If you’re making sure your current clients are happy, then chances are you don’t always have time to research, implement and track the varying marketing campaigns your company uses to attract and keep new customers.

And that’s perfectly OK. Getting caught up in the day-to-day is easy to do, and it’s an obvious sign that you’re trying to do your best to ensure customer satisfaction.

But if you’re not taking steps to understand, track or maximize your ROI (return on investment), then you’re wasting valuable dollars on marketing that might not be working.

And that means that you’re basically throwing your money away.

Why Does ROI Really Matter?

Understanding your ROI matters because it gives you an outline of what you’re doing right — and what you need to adjust marketing-wise. It is a blueprint on what you need to do in the future.

After all, if you don’t know where your customers are coming from or how they found you, then you how do you know if your messages are hitting your demographic and will continue to grow your customer base?

How Do I Ensure I Am Getting a Strong ROI?

There are everyday things you can do to get a basic guideline on where your customers are coming from — and if they added profitability to your business.

For one thing, if you implement a marketing campaign like an email blast, a special event or even an online or print advertisement, you need to know if that campaign translated to actual dollars.

Maybe you held a one-day open house and received a lot of attendees, but did the people who came that day eventually translate to customers?

Or maybe you offered a special coupon for a singular service. Did the people who took advantage of the savings buy more products or services, or come back again?

ROI goes well beyond “just showing up” – it takes into account all the other factors such as money spent or repeat business — that directly translate into overall profitability. It’s these numbers that matter, not simply attendance.

What Tools Do I Need?

It’s helpful to have tools and practices in place to determine where your customers are coming from.

A simple in-person, printed or online survey that asks “How did you hear about us?” and other basic background questions will give you a lot of insight on where your future clients are located.

Perhaps a specific online ad is generating interest or a certain region is producing the bulk of your customers. Knowing these facts will make your future marketing campaigns more effective, more targeted and less costly.

Knowing your full ROI is effectively the difference between carefully aiming darts at a dartboard and doing it with a blindfold on.

By taking steps to ensure your ROI is accurate — and adjusting your marketing to propel these numbers even higher — you can stretch your marketing budget to your best advantage,. You can ensure that your marketing efforts are on track while you focus on what you do best – running a great, client-oriented business.

What Other Help Is Available for Ensuring a Strong Marketing Program ROI?

So how do you ensure you are getting your full ROI? It starts with research and tracking. And expertise — this is not a job for an intern or inexperienced marketing professional.

An experienced marketing company to serve as your temporary or fractional CMO, like Marketing Operations Group, is a solid first start if you’re more adept at running your business than dealing with the intricate reporting that’s necessary to determine your marketing program’s ROI.

After all, you hire a specialist to perform varying tasks or to run different aspects of your company — like an accountant for your money-related matters, an IT consultant for hardware and software-related changes or a mechanic if you service cars.

A marketing expert is your best bet for maximizing your ROI with perfect efficiency — and within the constraints of your budget. Recruiting and hiring a top-notch CMO is often beyond the budget of many companies, but an expert fractional CMO is not.

For more information, contact me at Marketing Operations Group. You can also read more about our fractional CMO services here!