Why Marketing ROI Is All Relative

B2B Marketing ROI Is RelativeWhat is a good ROI on marketing? If you can increase net income by 50 cents for every dollar spent on marketing, that’s good, right? The more you spend, the more money you make.

But what if you learned your primary competitor was getting $1.50 in income for every dollar spent on marketing? 3x the return you are getting on marketing! All of a sudden your marketing looks pretty ineffective! [Read more…]

Marketing ROI Is a Broken Metric

Marketing ROI MathYour marketing makes me dislike you. In fact, it makes me, once a potential customer, reconsider if I should even do business with you.

However, your marketing performance measurement doesn’t capture my disdain. I am simply one more individual that did not buy. I am just part of your standard drop-off rate.

How many more people like me are out there? More than you realize. [Read more…]

9 Marketing Words That Have Lost Their Meaning

Thought Leadership Marketing ComicThe following 9 terms are so overused or misused in B2B marketing that they have lost nearly all meaning. If you are using these terms today, it is time to stop and explain what you really mean.

Otherwise, we may hear you, but we will think you mean something completely different. [Read more…]

Three Social Media Lessons Learned

There is no learning like hands on learning. Books, seminars, or cocktail discussions are valuable, but it cannot compare to what you learn by rolling up your sleeves and doing something yourself.

In that light, here are three things I have learned through my increased involvement in social media and starting this blog seven months ago.

Find the UnexpectedNo one is so brave that he is not disturbed by something unexpected.  Julius Caesar

Until I actively engaged in social media, you could not anticipate the type of return I would see. The real results from my social media involvement have nothing to do with numbers. Not only has it exceeded my expectations, the return has come in areas I never considered.

Over the last few months, I have had exposure to pre-launch initiatives from a number of companies, including Bizo’s Switchboard, which I was able to share here the day it was released.

I have developed new industry relationships, some with people I have had tremendous respect for over the years, but who hardly knew I existed before. I’m awed by this democratizing power of social media. [Read more…]

Three Questions for Measuring Social, Not Media

You Manage What You Measure.broken dreams, broken heart, broken relationship, broken key

This should be a call to ensure you measure your social media activities, and to measure them correctly.

One of the challenges of measuring social media ROI is the return comes in many different forms. As companies develop social media plans and programs, anticipating the ways social media will deliver ROI is a challenge few have addressed. Most companies quickly implement traditional media measurements, slightly adapted for social media.

Before you continue, ask the following questions: [Read more…]

Making Your Social Media and Your Garden Deliver

IMGP0854 - vege gardenYou slave over getting it started. You carefully tend to it as it grows and matures. Then you realize it isn’t big enough to feed you. What you harvest is great, but is isn’t enough to make a difference in your budget.

Yes, your garden. That corner of your yard dedicated to growing edibles. It has a lot in common with your corporate social media program. It is nurtured as it grows, everyone loves seeing results, but it just isn’t enough to drive your business.

[Read more…]

Your Audience is Gold

Stack O'Money!Marketers must become media companies. In B2B, where thought leadership is nearly every marketers goal, it is even more critical. But B2B marketers are responding slowly. Rather than publishing great content and developing an audience that wants to hear from you, you blast your message to the limited audience you have and rely on media to distribute your message.

Stop. The limited audience you have developed, and often mistreated, is gold. Don’t believe me? Let’s put some numbers on what marketing to your audience is worth.

[Read more…]