I put together this short video to talk about one aspect of ROI that I think is important.  Usually when folks talk about ROI in marketing, they are looking for answers about what they got for the money they spent.  It’s a viable way of controlling marketing costs and following success.  Unfortunately, the conventional view of ROI is fundamentally flawed.   Don’t look at ROI as a way to measure success; use it to define your business goals and determine your marketing budgets.  In other words, figure out what the dollar figure your goal is and then what percentage of that you want to spend on marketing.  There’s your ROI.  If you reach that goal, you’ve succeeded.  If you don’t, well, you don’t.

I don’t imagine this will close the debate on ROI in marketing.  You still need to trace what worked and what didn’t.  But I’ve found that a program is a lot more viable if you tried 10 things, 3 worked and you achieved your  business goal than if you try to find the 3 things that will definitely work and that you can definitely define ROI on.  As always, comments welcome.

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