Marketing ROI -- Part one

Hey all.

As 2009 nears a close, the annual year-end theme song begins to play. It sounds like this:

"I spent all this money on marketing. What do I have to show for it?"

I'd say folks are singing a little louder and a little harder this year. Especially because of the other common theme: The "we cut our marketing budget across the board with little thought to the impact on results" song.

Is this you? Do you want to stop spending money on marketing and yielding little or moderate results? Start with an honest audit of what you are doing.

Ask yourself:

1. Were my expectations for the campaign or program realistic? Did I attempt to take down an elephant with a rubber band? Is it realistic to send 150 emails to one list (that has never heard of you) one time and yield more than 3% in response? Be honest. If you're expectations are out of alignment with your activities, then you are doomed to repeat this error again. And again.

2. Was your program properly funded? This goes hand in hand with Number 1. There are many ways to establish a budget. The key is to fund appropriately. What is the goal? What is needed to achieve the goal? If you don't know, seek professional assistance (even if that is just a consultant who does not execute and therefore has no stake in the answer).

3. Have you given your program enough time to work? How much time does it take for a marketing program to yield results? It can take between 12 and 18 months for a program to catch on, build momentum and yield measurable results that can be tied back to the marketing efforts. It all depends on existing brand awareness, your understanding of the market place and customer needs, buying cycle, program timing, etc. Just don't fall into that trap of trying a mailer once and killing the planned campaign because the first mailer didn't ring the phone.

If your marketing didn't yield desired results in 2009, it's time for an honest assessment of what might be going wrong. Without an accurate understanding of the past you can't plan for a more successful future.

We're going to continue to cover this topic. More later. And thanks!