ROI = Return on Investment or Return on Ignorance?

If you look closely, most marketing organizations have fallen into the “herd” mentality, blindly following the latest trends that are hot in today’s marketing ecosystem. The leader of this herd is whoever is beating the loudest drum about creating attention for the “next big thing” that will transform your marketing strategy.

In our haste to follow the latest and greatest, we fail to focus on what we should be focused on: Return on Investment. Marketers often venture into new marketing tactics with little or no knowledge and are suddenly disappointed in the result. Call me crazy, but this ROI equation feels more like Return on Ignorance.

I am often asked questions such as this:

  • “I got a million impressions last year through banner ads – is that good?”
  • “My bounce rate is 55% on my website – is that bad?”
  • “I had 20,000 hits to my website last month – what do you think”

Besides the fact that the word “hits” is a term from the 90’s, my response is simple – “How does it make you feel?” The reality is that questions such as these have dominated the area of marketing since marketing began – simply looking at pieces of information that are directional at best in an attempt to determine marketing value.

I truly believe that marketers today aren’t afraid of the real ROI equation – Return on Investment. With the global economy being what it is, the need to demonstrate value and return has never been greater! The problem, I believe, is that marketers simply don’t know how to accomplish this.

Understand that I believe we marketers can do the ROI math. The real challenge, however, is capturing the responses that marketing generates in a consistent and centralized fashion. If this were to happen, marketers could begin to monetize the value of these responses, identify the expense it took to generate this marketing value, and deliver an ROI.

At Alight Analytics, our core competency is built around marketing measurement. Through our web analytics management services, we help our clients utilize the Web as a centralized marketing response “mouse trap.” Our web analytics and marketing measurement experts integrate directly with our clients’ marketing and agency teams to provide a holistic tracking and measurement solution. This approach brings together all of the skill sets required to successfully monetize the value of marketing.

Contact us today for a free marketing measurement assessment and learn how we can help you begin to monetize the value of your marketing investment.

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