From traditional marketing campaigns such as white papers and brochures to digital and social media implementations – it can be difficult to track what the benefits are without the use of right tools and analysis. For a business to understand what applications can help with distinguishing return on investment in marketing efforts, a great starting point is to identify company goals rather than direct profit. While the overall goal for a business is to increase profit, generating growth it is not always as simple as integrating your marketing activities into an overall business line calculation. The key is using the correct tools, setting proper expectations and monitoring the return on investment.
Goal Setting
Determining which factors to quantify is essential to delivering the right information. As a rule of thumb, always begin with company goals. Knowledge of what goals and metrics mean are critical to the brand are important for understanding ROI. It is best to dig deep into the brand and understand where marketing efforts need to be focused. This means understanding KPI (Key Performance Indicators) and how to monetize on that. If a brand is in need of more exposure, evaluate which ways the brand can achieve these goals. Whether that is through media, print, website or design and build a strategic plan to implement each.
Aligning Expectations with Reality
Prioritizing expectations for company growth are critical to defining success with marketing efforts. An example of a prioritized goal for a company might be a brand refresh or a website redesign. Measuring the ROI on an activity like this could be tricky, but applying the proper tools make it easier to comprehend. Tracking conversion rates, website traffic, and bounce rate can provide key insights into the success of the web redesign. If a brand has a goal of gaining more exposure, it is critical to set a specific amount of time for your marketing activities to make an impact before measuring ROI. Different activities should be assessed in the aligning time frame; for instance – if you invest in influencer marketing, then it is possible that results from that exposure, audience and reach rates won’t be seen in full fruition for a few months whereas a trade show initiative can result in immediate written tangible orders.
Measuring Growth
The use of metric tools, such as KPI reports (Key Performance Indicators), CPM (Cost Per Impression) and CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost) is a straightforward and somewhat boilerplate approach to measuring success. In these cases, it is important to understand how much it is costing to leave an impression on a consumer and how much it costs to keep them loyal. In reference back to influencer marketing and trade shows, it is An to document metrics, to understand if this partnership was successful. By using these tools to, it can be understood what value you are receiving from your marketing efforts. This is also relevant when you have a newly created website and are looking to understand the effect this has on the potential clients. Evaluating how many people are visiting the, how long they are on the website and the user experience throughout the journey.
Creative Measurement
A/B testing, tracking website traffic and keeping track of leads are other alternatives that can assist in measuring success. Testing design interaction and monitoring the engagement, are ways to determine which web page has more success. Also observing the website traffic to see if users are interacting and exploring the website or leaving quickly. Monitoring leads to conversion rates are also useful to see how and when the user is converting to a customer.
It is highly beneficial and impactful to measure your ROI in marketing activities to keep evolving as a company and brand. There isn’t one collective way to measure, and different channels will be more effective depending on brand or market type. Beginning with a strong understanding of goals and organizational expectations will assist in the journey to measure marketing ROI.