When it comes to where and how we invest our money, I think most of us would agree that knowing if we’re seeing a sizeable return on investment is an important matter to consider. A matter well worth a further investment of some time.
Marketing your business is an investment. You invest your money into certain mediums and you hope to see a return on that investment, otherwise why spend the money?
I’m sure there are a great many marketing firms who would be more than happy to have you spend money on them without worrying whether or not you’re seeing a return on the money you’re dishing out.
There is no quick and easy way around it. You have to keep track of your investments. And you have to do it yourself. The excuse that, “I don’t have the time,” just doesn’t cut it.
The truth is, you can’t afford not to have the time.
Not Having The Time Can Be Expensive
You budget a large amount of your business’ money for marketing. Now this doesn’t necessarily mean that your marketing campaigns are expensive. Spending thousands of rands on a campaign isn’t expensive, if that campaign is generating hundreds of thousands of rands worth of business.
On the other hand, spending just R100 on a campaign is expensive if you’re only seeing a return of, say, R101.
You won’t know the difference either way if you don’t monitor it.
Determining A Marketing Solution
Working out whether your current *marketing solution is cost-effective* or not doesn’t take a lot of time, and it’s more than worth the time it does take:
Cost per lead
* Simply take the total cost of your marketing and divide it between the number of leads generated.
Cost per acquisition
* The total cost of your marketing, divided between the total number of sales.
Those are your two most important determining factors when you’re tracking the relative value of your current marketing campaign. Just two simple exercises in arithmetic and you’re better armed to make an informed decision about your marketing strategy.
Take The Time To Know Your Money
So, you have got the time. You have to have the time, and once you’ve used it to investigate your money and what its doing for you, you’ll agree that it was worth spending that time.
There are those who’ll tell you that a marketing campaign is immeasurable, these people are lying to you. Don’t trust them.
If you start monitoring progress from the very beginning you will be more than well-equipped to measure the level of success your marketing campaign is garnering.
Being able to measure success, or lack thereof, will enable you to decide if your marketing strategy is wasting your money or growing it.
And that is more than worth a little bit of your time.
Shouldn’t you be keen to find out if your money is being wisely invested or cast to the wind?