Posts tagged as:

ROI

Marketers are Failing Miserably at Building Business Credibility

by · April 16, 2013

Does that make your blood boil a little? It sure does for me. I’ve spent my entire career as a marketer trying to prove marketing’s value to business results. To see that my “peeps” lack credibility and are viewed as not understanding business is disheartening to say the least. In the early days in my career I noticed there were two different types of companies that had a large impact on marketer credibility: sales-driven companies and market-driven companies.

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Where to Put That Extra Dough in Your Marketing Budget

by · March 13, 2013

Recently I was asked by a small business owner a question I’ve heard all too many times, “Hey Jason, I have an extra $1,000 a month in my marketing budget, where should I spend it?” I’m sure most have heard this question, in some amount or other, several times themselves. It’s a pretty common question with a wide-range of responses. After all, there’s no such thing as a marketing magic bullet (Despite what every “expert” under the sun will claim). Everyone’s business is unique enough to warrant its own solution. However, before you use that as an excuse to go running off to throw buckets of money at the newest marketing fad , take a step back and evaluate your current marketing initiatives. Many times the greatest ROI comes not from spending money on something new, but instead by investing in something you’re already doing.

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Murder, Execution and Other Strategic Plans for Ambitious CMO’s

by · February 6, 2013

Chief Marketing Officers can’t rub out CEOs. It’s not fair because the CEO can surely deep-six the CMO. And if you’re a marketing exec intending to remain employed, you probably shouldn’t go on the record saying you don’t trust the CEO. However, CEOs can mistrust CMOs all they like. And they do.

In fact, according to a recent report by Fournaise Marketing Group, 70% of the 1,200 CEOs interviewed in their study don’t trust marketers’ abilities to deliver growth. A majority state marketing professionals are unable to prove ROI on campaigns. Ouch.

A little more fuel for the fire.

The report also says:

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What You Should Expect To Get For Your Money: Website Edition

by · January 4, 2013

“How much should a website cost?” It’s a fair question, one I get asked time and time again. The infuriating response, “Well… it depends.”

For those that aren’t familiar with how much time and energy goes into building a website, it can often be surprising when the final quote is given. Most digital shops bill an hourly rate of $50 – $200.  Websites in turn can take anywhere from 50 hours (for the simplest of simple sites) to more than 1,000 hours to build depending on the functionality of the site. That leaves us with a possible cost in the range of a few thousand to a few hundred thousand dollars; a pretty wide berth.

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5 Ways to Uncover Scammy SEO Agencies

by · December 27, 2012

Is your SEO company scamming you?

Are they using spammy tactics that could actually harm your website?

Can they actually produce results, or are they just stealing your money?

Don’t waste any more time wondering.. here’s a checklist of 5 ways to put your SEO firm to the test…

  1. They don’t charge enough
  2. They Have Publicly Posted Complaints
  3. They Don’t Share Case Studies or References
  4. They Don’t Measure Themselves
  5. They Don’t Share the Secret Sauce

#1) They Don’t Charge Enough

Plain and simple, you get what you pay for.

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Becoming A Social Business Isn’t Just For Social Media

by · October 26, 2012

Social media has evolved so quickly and engaged so many people — a billion of us on Facebook — that it has actually changed the nature of our culture.  It has changed our expectations about how quickly we will receive responses from people. It has also changed our expectations of shared knowledge within our personal and professional “tribes.”

We have come to expect the same kind of communication in all areas of our lives that we have on Facebook. The new openness has most significantly affected the way businesses need to operate.

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5 Ways to Measure Blogger Outreach ROI

by · May 17, 2012

A friend of mine recently emailed me to say that she has a new client but they’re wary of doing a blogger outreach program, and do I have any metrics about outreach ROI, especially for driving sales?

I wrote back: You’re asking for the holy grail.

However, while linking ROI to blogger outreach is not simple, it’s also not impossible. Think about the decades (centuries?) of PR people who have gone before us. How did they determine ROI on media outreach when all they had was “impressions” (a very fuzzy number that was, and is: self-reported from print and broadcast media)?

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2011 Trending Topic: Social Media ROI

by · April 21, 2011

Did you get a larger social media budget for 2011? Are you being pressured to deliver ROI from your new budget? As the buzz around social media finally made it to executive’s ears their willingness to open the proverbial purse strings loosened, but it came at a price that many marketers were unprepared for … accountability.

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Telling Your Social Media Fortune

by · December 31, 2010

Inside a recent fortune cookie: “Statistics are no substitute for judgment.”

Putting aside that fortune cookies are no longer fortunes anymore, they’re aphorisms (or “sh**ty observation cookies” as my friends Constantin and Paull call them), this is a pretty good aphorism about social media.

While I believe that it’s essential that social media managers, and their marketing and PR colleagues, figure out how to measure the ROI of social media – the statistics part – I also think there’s an important judgment part of social as well.  Kat French says it’s about narrative and anecdote – that you’ve got to put aside the “idiot gauges” and figure out what the customer and brand impact really is.

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