There is a conversation that has come up a few times this year for me with other service providers, and it is one that I want to share with you today. It is about the concept of marketing ROI. ROI – or “return on investment” – is a popular phrase, but I wonder whether it helps or hurts us as business owners to be so focused on it.
On the one hand, I think it makes sense for business owners to want to know whether something is working. If you can measure something, it is logical to measure it to get an understanding of trends over time and to make sure that you are doing things that have purpose for your business. The business owners out there who never measure anything are putting themselves in a tough position to evaluate shifts in the market place. I do encourage you to track the things that can be tracked!
However, taking the quest for marketing ROI to the other extreme – needing to measure absolutely everything and wanting to see immediate results – is dangerous in its own way.
Your marketing strategy is made up of so many different types of components. Depending on your business, you probably have multiple ways to generate leads. You hopefully have ways to capture those leads as you get in front of them so you can continue to market to them. Ideally you have ways to stay in front of the leads to keep them warm. You would have things for them to purchase from you. In a perfect world, you also have systems in place to stay in front of them after they have bought from you so you can nurture repeat sales or referrals.
Having broken it down this way, I would also like to point out that prospects in your pipeline have different processes for how they make a buying decision. We know that buyers have various personality types (read here for a short series on buyer personas), and they need different kinds of information and validation before they are ready to make a purchase. Some require a significant amount of trust building. I’m talking YEARS, based on what I have seen in my own business. Some go through the process more quickly and make speedy decisions. So, in a good marketing plan, you are building in marketing messages that solely aim to validate these different buyer types.
The reality of marketing is that not every single thing can be measured. Humans aren’t perfect. They often don’t even remember everything that went into their buying process if you ask them. Their perception of your brand may be made up of hundreds of touch points over time, and the sum total of those touch points contributed to the decision. And that is okay.
The reality of marketing is that not every single thing can be measured. #ROI #marketing #biztips #smallbusiness #smallbiz #entrepreneur #business
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If someone calls me up and says, “I’ve just spent two hours on your website,” I know that they were able to spend that time on my website, convincing themselves to pick up the phone, because there was content there. If someone at a networking event says, “I see you here all the time and wanted to say hello,” that means that all the times before this day were just as important as today. Sure, in a ledger I might track the lead with today’s date, but, to use a sports metaphor, all the prior interactions get an assist.
Marketing is an all-the-time activity to maintain the health of your business. Think about it this way: When you are hungry for lunch, you eat food. When you are hungry again at dinnertime, do you get angry? Do you shout, “I just ate food! Why am I hungry again?” Food is fuel for your body, so you have to eat food consistently. Just the same, marketing is fuel for your business, so you have to market consistently.
Marketing is an all-the-time activity to maintain the health of your business. #marketing #ROI #business #smallbusiness #smallbiz #entrepreneur #biztips
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If it isn’t until the 100th email (an often-true story for my business) that a lead finally contacts you or buys something, does that make the first 99 emails not worth it? Strict definitions of marketing ROI may tell you the first 99 emails are moot. The way I see it, the first 99 emails were part of a process for your customer.
In what ways are your customers researching your products or your business before they make a purchase? If you don’t know, maybe it’s time to ask an to ask on a regular basis so you can get a sense of what is really important in your marketing. This way, you can not only track the things that are easy to measure, but you can also have an anecdotal way to begin tracking the things that are harder to quantify.
When it comes to your marketing plan, it makes sense to balance things you can measure quantitatively with things that are qualitative or part of an overall process. You should understand the intention behind everything you are putting out there. Is it meant to get the goal or the assist? What role does it play? Let each part of your plan do its job.
When it comes to your #marketing plan, it makes sense to balance things you can measure quantitatively with things that are qualitative or part of an overall process. #ROI #business #smallbusiness #entrepreneur
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Business success does not happen overnight. Even the things we can measure may not look pretty at first. Keep working and getting creative. If it takes your business years to get the traction you want to see, you would be in good company with the majority of business owners out there. Don’t let the idea of marketing ROI convince you that you are failing. Success often takes time, and it often happens as a result of our consistency.
Want to know more about marketing ROI? Read here for more on this topic!
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