We’re all familiar with the old adage, “new year, new me”. Typically, a new year is the time we all have a long, hard think about our health, after an indulgent festive season. But our physical health isn’t the only thing we should be taking a look at in 2018. We got to thinking, if your BMI is an indicator of your body’s health, what is the marketing equivalent?
ROI is the new BMI
Whilst brand awareness and customer relations are important, the bottom line always comes down to revenue generation. Your strategy and marketing activity should be proving its worth all year round, driving sales, customer retention and lead generation.
How to measure success
We’ve looked before at the difficulties in measuring ROI, and there’s certainly no hard and fast rule for ROI wellbeing. However, whilst a healthy measurement will vary depending on your business, there are a few key elements you should consider:
- What are your main business objectives?
- How do your marketing channels support these?
- What investment have you made to each channel?
- What results have you seen for that investment?
Whilst some channels will be direct revenue or lead generators, others will not, so attribution models are helpful to look at the contribution of each touchpoint.
New year’s ROI-solution
A well thought-out strategy and clearly defined marketing mix is essential if you’re to demonstrate ROI in the year ahead. Evaluate your 2017 marketing mix, paying close attention to channels that drove conversions. Doing this will help you to formulate a winning combination and allocate resources efficiently for even better results in the new year!
Bouncing into the new year
Whilst our physical new year’s resolution might be to put that spring back in our steps, when it comes to the digital elements of your marketing strategy we want a bit less bounce – specifically, a lower bounce rate. If your online audience is engaged with your content, they’re more likely to spend more time on your website exploring your offering and ultimately demonstrate purchase intent.
How to measure success
Typically, you’ll want your bounce rate to sit below 40% as this is an indication of excellence. However, don’t be concerned if yours falls between the 41-70% mark – this is average to high, but it will all depend on customer behaviour within your industry. As with your overall strategy, it is also important to have a balance of measurement for your online activity. Combining bounce rate with both the number of pages viewed during one session and the average time on site will help you to build up a clear picture of exactly what’s working well and where there’s room for improvement. Any measures of success are, of course, relative to your specific objectives. If your goal is to drive leads, average time on site might not be so significant, as long as your conversion rates are healthy!
Expanding your circles
Healthy social circles are important for our wellbeing, and new year’s resolutions often include making new friends and meeting new people. In the same way, it is important that your marketing strategy allows for a healthy feed of new prospects, alongside your retention goals. Of course, it’s vital to continue to show your loyal customers some love, but introducing your brand to new people through social platforms will increase your reach and improve brand awareness. Also, proactively targeting high value prospects using direct channels such as email or telemarketing will ensure a healthy feed of the right types of prospects, those most likely to convert to profitable customers.
How to measure success
The first place to start here is to simply look at the number of leads you’ve generated and then compare these to business and marketing objectives, as well as the number of leads who went on to convert and those who qualified as priority prospects. Establishing a KPI for ‘new business’ such as % leads from new accounts, or % leads from new geographical territories, helps ensure your pipeline is constantly refreshed and doesn’t go stale as you cover the same ground. This measure can inform your marketing approach and help incentivise your sales team.
New year - fresh approach
Once you have defined what constitute healthy outcomes for your business and have established your measurement and KPIs, you can adapt your processes and behaviours – as you would with any new health regime. A granular view of leads/opportunities/sales by sector, account, or channel will allow you to pinpoint issues, set new goals and tailor your approach to optimise your pipeline health.
Whether you need to generate responses from hard-to-reach prospects, develop business within new sectors or deepen existing client relationships, a highly measurable, data-driven channel such as telemarketing can help you target your ‘problem areas’. If you are grappling with a poor quality database with inaccurate, out-dated records that don’t match your needs, a full cleanse and enhance exercise can get your data back in shape. Or, if you have lost direction, market research can help you get back on track, clarifying priorities and bringing fresh insight to your approach.
Since 1990, The Telemarketing Company has helped hundreds of leading organisations to understand their markets and grow their businesses. If you need help re-invigorating your sales and marketing approach in 2018, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us.