Saturday is a strange old day! for some reason a sense of calm and a time for reflection descends upon many. I guess in today’s world any day the markets are closed is a good day, less headlines of economic woe, bank catastrophes or whole countries hitting the wall!
The burning questions for many are how bad will it get? will our business survive? will I keep my job? Economic downturns, although negative, do have plus points. Think about it, as pricing for travel goes up people drive less which means less petrol, less emissions and a respite for our planet. Less flights overseas which means more audio and video conferencing a plus for companies in this space and of course better for the environment, less train travel which is good for anyone that suffers a daily commute having to stand squashed into a large tin can!
There are ways to win in an economic downturn, it affords us the opportunity to restructure our businesses and focus on that which is important, ‘ROI’. I watched a great video from Gary Vaynerchuk yesterday on ROI, a truly inspiring chap, perhaps we should get him to give traders and shareholders a pep talk before the markets open on Monday!?
ROI – Return on Investment. A hugely important question to ask around any activity a company performs. So if you are in marketing put all of your upcoming campaigns on the table and for each one ask these questions:
1. What is the purpose of this campaign?
2. Who are we targeting?
3. Can we measure the effectiveness of this campaign?
4. Will this campaign generate revenue? how will you know any revenue increase is due to your campaign?
5. Does this campaign make the job of selling easier and more effective?
6. Can I show definite ROI figures?
These are general questions, businesses should be asking many more but If you can’t answer these simple questions with any clarity then stop what you are doing! Build campaigns that are trackable, measurable and most importantly show an ROI.
What other questions should businesses be asking?
Hi Matthew and greetings,
I have a natural tendency to find and read anything related to ROI, particularly within the social media arena. The questions you outline are very focused and fair – however, do you find it challenging at all when working with businesses to get relatively unambiguous answers to #”s 4 and 6?
My background is direct marketing but I now work for Collective Intellect and, like you and the good folks at Radian6, I am interested in mapping the analytics that make direct marketing ROI quantifiable into the social media space, which is an interesting task to say the least!
Anyway, curious as to your thoughts and thanks for the post – indeed, it’s fun to read something not directly related to the markets.
Dean Westervelt
“6Consulting LTD are pleased to have worked on the #SMCLondon08 report. The report has been created in conjunction with Peter O’Neill and used Radian6 to collate and sentiment score data.”
Lets be honest, while Radian6 is a good tracking platform they don’t measure Sentiment, so this statement is a complete fabrication.