Don’t Fear ROI…Embrace It!

I like receiving e-letters from my friend Jane Thompson, the trade show marketing consultant. Invariably I find Jane’s advice about trade shows applicable to blog marketing, and that’s certainly true of her latest piece about embracing ROI.

Impact on revenue
Jane cites an article out of Exhibitor Online advising marketers to estimate the impact of each trade show on company revenue. Companies need to count the number of sales leads garnered, the “close rate” out of those leads, and what the total revenue was from that show.

As a corporate blogging trainer and content writer, I find business owners’ overriding concern is, in fact, realizing a Return on Investment from their blog marketing efforts and expenditures. At the same time, though, it’s not always possible to associate a specific ROI measurement to the blog without regard to all the other initiatives the client is using to find and relate to customers.  All the parts have to mesh – social media, traditional advertising, events, word of mouth marketing, and sales.  Every effort that “makes the cash register ring” contributes to “marketing ROI”.

Cost avoidance
“Every dollar of cost avoidance is tantamount to a dollar of profit,” Thompson reminds readers. She advises figuring out what you might have spent on sales calls and meetings to achieve the same results you accomplished at your show.

Years ago, Compendium Blogware, Inc. co-founder Chris Baggott used to point out that blogging provides some of the same benefits as email in an easy-to-use and inexpensive way.”  You can’t email people without permission and you can’t ask for permission if you don’t know who they are, Baggott would explain, and that’s where blogging comes in to help in customer acquisition, avoiding mailing costs and expensive sales calls.

While total precision in isolating blogging ROI may not be possible, examining your blog’s general “bottom line”  should be something to embrace.