There is a fascination over the last few years with the application of ROI (return on investment) methodology to marketing, as if marketing were a widget machine with a specific quantifiable output. Unfortunately, many of these efforts can be filed under the category of "a little bit of knowledge is dangerous". Marketing decisions often require judgement calls based on very few quantifiable metrics, and involve a certain amount of risk with the unknown - that's why major new industries and technologies are created by entrepreneurs, and not corporate entities.
That being said, what is being measured, assessed, or evaluated is often the wrong item. The real measurement should be on the effectiveness of the marketing messaging.
Marketing messaging is the most useful metric to evaluate, because:
One technique to determine your ROM or rather, the potential for ROM, is to evaluate what your messaging isn't accomplishing.
Here are a few indications that your return on messaging isn't what it might be:
When it comes to measuring how your marketing supports your sales effort - look closely at how effectively your marketing messaging supports your sales effort. The more messaging your sales force has to do - the less your marketing is providing.
© 2005, Jeffrey Geibel, All Rights Reserved
So the real measurement is the ROM (return on the messaging) - which in reality, seldom goes beyond counting sales leads.
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