"Half my advertising spend is wasted; the trouble is, I don't know which half."

The Tracking Gap: Why Most Businesses Can't Connect Marketing to Revenue

The challenge of marketing attribution is more widespread than you might think.

According to recent industry research, 47% of marketers struggle with multi-touch attribution, making it difficult to determine which channel or strategy is driving the most ROI.  Even more telling, only 28% of marketers have a solid system for measuring ROI across their marketing efforts.

But here's the thing: before you can even worry about sophisticated attribution tracking, you need to solve a much more basic problem—are you actually capturing all your leads in the first place?

Research shows that 85% of customers whose calls go unanswered will not call back, and small businesses miss almost half of their incoming calls. When you're missing this many potential leads, any discussion about attribution becomes meaningless.

This tracking gap typically stems from four common challenges:

The Missed Lead Problem: You can't track what you don't capture. Every missed call, unanswered text, or delayed email response represents a potential lead that never makes it into your system to be tracked at all.

The Disconnected Data Issue: Your phone system, website forms, and follow-up processes probably don't talk to each other. A lead might call after seeing your Facebook ad, but without proper tracking, you'll never know the original source.

The Manual Entry Reality: Let's be honest—in the rush of daily business, your team is focused on serving clients, not meticulously recording where each lead came from. Manual tracking systems tend to fall apart under real-world pressures.

The Follow-Up Gap: Even when you do capture a lead, inconsistent follow-up means potential customers slip away before you can convert them, making any attribution analysis incomplete.

In New Zealand specifically, where digital marketing now accounts for 63% of ad spend, totalling more than $2.1 billion, the pressure to optimise marketing performance has never been higher. But optimisation starts with capturing every lead.



The Real Cost of Missing Leads: It's Bigger Than You Think

The cost of missing leads goes far beyond just lost sales. It's wasted marketing spend on a massive scale.

Consider this: if you're spending $3,000 monthly on Google Ads and missing 62% of the calls those ads generate, you're effectively throwing away $1,860 every month. That's over $22,000 annually in completely wasted marketing budget.

The Hidden Costs Include:

Misallocated Marketing Budget: Without clear data on which channels are actually reaching you, you're likely spending money in the wrong places. Industry research shows that 83% of marketing leaders now consider demonstrating ROI as their top priority, yet 64% don't have quantitative tools for demonstrating the impact of marketing spend on company performance.

The Opportunity Cost: Every missed lead represents lost revenue that compounds over time. Studies show that 89% of customers expect businesses to respond to email within one hour, and 90% of customers rate an immediate response as important or very important when they have a question.

The Quality Blindspot: When you're missing leads, you can't build a complete picture of which marketing channels bring quality prospects versus time-wasters.

The Reputation Cost: 78% of customers have backed out of a purchase due to poor customer experience. Missed calls don't just lose immediate sales—they damage your brand reputation.

The scale of this problem is significant. Research indicates that businesses in the UK lose over £30 billion annually due to missed calls, which equates to approximately £5,500 per business. For many small businesses, this represents a substantial portion of their potential revenue.

Why Traditional Tracking Methods Keep Failing

If you've tried to solve this problem before, you've probably attempted one or more of these common approaches:

The "How Did You Hear About Us?" Method

Almost every business starts here, asking clients how they found you. While it seems logical, this approach is deeply flawed:

• Clients often don't remember accurately
• They typically only mention the last touchpoint, ignoring all previous influences
• The data rarely gets recorded consistently
• There's no connection to final sale value

The Part-Time Receptionist Solution

• Hiring someone to answer phones during business hours seems logical, but it's expensive and still leaves you vulnerable during lunch breaks, after hours, and busy periods.
• Plus, the average cost to hire and train an in-house receptionist is significant, and they only provide coverage during their working hours.

The "We'll Wing It" Approach

• Some businesses have team members handle calls when possible, but this creates inconsistent experiences and takes valuable staff away from revenue-generating activities.

Most businesses try to solve lead capture problems through manual tracking methods, part-time staff, or ad-hoc approaches, but these solutions consistently fail because they rely on human memory, create coverage gaps, and lack systematic processes

The Doris Solution: Never Miss Another Lead

The businesses that solve this problem don't do it through better voicemail systems or hoping their existing staff can juggle more tasks. They implement Doris's AI-powered call handling and lead management system that ensures every lead is captured, tracked, and properly followed up.

Here's what Doris actually does to solve your lead capture problem:

24/7 Call Answering

Doris answers every call professionally, whether it's 2 PM on a Tuesday or 11 PM on a Sunday. Your potential customers always reach a helpful voice that can:

• Answer basic questions about your services
• Collect contact information and inquiry details
• Schedule appointments directly into your calendar
• Screen sales enquiries and identify warm leads
• Take detailed messages for follow-up

Intelligent Call Handling

Rather than generic responses, Doris is trained specifically on your business to provide accurate, helpful information:

• Understands your services and pricing structure
• Can explain your process and answer frequently asked questions
• Knows your availability and can book appointments accordingly
• Escalates complex queries to you when needed

Lead Capture and Organisation

Every interaction with Doris automatically flows into an organised system:

• Contact details are captured accurately without manual data entry
• Inquiry details and context are recorded for each lead
• Source tracking identifies which marketing efforts are generating calls
• All information syncs with your existing CRM or contact management system

Ability to Automate Follow-Up Sequences

Doris doesn't just capture leads—it nurtures them through intelligent follow-up:

• Sends appointment confirmations and reminders
• Follows up on quotes and proposals
• Triggers email sequences for lead nurturing
• Ensures no prospect falls through the cracks

Multi-Channel Communication

Beyond phone calls, Doris handles communication across multiple channels:

• Responds to text messages and WhatsApp inquiries
• Manages email communications and workflows
• Maintains consistent messaging across all touchpoints
• Provides 24/7 availability regardless of the communication method

How Doris Transforms Your Lead Management Process

Implementing Doris creates an immediate improvement in your lead capture and tracking capabilities:

Step 1: Complete Lead Capture

Instead of missing your calls, Doris ensures every inquiry is captured and recorded. This gives you the complete data you need to understand which marketing channels are actually generating interest.

Step 2: Consistent Lead Qualification

Doris asks the same qualifying questions to every lead, ensuring you have consistent data to compare the quality of different marketing sources. You'll quickly identify which channels bring serious prospects versus tire-kickers.

Step 3: Immediate Response and Engagement

With Doris responding instantly to inquiries, you'll see higher conversion rates from all your marketing channels. When leads receive immediate, helpful responses, they're far more likely to move forward.

Step 4: Organised Lead Tracking

Every lead captured by Doris includes source information, making it easy to track which marketing efforts are working. You'll finally be able to answer the question: "Which marketing channels are bringing us profitable customers?"

Step 5: Automated Nurturing

Doris's follow-up sequences ensure leads don't go cold between initial contact and conversion, improving the overall ROI of all your marketing efforts.

Doris transforms lead management by systematically capturing every inquiry, qualifying leads consistently, responding immediately, tracking source information, and automating follow-up sequences to prevent leads from falling through the cracks.

What Happens When You Stop Missing Leads?

The impact of proper lead capture is clear: when you're not missing opportunities, you can finally see which marketing efforts are truly driving results. This visibility allows you to make informed decisions about where to invest your marketing budget for maximum return.

Beyond Lead Capture: The Foundation for Better Marketing Decisions

While Doris primarily solves the lead capture problem, this creates the foundation for much better marketing attribution and decision-making:

Complete Data Collection

When you're capturing every lead, you can start building accurate pictures of which marketing channels perform best. You'll know not just how many people saw your ads, but how many actually contacted you.

Source Tracking

Doris's lead capture includes basic source tracking, so you can begin identifying patterns in where your best leads originate.

Conversion Analysis

With all leads properly captured and followed up, you can start analysing which marketing sources bring leads that actually convert to sales.

ROI Clarity

When you're not missing leads, you can more accurately calculate the return on investment for different marketing channels.

This complete lead capture system becomes the foundation for more sophisticated marketing attribution as your business grows.

Conclusion: Start With What Matters Most

Advanced marketing attribution and multi-touch tracking are valuable, but they're meaningless if you're missing half your leads in the first place.

Doris solves the fundamental problem: ensuring every marketing dollar you spend has the chance to be properly evaluated because every lead it generates is captured, tracked, and nurtured.

In New Zealand, where businesses are investing heavily in digital marketing—with programmatic advertising spending expected to increase to over $1.8 billion by 2028—the ability to capture and convert every lead is becoming a competitive necessity.

Every day you operate without proper lead capture is another day of potentially wasted marketing budget. But more importantly, it's another day of missed opportunities to connect with customers who are actively looking for your services.

Doris's AI-powered call handling and lead management system ensures you never miss another lead. Instead of wondering why your marketing isn't working, you'll have complete data on which channels are generating interest and which leads are converting to sales.

The question isn't whether you can afford to implement proper lead capture. The question is whether you can afford to keep missing the leads your marketing is already generating.

Ready to stop missing leads and start capturing the full value of your marketing spend? Doris makes it possible to answer every call, capture every inquiry, and nurture every prospect—automatically, professionally, and around the clock.

Because when you capture every lead, you can finally optimise what actually matters.