Arguably, the best metric for the success of a marketing strategy is return on investment, or ROI, as it measures the value you get from a campaign against the money and effort you spend on it. How do you boost the ROI of your marketing campaign? And how do you keep that metric high?
The Value of Expert Guidance
First, understand that good leadership will make your marketing decisions much more effective. Suppose your organization has access to at least one leader with significant marketing leadership experience. In that case, you’ll be able to get the insights, direction, and guidance necessary to drive your ROI higher.
For example, you could hire a fractional CMO. A fractional CMO is very similar to a traditional CMO, at least in terms of experience and core responsibilities. However, unlike a traditional CMO, you don’t hire a fractional CMO full-time. Instead, you’ll hire the fractional CMO as a contractor, tapping into their skills and experience only as necessary. It’s a great way to reduce your overall marketing costs and take advantage of fractional CMO flexibility and scalability while still getting access to expert perspectives in reshaping your marketing approach.
The ROI Equation
Your marketing return on investment (ROI) is an attempt to measure the relative success of your campaign against its costs. It’s arguably the most important metric for long-term marketing success, as it weighs your objective results against your objective investment.
There are two fundamental sides to this equation, and adjustments to either can push your ROI higher. On one side, you have your costs; on the other side, you have the benefits, typically measured in the form of revenue.
Ideally, your ROI will always be positive, with your marketing strategies returning more in benefits than they cost you in investments. However, a higher ROI is always better, as it represents a higher relative gain.
You can improve your ROI by increasing your total return, decreasing your costs, or doing both. In the next section, we’ll explore some of the most important strategies for doing this.
Boosting Marketing ROI: General Strategies for Success
Many of these strategies function to help you simultaneously boost your returns and lower your costs:
Consistently measure ROI
One of the most important fundamentals is to consistently measure the ROI of your marketing strategies. If you don’t know what it is, you won’t know whether it’s good or bad, and you won’t have objective grounds for making improvements. This becomes even more important as you begin optimizing your strategies, as rising ROI will validate any strategic changes you make.
Conduct thorough market research
Market research is the foundation of any good marketing strategy, so don’t neglect it. You need to thoroughly understand your target demographics and appeal to them specifically to get the full value out of any marketing campaign.
Choose favorable channels
There are many viable marketing channels in terms of ROI, but some of them will be better for your business than others. In each strategy, consider the fit for your target audience, the fit for your brand, the costs, and the potential benefits. Only incorporate channels that seem like a good fit.
Target a highly specific niche
The more specific your marketing strategy, the better. While targeting a bigger, broader audience is often tempting, your messaging will have a bigger, more relevant impact if it’s concentrated on a relatively small, focused population.
Automate whatever you can.
Incorporate automation wherever possible. Automation tools are typically inexpensive, and they have the potential to save you significant labor costs. At the same time, they can increase the consistency of your campaign.
Develop and reuse permanent resources
You can get more value from your money by developing and reusing permanent resources. For example, you can create case studies and white papers that serve as lead magnets for your organization indefinitely.
Conduct experiments
Experiments like AB tests can help you isolate and better understand the key variables that impact your campaigns’ results. Conduct experiments frequently to tweak things like wording, design choices, presentation, and more.
Reallocate your spending
As you gain more experience and become more familiar with ROI, begin reallocating your spending. Pull dollars away from channels and strategies with relatively low ROI and put those dollars to better use in channels and strategies with higher ROI.
Remember that boosting the ROI of a marketing strategy is a process, and it does not work instantaneously. Only by committing to this ongoing process and applying continuous improvements will you be able to consistently push your ROI higher.
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