ROI for Digital Marketing activity
As a business owner, you have to put on different hats and don’t have time for meetings all the time. However, when you do take out time for a meeting, the meeting better be good! What constitutes a good meeting?
Let me share some experiences with you…
I am sure you must have come across companies that are achieving good sales or good brand recall for itself using the tools of Digital Marketing. They might be achieving what they set out to achieve and in most cases, would have a positive relation with their Digital Marketing agency. While on the other hand, you might have come across business owners who are sick of their Digital Marketing agency as the ROI or desired output is negligible.
One thing i have come to realise during my job and then entrepreneurial career is that a business owner CANNOT do everything on his/her own! Either you are a Finance MBA and are amazing with the numbers but not sure how to present ideas or you may be a Coder who can crack any algorithm but your marketing would let you down. When a business owner takes the onus of Marketing, Sales, Operations, Networking, Supply chain etc all upon himself/herself, there is bound to be a burnout!
Well you would never want to start a business only to face a burnout, isn’t it?
Thus, let me show you the simplest solution! Hire a Consultant for the domain you want to ace and hire a team that works with that consultant. Fortnightly or monthly reports will help you keep a tab on the progress, help you decipher the common terminologies used in that domain (e.g. ‘Warm Leads’ for Performance Marketing) and understand how the various metrics work.
When i refer to the team that the consultant works with, i mean team can be in the form of an in-house employee or a freelancer or a specialised agency.
Since I am a Digital Marketing Consultant for a few companies and run a Digital Marketing agency based in New Delhi so I shall be going deeper into trends I have observed in this sector.
What scares business owners?
Digital Marketing ‘seems’ to be a soft skill that people, who possess average or better than average communication skills assume that they possess! However, Digital Marketing is much more than just communication or your presentability. It depends on how deep you can understand a business owner’s problem at hand and suggest appropriate tools or strategy that work towards them. Besides this, some freelancers or in some cases agencies keep the passwords of business owner’s websites in order to improve the stickiness of the business owner.
Well, I just pity both the parties and cant do much about such transactions! But one thing is for sure that i can help you make your talking points before entering the boardroom.
Every meeting matters
As a business owner, you like to prepare for every client meeting and keep tabs on every slide you are going to present. Isn’t it? Well, a similar preparation (on a much smaller scale) you need when you get into the board room to interact with a Digital Marketing agency. After all, the Marketing agency has to understand your brand like its own and suggest a strategy that suits the ROI you had planned. So, for adopting new technologies, we need to revisit the basic tenets of our business for the meeting to be focussed and be worth your time!
How to achieve ROI
The hallmark of a good Digital Marketing agency is that it will ask you only a few pointed questions and would brag less about itself! Based on the answers of those questions, the Agency will draft a strategy that will include your action points apart from other necessary things that it suggests.
What is your desired ROI from the activity?
Return on Investment from an online marketing activity could be in the following terms
- Reach or Eyeballs- Ideally, this is the first step for any business.
- Engagement with online community in the form of Likes, comments and shares
- Lead generation – If you are a business looking for warm leads then, the quality of leads would be your ROI. However, you need to get your brand presence before going into lead generation.
Times of India Buzzphoria: Case Study by Social Buzz: ROI measured in terms of Video views generated and level of readership
- Downloads – If your business is based on intellectual capital in the form of whitepaper publishing or research journal or quality DIY videos, you would reap your ROI in the form of Downloads of those marketing or research collaterals.
- Event tracking – Generally, the digital marketing strategy deployed for a business that focusses on classroom or workshop type courses on wellness and spirituality etc is different. Thus, the online strategy needs to be visible in the form of footfall in the workshop. Thus, as a business owner your ROI is different!
Level of Engagement with the team
Once your mode of ROI estimation is developed, then comes the level of engagement you need with the team to achieve the same. If you feel that you can make do with a few phone calls through the month and a couple of monthly meetings, then, a digital marketing agency will suffice. However, if you need job to be done immediately and in strict timelines, then i would suggest hiring a resource who can achieve the tasks himself/herself or coordinate with an outsourced agency.
Marketing Budget
Marketing Budget is one point that makes or breaks the conversation. When a business owner may have a rough estimate in mind but be reluctant to share for being judged, the agency sets upon the budget with the expected deliverables and plans a budget accordingly. Now, this budget is off the mark for many business owners and the business owner may think of deferring the activity to a later stage. Thus, resulting into maintenance of status quo. In my experience, i have seen financially-sorted clients like Vardan (CSR initiative of Times of India), TAIWAN Expo and many others that have a demarcated budget for a quarter or 6 months of activity. This helps in focussed discussion and fast setting of expectations.
Taiwan Expo 2019 case study by Social Buzz: ROI measured in terms of Branding, Event Management and Online Reputation Management 
VARDAN case study by Social Buzz: ROI measured in terms of Branding and Performance Marketing 
Dainik Jagran’s Jagran Sanskarshala case study by Social Buzz: ROI measured in terms of Branding, Event Management and Online Reputation Management (ORM)
Conclusion
The above mentioned points are suggestions for executing a Digital Marketing for a business, however, without looking the real scope of work and complexity of business, it is tough to make a decision.
This is a helpful guide to digital marketing, very thorough. I don’t specialize in this but return on investment is always something to consider when promoting a business.
I am glad you find the article helpful. Digital is the way to go in the future and i hope that whenever you or your company makes the transition, you come back to my blog post and pick up the much needed points.
you have so many useful tips and guides, I can always find something new to read and learn from
I’m glad to provide you value each time
This blog post is definitely very informative about these all..glad you shared such helpful and useful blog post with us..great work though…
Thank you…we appreciate your kind words
This post is extremely helpful. I’ve had these thoughts and questions for quite some time now and you were able to answer most of them. Thank you so much for sharing this guide with us!
Kileen
cute & little
I’m glad you find it helpful… I am here to answer any questions you might have
For me, it will always be about conversion. Are we making sales? Is anyone buying? At the end of the day, profit is king.
Haha… well yes that is the way it is and indeed that is the way, it should be… however, have you ever seen rainfall without clouds looming over the area? Similarly, the sequence goes like this
Branding-> community building-> Sales
A high ROI should definitely be the ultimate goal when a client is looking for a marketing company to help launch their business (or improve what they already have). This article was a great read!
Thank you Emily! You have summed up the blog post really well!
This is so beneficial for digital marketing. By taking the time to understand ROI and how to improve it.. businesses can effectively make movements towards success.
Yes… in my experience, I have observed that when brand custodians dont have a clear path to ROI, they avoid taking a certain route@
Successful and profitable digital marketing is such a tough nut to crack! I would be seeking the help of a professional upon getting more into it. This is a great start to get my thoughts rolling though!
Just like any promotional activity, digital marketing too, does not come across as easily as people think. I love to consult people for branding and organizations for performing well on digital channels.
I have to admit. I’m not knowledgeable in this topic but reading your article gave me a great hint. Thanksm
I’m glad I’m able to introduce you to something new!!
Conversion is the key! I think in any business, digital or brick and mortar. This is very informative and helpful.
Yes … if there is no tangible or intangible conversion, you or the project manager will lose interests
Great guide sir, digital marketing ROI is the measure of the profit or loss that you generate on your digital marketing campaigns, based on the amount of money you have invested. … Knowing the ROI of different aspects of your campaigns helps you better understand where you should be allocating your marketing budget for best results.
That’s indeed very well summed up!