Based on the BusinessFast4ward Marketing Plan, or any other business plan for that matter, the first step is to set SMART goals, goals which are measurable.
Measurable goals help to guide you along the right track, allowing you tweak your campaigns and marketing plan along the way as you phase your campaigns. Measurable goals not only help you to track your spending, profit and loss but also operational efficiencies such as lead generation rates, leads-to-sales conversion rates etc.
The Business ROI or Return on Investment is the measurement of your business’ success or failure. There is need to benchmark your direct marketing campaign with your respective industry standards and then set internal benchmarks as measurements.
A general rule of thumb is that for traditional mode of postal direct mailer to new potential databases, a 3% – 5% response rate & 30% leads-to-sales conversion rate is considered above average achievements. That said, it is not uncommon to find conversion rates of as high as 10% in very successful new campaigns. And of course, direct mailers to existing databases could yield greater conversion, with the assumption that you have loyal customers and products that continuously meet their needs.
The BusinessFast4ward Direct Marketing Campaign ROI Guide & Checklist
We have put together a simple guide to help you measure your ROI specific to your physical Direct Mailing campaigns. Let us explore the list of guiding questions below:
How many Postal Direct Mailers/ emails/ text ad messages (sms) have you sent out?
How much is the per unit cost and hence the total cost of your direct mailer?
Note that for emails you should still factor in your production cost, and manpower cost if applicable.
How much business revenue is generated from this campaign?
This is assuming that you have set a monitoring system for incoming revenues. Note that it is critical to set up an easy to manage revenue monitoring system which enables you to have timely and real=time information on specific campaigns as this gives you’re the nimbleness to make changes to your marketing strategies and tactics during the campaign period.
What is my ROI of this campaign?
The ROI of any campaign or marketing activity is calculated as [Total Revenue to date – Total Cost to date]/Total Cost to Date.
Note that the ROI is represented in a decimal form of which you may convert to percentages for easier reference.
How does my ROI compare to my Industry ROI? Or my greatest competitor’s ROI?
Now that you have your ROI on hand, you should first compare that to the industry ROI. If you are above it, do not let off and keep up the push for better improvements.
How does my ROI compare to my competitor’s ROI?
More importantly, should you be privy to your greatest competitor’s ROI, compare and make adjustments to exceed that of your competitor. This should serve as a continuous activity whenever you are doing your marketing campaigns. That said, when comparing your competitor’s campaign ROI, take note of the similarities and differences in their direct marketing mix and channels adopted. You should compare “apples to apples”. Too many diverging factors would make your competitor comparison meaningless.
What variable components in my ROI can I tweak to improve my returns?
This is the million dollar question. Timing is of essence, and having access to real time campaign results gives you the edge to start making adjustments to your direct marketing mix.
The key components you can tweak are your promotional mix in terms of the push factors. These are namely creating additional personal selling or telemarketing in support of your direct mailers, distribution of flyers at critical locations applicable to your business.
If you are strapped of funds, you could consider free press write ups, or subtly market your business via social networking sites. You might also forge alliance with other renown internet marketers in joint ventures to market your product over the internet, provided of course that your product offerings are suitable for the internet in terms of target audiences as well as delivery channels. And should you have excess funds, you may consider leveraging on TV ads or sponsor a radio talk show.
Check out the BusinessFast4ward Marketing Plan Template here for more details.
