The words Return on Investment have a power to them that goes beyond good sense. 

The thing about saying the three letter R-O-I is that it can make someone sound powerful and sophisticated, but the problem with actually trying to measure ROI is often ineffective and can lead to an entrepreneur coming up with a false conclusion. At Power Pair Marketing, we have a phrase about this: people are often inclined to measure a cup of water with a yardstick. Yes, it’s that bad.

Why does this happen? Well, marketing – whether it’s a website or curated content (human generated articles, videos or podcasts for business promotion) – is a sunk cost that doesn’t necessarily produce a correlatable, tangible result. 

Will your phone ring when you do marketing? In all likelihood it will. If you work with a quality partner like Power Pair Marketing, and design a marketing program, we will trust that you know your audience and we will build a program accordingly. If it turns out you really don’t have a good idea of your audience – you’re just guessing – you probably won’t get response from the people you really want. 

Will the register ring? It may or may not. We know that’s a flimsy answer, but here’s the scoop. Let’s assume everything else clicks, but when someone sits down in front of you, you don’t convert the lead generated by your marketing into a sale. 

We’re not saying this because we don’t want the blame from a client. We are pointing this out because it’s not what you hire a marketing team for. We aren’t typically collecting commissions from clients. The conversion part of the equation is on the person who does the sales. 

So, what is it that you’re actually getting from marketing? The answer is something that’s difficult to measure but is incredibly important. The top thing that you’re getting is mindshare. This means that when someone thinks of a need that your business provides, you become that go-to resource. Whether it’s financial advice, life insurance, or legal counsel, you want your firm’s name to come up high in search queries, and yours to be a name that people know and value. 

It’s a pretty soft idea in terms of measurement, but it’s an industry standard. Wall Street firms value this incredibly. And, when done correctly, it will meaningfully contribute to the goodwill value of your enterprise.

When it comes right down to it, if you throw out the term ROI, you won’t be hurting yourself. And if you really want to create an ROI framework, you will need patience and let your marketing team know what outcomes you want in chunky time periods. At Power Pair Marketing, we’re happy to work with clients on this, but we demand they participate, have realistic goals, and commit to a program, which usually means a year of monthly investments. 

We believe that if you refocus your concept about outcomes, you will be both happier and have better outcomes than trying to create a tangible ROI bottom line equation that will prove to be inaccurate and frustrating for everyone. 

We hope our podcasts are helpful. If you have any questions or would like to talk with us, just fill out the contact form that can be found at the bottom of our main page.