Marketing ROI is all about tracking your spending to measure how effective your advertising efforts are. There must be a balance between the cost and efficiency of your marketing plan. You don’t want to spend all your money on a plan that doesn’t generate more revenue. You also don’t want to be too frugal as this won’t produce an ROI either. It is a balancing act, especially for small business owners who may not have the resources to delegate these tasks to an entire department. Not to worry, there are certain steps all businesses can take to make sure their marketing efforts create a return on your investment.
Set Clear Goals
Return on investment should be determined by your business and marketing goals. Consider where your business is now and where you would like it to be. How is this affected by your products/services and revenue? Maybe you want to double your yearly profit or develop your niche a little more. This may take some time to figure out, but luckily there are programs that can help you narrow down the workload so you can focus on what needs to get done.
Whatever you decide your goals are, come up with a plan to make them a reality. Start with what your business absolutely needs to thrive, the rest can come later. Then look at your current marketing ROI. This will tell you which strategies are working well, and which can be cut. Only spend time and money on the marketing strategies that are performing the best. You don’t need to pour valuable time and energy into something that will take more work when there are more profitable opportunities around.
Understand Your Target Audience
Just like spending your resources on profitable marketing strategies, you should do the same with your target audience. To make a marketing ROI you must put your time, effort, and money toward audiences more likely to engage with your business. Understanding your ideal customer will show you what direction to take in creating content. Narrowing down your focus is a good rule of thumb when starting out. Becoming a resource in a specific field is more likely to increase ROI than trying to run widely different marketing campaigns at once.
Content Marketing
Content marketing is a great way to engage with your target audience and draw in business, maximizing your marketing ROI. The kind of content you create will be determined by your goals and audience, and there are plenty to choose from.
Writing a blog will bring individuals directly to your company website and get them to engage with your services directly. A blog that reliably answers an individual’s question will encourage them to use your services and return to your site when they want more information.
Social media can also boost marketing ROI due to the sheer volume of networks available to connect with customers. Most platforms also provide demographic targeting so you can cater to your specific audience even more and adjust your campaign as necessary.
Email marketing is another useful way to increase ROI. According to eMarketer, email campaigns are actually more efficient than blogs and social media in engaging with customers. By continuously reaching out to individuals, email campaigns bring more direct interaction to a business’ website.
Be aware, content marketing takes time to produce long-term value in organic SEO. It’s best to keep the content “evergreen” so customers can view it at any time. It takes some work, but content marketing is the best long-term marketing strategy.
Track Results
To maintain a positive marketing ROI, it is important to track the results of all the strategies you implement. Observe which strategies are continuously doing well and which are falling short. Look at website traffic, referral sources, accessed pages, locations, devices, traffic sources, etc. to see who is coming to your site and from where. There are plenty of options available for business owners to use to track these metrics and adjust their strategies accordingly.
Only Use What Works
After you’ve analyzed all your strategies, only keep what has worked the best. Continue to budget toward campaigns that are working well. And don’t stop tracking your results. It’s an ongoing process to maintain a positive marketing ROI, but it is well worth it.
Need Help Marketing Your Business?
To maximize your marketing ROI, you must make more from your marketing campaigns than you spend. This takes careful planning. Start by defining clear business goals which will ultimately determine your marketing goals. Next, do your research and understand your target audience and what kind of ads they will respond to. Use this information to create content that will generate more revenue, increasing your ROI. Continue to monitor and analyze the results of your campaigns, altering them as your audience grows and changes.
Need help creating a marketing campaign that will maximize your ROI? Schedule a free consultation today.
