What’s My ROI?
Written on April 24, 2009 by admin
As a marketing professional, one of the top questions I get asked is:
What will my ROI be with this plan?
It’s frustrating, because some things are difficult to measure. Like my being on Twitter all day. I can’t give you an ROI because the goal is to establish myself in social media as someone who knows what she’s talking about. I get numerous interviews out of it, but ROI? Well, that’s tricky.
Marketers and clients or bosses look at things differently.
Marketers want to build your brand. Let people know it’s out there. Create a buzz. They do marketing.
Clients want sales. Today. Right now if possible. They want promotions.
Promotions do not equal marketing. Let me repeat: they’re different.
And understandably, they want to justify shelling out money on marketing. I get that. But I have to beg and plead for even three months to let Egg build the brand enough to let something happen. Social media and marketing in general is not an overnight success.
David Meerman Scott, in his newest book (I’m working on finishing it to do a bigger review) World Wide Rave, does a pretty darn good job of explaining why leads are not what you should be looking for in creating a world wide rave:
To create a World Wide Rave, forget about sales leads and ignore mainstream media. Instead, focus on spreading your ideas. Make your information totally free, with no registration required.
Here are some questions to ask that can help you measure a World Wide Rave:
1. How many people are exposed to your ideas?
2. How many people are downloading your stuff?
3. How often are bloggers writing about you and your ideas?
4. (And what are those bloggers saying?)
5. Where are you appearing in search results for important phrases?
6. How many people are engaging with you and are making the choice to speak to you about your offerings?
What do you think? Is it possible to get clients and bosses to shift their understanding of ROI in favor of social media and new marketing efforts?
