Marketing Is a Soup, Not a Science Experiment

Here’s how people end up buying from you. Let’s say you send out a marketing postcard. A week later, your phone rings. A lead! Hooray!

But then your inner Sherlock Holmes kicks in. “Was it the postcard? The Facebook post? The Google ad? The email blast? If I can just pin exactly what pulled this customer in, cancel the rest of the ads that aren’t working, Voilà,’ I’ll be rich!!!”

Answer: Yes. It was all of it.

Marketing doesn’t work like a light switch—flip once, boom, leads. It works like soup. Multiple ingredients. Time. Heat. Stir occasionally. Then, when it’s just right, people bite.

Trying to isolate the one ingredient that made it work is like tasting chili and saying, “Ah, it was definitely the cumin.”

Nope. It was all of it.

The Way People Actually Consume Ads

Let’s be honest: no one walks around thinking, “I’m actively in a sales funnel.”

People consume media passively. They scroll Instagram while waiting in line. Flip through mail while sipping coffee. See a yard sign out the car window. Google a solution when a problem finally gets annoying enough.

But here’s the thing—they’re always absorbing, noticing even if it is almost at a subliminal level.

Not in a logical, linear, trackable way, but in an emotional, “I’ve seen this company around before” way.

What catches their eye? A solution to a problem they already have.

Their A/C is making weird noises.

They’re tired of stepping over tree branches.

Their kitchen is stuck in the 90s.

Their roof has a mystery stain.

When they start seeing a company repeatedly associated with a solution to that exact problem, interest starts to build. First, it’s awareness. Then familiarity. Then trust. Then… action.

That’s how people really buy. Not “I saw your Google ad at 10:06 AM and decided to convert.” More like “I’ve been seeing your name for a while… figured I’d call.”

The Real Trap: Obsessing Over Attribution

Let’s get real. The goal of marketing isn’t to run a forensic investigation on each sale. It’s to generate consistent, predictable growth.

But when you’re hyper-focused on micro-measuring—“Which exact ad brought in this one job?”—you miss the big picture:

You undervalue campaigns that plant the awareness seed.

You cut pieces of the puzzle that helped create momentum.

You end up losing sleep trying to trace every dollar like a jealous accountant, while leads shrink and business slows.

And worst of all: you slow your own growth chasing attribution clarity instead of chasing new customers.

How Your Prospective Customer Thinks

Let’s say a homeowner notices their A/C isn’t cooling right. It’s just annoying enough to notice, but not yet a full-blown crisis.

They:

See your postcard: “Huh. Tune-up for $89… might need that.”

Scroll Instagram and see your ad: “Oh yeah, that’s the same company.”

Google “A/C tune-up near me” and your site pops up: “Yup, they’ve got decent reviews.”

Get another email from you: “Screw it, I’ll book it.”

Which one worked?

They all did.

You didn’t “convince” them once. You stayed visible long enough that when the need turned into a big problem and they went into action, they called you.

Real-World Marketing Soup: The HVAC Company That Tried to Isolate the Onion

A mid-sized HVAC company in Ohio ran a spring promo: $89 A/C Tune-Up.

They didn’t just do one thing. Their marketing was layered:

• 10,000 postcards
• Facebook and Instagram ads
• Daily posts on their page
• Email blasts to old clients
• Yard signs in front of every job site

Two weeks in: over 200 tune-ups booked. Naturally, the owner tried to pinpoint the source.

“Facebook, I think?”

“It might’ve been a postcard.”

“Saw your sign… or maybe your ad?”

One guy said, “You’re everywhere. You seem like you know what you are doing.” And 30% couldn’t remember at all—just that the company “seemed familiar.”

So, the owner stopped trying to trace where every crumb came from and zoomed out on the big picture. What did he see?

Spring revenue jumped 68%. Average customer value up 15%. Fall bookings climbed 28%.

He realized what successful marketers know:

It’s not the postcard or the Google ad, the post on social media, the new website, or the sign. It’s the campaign, aka “the soup.” The combination of ads. The marketing soup is what’s working—not just the carrot or onion, but everything in the soup combined.

How Micro-Measuring Your Marketing Backfires

When you pull apart your marketing machine, trying to identify the winning cog, you will:

• Kill your momentum
• Undervalue the early touches that don’t “convert” but matter
• Let fear and spreadsheets ruin any strategy you had

And you’re ignoring how humans buy: emotionally. Slowly. Imperfectly.

Stats That Back It Up

Let’s throw a few meaty numbers into the pot:

• 72% of consumers bought from companies they became familiar with after seeing ads across multiple marketing channels (Salesforce)
• Companies using 3+ marketing channels see 287% more conversions than single-channel ones (Omnisend)
• When you combine direct mail + digital ads, response rates go up 40% or more (Canada Post)

I know it sometimes can feel like it, but you’re not just shouting into the void. You’re weaving a net—and the more touchpoints, the more fish you catch.

What You Should Track Instead

Zoom out and focus on your momentum metrics:

• Lead Volume: Are more people calling, emailing, or filling out forms month to month?
• Revenue Trends: Is the business revenue growing quarter over quarter?
• Lifetime Value: Are customers spending more and sticking around longer?
• Close Rate: Are leads better educated and easier to close?

Follow-Up: Visitor Match & Mail in Action

A kitchen remodeling company had solid website traffic but little to no calls from their website. Their marketing was driving a lot of traffic to their website, but not much business from the traffic.

They added Visitor Match & Mail, which automatically sends postcards to anonymous site visitors—without needing a form fill.

In 90 days:

• Website traffic stayed roughly the same
• Incoming phone calls from new customers rose 40%
• ROI for all their marketing almost tripled

Why? Because when people saw the brand online and got a physical postcard in their hand—the solution felt more real, the company more trusted. The kitchen remodeling company was no longer one of a hundred ads screaming at them online—they were in their hand, being read in the kitchen they wanted remodeled.

Did they care where the ad came from? Nope. They just knew, “These guys do kitchens. And I need a kitchen.”

Look at the Big Picture—You’re Building a Brand

Stop asking, “Was it the carrot? The cumin? The email? The Facebook ad?”

Start asking, “Are we showing up consistently with the right solution to enough of the right people?” Because in the real world, people don’t follow funnels.

They call you because of the familiarity and trust you have built. Your timing is good because you are marketing consistently. The prospective new customer has a feeling that, “I’ve seen these guys around… and they might be able to help.”

Keep showing up with the same clear message across multiple marketing mediums.

And when your phone rings? Just smile and know your marketing soup is working.