Marketing Better Practices
When you get the answers you need, the strategy becomes clear.
From COVID-19 to political unrest to climate change, organizations are constantly buffeted by unexpected events. So how can your organization be resilient in the face of these unexpected events?
It’s never been more crucial to know the value of marketing now as well as the future value of marketing for your business. Are you maximizing the output value of your existing marketing assets and planning for effective new ones?
Too often, marketing tactics are surface-level activities and unproductive. We’re all tempted to stick with something that works even long after it doesn’t anymore.
In the past, it could be difficult to calculate the return on investment (ROI) of marketing efforts. Marketing itself was fairly general, with ads going out to wide audiences. You might make an attempt to discover which of your ads had drawn a particular customer or client, but ROI was inconclusive.
Today, that’s all changed. Marketing professionals are making ROI part of their daily routine, keeping track of exactly how efficient their actions are through the vast amounts of business intelligence available to the modern marketer.
ROI is fairly simple to calculate, and there are a couple of ways to go about it. One way is to subtract the cost of goods sold from the gross revenue to find your gross profit. Another is to multiply your gross revenue by the profit margin to discover the percentage of your revenue that’s actually profit.
Knowing your ROI gives you the power to tell which campaigns or tactics are working or which marketing channels are most effective. A good ROI would be at least 100%, since the formula doesn’t take into consideration your fixed costs, personnel costs, or production costs. What it does include are the costs for advertising, tools for marketing, materials and the costs of attending things like trade shows.
You’ll only know the value of your marketing if you have a way to track data about your investments and profits. Various online tools, such as Google Analytics, can help with this, but for many businesses, the best calculations are personalized. They come with the help of marketing and technology consultants that have extensive experience in what works and what doesn’t and the expertise to optimize time-tested techniques with fresh ideas for a personalized plan that works for your business.
When you know what your marketing value is right now, you can start making plans for the future with an idea of how best to allocate your budget. All marketing is an investment, and, as with any investment, it’s crucial to be sure you’re investing your time, talent and resources wisely.
Knowing the value of your marketing now shows you which channels, messages, products, services, and strategies are generating the most profit. Then, instead of slashing your marketing budget when budgets are tight (an all-too-common reaction when profits are down), you can proceed with streamlined, highly effective tactics that increase revenue and mitigates risk.
Realize the benefits and opportunities that digital channels can offer and they will become part of your long-term business continuity plans. If you don’t know how valuable your marketing is, or if you know it’s not giving you the return on investment you need, it’s time for a change. Book a meeting with us today to discuss your plans to develop and execute an effective and valuable marketing plan for now and the future.
When you get the answers you need, the strategy becomes clear.
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