What Your Marketing ROI Will Reveal About Your Business

There’s a chance that if you run a small to mid-sized business, you may not have actually heard, or used, the term ‘marketing ROI’ (return on investment). However, you’ve undoubtedly operated under its all-powerful presence as you’ve tried to get your name out to the public.

Understanding Marketing ROI

Marketing ROI is all about measuring the profitability of a company’s marketing strategies. In essence, you’re attaching an actual monetary figure to the campaigns you put out for the express purpose of getting folks to buy your product/service. This figure has one goal — to tell you if you’re bringing in a worthy amount of money for the money you’re spending to get your name out into the world.

Some companies are marketing geniuses. They’re able to find ideal customers with dizzyingly accurate precision, all while spending the least amount of money possible. Getting their message to the exact right folks gets them more sales. And because they didn’t break the bank with their marketing, they’re bringing in some pretty sweet profits.

Other companies struggle with marketing. Sometimes it has to do with not knowing how to navigate raw data they get from analytical platforms. Sometimes it’s about ignoring data all together & just trying to get their name out anywhere & everywhere all at once. The hope with the latter approach is to find at least a few new customers. These customers might actually bring in some respectable revenue numbers. The problem is that the company’s “spray & pray” marketing efforts cost time & money, making any actual profit small or non-existent.

Defining Returns As More than Money 

Marketing costs money, so it is important that for every dollar a company spends, there’s a solid return on that investment. Otherwise, what’s the point? It’s all about getting the most bang for the buck.

But is marketing ROI really that simple? While return on investment is the main focus for all companies, there’s a lot of actual worth in how well they get acquainted with customer behaviors. The more a company works to narrow the focus of their marketing efforts (and dollars), the better they get to know their audience. There may be an initial period of time when sales aren’t just rolling in. However, because they’ve done their research, companies now know how best to connect with the right customer much easier than before.

What’s more, this ability to narrow one’s focus allows companies to really get to know what the company is all about, too. Are the right customer/audience needs being met? Could the product/service being offered be improved? All of a sudden, the idea of a monetary value being ALL that marketing ROI encompasses pales a bit when compared to the wealth of information that market research can provide.

Marketing ROI & The Future

So, what does your marketing ROI actually reveal about your business? It certainly does tell you whether or not you’re actually making any real money of consequence. However, there’s a lot more nuance to the general concept of a return on investment. It comes down to how you & your team define a return. This will allow marketing strategies to come into greater focus, and give some direction to the use of data mined over time.

Is YOUR marketing ROI everything you want it to be? If not, touch base with the folks at MindEcology today.