Marketing Resource Center

There's More to Marketing ROI (return on investment) Than Meets the Eye


All too often people look at marketing ROI in terms of response rate: in other words, "I sent out 10,000 pieces of direct mail and only got 39 responses which is terrible." This is wrong think.

When it comes to marketing ROI, you have to realize that the term means Return On Investment and the return is measured in dollars (or your local currency). Let's say you spend $2,000 to get out a bulk mailing of 5,000 pieces and you get 10 calls as a result. Doesn't look like much. But of these 10 calls you close 6 and get immediate sales of $12,000. That's marketing ROI! And that's not even taking into account the future sales to those 6 new customers. It could add up to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The same simple mathematics apply to any other marketing efforts: radio ads, press releases or articles in magazines, print ads, yellow pages, web site, etc.

Obviously you need to keep track of response from each marketing campaign you do so that you can weed out unsuccessful campaigns and strengthen successful ones.

Case in point:

Jeff Lee, CFO of a very successful consulting company, Measurable Solutions, has adopted a successful small business marketing strategy based on direct mail marketing. Key elements are mailing out a newspaper and full color postcards. The design is done in house and the printing and mailing is done by a specialized postcard printing company. In his own words...

"We get our best response from mailing out a newspaper and back it up with postcards. Depends on the postcards. Some postcards have pulled better than others.

The professionalism of the postcards is something that is effective: it gets attention, it keeps the image that we want to keep, it creates the reach, it creates the response and keeps our leads in a very high range.

We probably average around 7,500 post cards per week. Out of 7,500 post cards we'll get in an average of 15-20 leads. Of the 15-20 leads at least a third of them come to our introductory seminar. So say 5 or 7 people show up and they pay $1,700 a piece. Off of that we close a further $30-40,000 for services.

The money we have put into the postcards is like a drop in a bucket compared to what we get back. We know that the more promotion we send out, the more return we're going to get. It always works."

That is excellent marketing ROI. Measurable Solutions spend about $2,275 for 7,500 full color post cards. That includes printing, postage, mailing (including the mailing list). From that they get between $8,500 and $11,900 in immediate response for an introductory seminar and an additional $30-40,000 follow-up sales.

Spend $2,275, earn $40-50,000. You don't need to have majored in advanced math and rocket science to work that one out: that is what is meant by marketing ROI!

Results of direct mail marketing vary from business to business but the principle holds and always works: if you send out enough promotion, you will make sales and maximize your marketing ROI. Don't worry about response rate if your marketing ROI is high.

Joy Gendusa founded PostcardMania in 1998; her only assets a computer and a phone. In 2004 the company did close to $9 million in sales and employs over 60 persons. She attributes her explosive growth to her ability to choose incredible staff and her innate marketing savvy. Now she's sharing her marketing secrets with others. For more free marketing advice, visit her website at http://www.postcardmania.com


MORE RESOURCES:

The Hindu

SIIA Survey: Marketing Executives Believe Social Media is an Effective Tool ...
Sacramento Bee
8, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA), the principal trade association for the software and digital content industries, today released "Marketing in Today's Economy"— the first SIIA publication to ...
Should blogging be part of your business marketing campaign?AmsterdamPrinting.com (blog)
Social Media Trends 2012 - what can we expect?The Drum
Conferences discuss social media & tourism, Web 3.0Bizcommunity.com

all 134 news articles »


Marketing: 7 Lessons From Super Bowl Commercials
Patch.com
While spectators look forward to the commercials for entertainment purposes, I enjoy analyzing them from a public relations and marketing perspective to see if the company was on point with its strategy or if it failed miserably in promoting its brand.

and more »


Superbowl 2012 Breaks Social Records, Sets New Marketing Standard
Huffington Post
Brands that are most successful at garnering buzz before and after game day are the ones that are most forward thinking in their marketing strategy leading up to a big game. Asking for a "Like" for likes sake is no longer enough to entice fans to ...

and more »


Bella Marketing & Promotions Announces Its Collaboration With Code Purple ...
MarketWatch (press release)
NEW YORK, NY, Feb 08, 2012 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) -- Bella Marketing & Promotions is proud to announce its participation in Code Purple Event NYC. The Event, which will take place on February 16, 2012 at the USS Intrepid from 7pm-11pm, will benefit ...

and more »


XYDO Shifts Strategy Towards Email Marketing
techrockies.com
Park City-based XYDO, the startup headed by Eric Roach and Cameron Brain, said today that it has shifted its model to the B2B market. The company--which is venture backed by EPIC Ventures--originally was focused on social news, but says it is now ...
XYDO Pivots to Pure B2B with Content Marketing PlatformMarketWatch (press release)
Pivot Smart: Social News Network XYDO Goes Pure B2B With New Content Marketing ...TechCrunch

all 10 news articles »


CIVCO Medical Solutions Announces Sales and Marketing Leadership Restructuring
MarketWatch (press release)
8, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- CIVCO Medical Solutions is pleased to announce several promotions within its Radiation Oncology (RO) sales and marketing organization. "These organizational changes will improve operational focus and accountability ...

and more »


HRID Announces Product Distribution Update and Additional Marketing Strategy ...
MarketWatch (press release)
The Company has ordered enough product to penetrate and service the East Coast, its first target market. As part of the distribution strategy, in-store promotional marketing representatives are in the process of being secured to educate consumers and ...

and more »


Fortune

Groupon 4Q Loss Narrows As Marketing Costs Decline; 1Q View Upbeat
Wall Street Journal
Groupon Inc. (GRPN) posted a surprise fourth-quarter loss as expenses and one-time charges outpaced revenue growth. For the current quarter, the company projected revenue between $510 million and $550 million, topping analysts' average $501 million ...
Groupon Has Fourth-Quarter LossBloomberg

all 124 news articles »


Karen Morstad & Associates Extends Deadline for Pro Bono Marketing Services ...
MarketWatch (press release)
GREENWICH, Conn., Feb 8, 2012 (GlobeNewswire via COMTEX) -- Karen Morstad & Associates (KM&A), a Greenwich, CT-based marketing and branding firm specializing in the financial services industry, has extended the deadline to submit proposals for its ...

and more »


Marketing Week

Coca-Cola Cuts Costs, Reinvests in Marketing
AdAge.com
Just 48 hours before PepsiCo is expected to announce millions in additional marketing investment, Coca-Cola beat it to the punch. In announcing its fourth-quarter results, Coca-Cola said it plans to cut $550 million to $650 million in annual costs by ...
Coca-Cola to Boost Marketing EffortsWall Street Journal
US: Coca-Cola To Boost Marketing With Cost Savings; Reports Weak Q4 ResultsNamnews
Coca-Cola to reinvest productivity savings into brand building marketingMarketing Week
IRA -VendingMarketWatch -Philadelphia Inquirer
all 88 news articles »

Google News

home | site map | Advertising Articles
© 2006