Increasing Your Marketing ROI

We have all heard of the acronym “ROI” which stands for “Return on Investment.” ROI is a means to determine the performance of anything you invest time, money, or energy into.  When it comes to marketing, there is always an ROI associated with any strategy.  We want to know how many customers redeemed a particular coupon, or how many phone call were received from a certain promotion, or how many impressions we got from our last social media post.  That is ROI.

In a recent discussion at our Marketing Forum the topic of ROI came up.  It progressed to our various marketing strategies and how taking it a step further and asking ourselves not only “Why” but “Is there more to be gained?”  We all know that marketing is vital to the success of any business, but do we know that we can increase the ROI of each marketing strategy by digging a bit deeper?  Derek Hunter, with GISimple, asked just that question at our Marketing Forum.  This prompted me to begin thinking about how we, as business professionals, can dig a bit deeper to ensure we are getting the biggest bang for our marketing dollar.  Because while a particular strategy may be working, there is always room for improvement.

Here are a few suggestions to help increase your marketing ROI:

• Facebook – Review the analytics and determine which posts are more popular and which have more impressions.  Adjust your future postings to reflect this trend.
• LinkedIn – Rather than sending connection requests, join 1 or 2 groups that you can actively participate in by starting new discussions and asking engaging questions.
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – Begin writing to educate and inform your target audience.  Keep it saved in Word and continually add to it.  Use this content to start a monthly or weekly newsletter, add it to your website to increase your rankings organically rather than paying Google.  Be the credible source you say you are.
• Marketing Collateral – Improve your printed marketing collateral by creating infographics that help to visually explain the benefits of your business and make it more engaging with your audience…many people are visual learners.
• Promotional Gear – Improve your targeting efforts by utilizing different promotional items for different subgroups within your target audience.  For example, koozies might be a great idea for the college students, but not necessarily for the young professionals who might appreciate a travel mug instead.