, told me," you write down "Sarah" and her agency. Don't wait until the end of the week to fill it in either, do it right then and there while it's fresh.

Winter, EnableUs Community

Ah, right. Because by Friday, you've spoken to ten other people and you've completely forgotten that it was actually Sarah who sent them your way. And then you're back to guessing.

Will, EnableUs Community

Exactly. It takes two minutes, and after a few months, you suddenly have this incredibly valuable map of where your participants are actually coming from.

Winter, EnableUs Community

So once we have this spreadsheet going, what are we actually looking at? Because I know people get really obsessed with, like, Facebook page likes or how many hits their website gets. Those are just... what do you call them? Vanity metrics?

Will, EnableUs Community

Spot on. Vanity metrics. They make you feel good, but they don't pay the bills. You can have ten thousand followers on Instagram, but if none of them are NDIS participants or coordinators looking for services, it's useless. We need to focus on metrics that actually drive growth. First is enquiry volume—how many potential participants are actually reaching out to you every week or month? If that number drops, you know you have a problem before it becomes a cash flow crisis.

Winter, EnableUs Community

Right, so enquiry volume is the early warning system. What's next?

Will, EnableUs Community

Conversion rate. So, of the people who enquire, how many actually become participants? If you get ten enquiries and five sign service agreements, that's a fifty percent conversion rate. That means your marketing is pulling in the right people. But if you get fifty enquiries and only one converts... well, you're either targeting the wrong audience or your intake process is leaking like a sieve.

Winter, EnableUs Community

Ah, that makes sense. So high enquiries but low conversion means you're wasting time on the phone with people who aren't a good fit. What about the actual cost? How do we know if we're spending too much to get those conversions?

Will, EnableUs Community

That's your cost per acquisition, or CPA. You take your total marketing spend for a period and divide it by the number of new participants you got. So, if you spent a thousand dollars this quarter and gained ten participants, your CPA is a hundred bucks. You track that over time to see if you're getting more efficient.

Winter, EnableUs Community

Okay, that's straightforward for digital stuff where you can track clicks, but what about the real-world stuff? Like, if I go to a local community expo or host a presentation for support coordinators? How do you track that without a digital trail?

Will, EnableUs Community

You have to build in unique identifiers. For example, if you do a presentation, don't just give them your main website URL. Create a specific landing page, like yourwebsite.com.au/expo, that redirects to your main page but lets you track exactly how many visits came from that event. Or, if you're handing out flyers at different locations, use a slightly different email address or a specific phone number for each batch. It sounds a bit fiddly, but it gives you concrete proof of whether that weekend expo was actually worth your time.

Winter, EnableUs Community

Right, so you're connecting the offline effort to a digital marker. But what if it's a mix of both? Like, they see a flyer, then they look you up on Facebook, then they ask their support coordinator, and *then* they call you. That's a lot of steps.

Will, EnableUs Community

Yeah, that's the multi-touch journey, and it's super common in the NDIS. To keep it simple, just use last-touch attribution—which is whatever prompted them to finally make contact. But you can also ask those follow-up questions during intake. "Did you check out our website before calling?" "How long ago did you first hear about us?" It helps you see how your social media and your offline networking are working together, rather than in silos.

Winter, EnableUs Community

So it's about looking at the whole picture, but keeping the tracking simple enough that you'll actually do it. And I guess once you have that data, you can set some real goals, right? Not just "we want more participants."

Will, EnableUs Community

Exactly. You set SMART goals. Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. Instead of "get more enquiries," you say, "increase monthly enquiries by twenty-five percent over the next three months through weekly coordinator outreach." You track it weekly, and if you're off target by week two, you adjust. You don't wait until the end of the quarter to realise it didn't work.

Winter, EnableUs Community

Yeah, that makes so much sense. It takes the emotion out of it. You don't have to guess or feel bad; you just look at the numbers and pivot. Well, this has been incredibly practical, Will. I'm off to set up my spreadsheet.

Will, EnableUs Community

Get that spreadsheet ready. Alright, talk soon.

Winter, EnableUs Community

See ya.