Maximising ROI on your Marketing Part 1

Many marketers often say that proving Return On Investment (ROI) is notoriously difficult. Even though it is true to say that it can be tricky to attribute monetary returns to marketing activities, there are definitely steps you can take to make sure your marketing is as effective as possible and therefore generates the best possible returns. In our first article this month we will start to examine this, and to do this, we’ll first need to clarify a few things. First off;

Marketing ≠ (is not) Sales

One of the reasons why it can be tricky to directly attribute increased revenue to marketing is because marketing is not responsible for generating sales. The Sales team is. One of Marketing’s primary functions is to generate leads for sales to follow up and engage with and ultimately turn into hard cash. So you can’t simply run a campaign, look at your increased revenue and say “that campaign was worth that amount of revenue”. Your marketing people would love it if you did, but your sales people would be a lot less appreciative. Conversely though, how can the sales function be expected to perform if they are not supported with the appropriate sales materials and lead generating campaigns created by marketing? Sales and marketing enjoy a symbiotic relationship and it is important that this is understood. Also…

Marketing ≠ (just branding)

While branding is an important part of the marketing function, it is not the be-all and end-all. Having an improved logo, different corporate colours or fonts might all be necessary to help portray the right image for your company, but these things alone won’t generate revenue, so attributing revenue to this sort of activity is very tricky indeed. It is important to understand therefore that the branding element of marketing, should be treated as a corporate asset, rather than a revenue generating activity. In essence, it would be pretty hard to prove how much money is generated by the computer used by one of your accounts team, but it is clear that the computer is needed for the business to function, and it is no different with your branding.

So What Is Marketing?

A little while ago, we were discussing a Direct Mail campaign with a certain company director. When we mentioned it, his response was: “direct mail doesn’t work, does it? I mean, 99 out of 100 pieces I receive go straight in the bin.” And that is true enough for a lot of people, but when we asked him why he kept that 1 out of a hundred, he replied: “because that one is relevant to me.”

And therein lies the crux of the matter: relevance. As a result, one of the definitions of marketing we favour is the one where marketing is about:

Ensuring the right person receives the right message in the right way, at the right time (together with memorable and distinctive branding)

Sounds simple enough, but how do you do this? Come back next month to find out…