What’s your ROI on digital marketing?

A new research report confirms what I, and many others, have suspected. Namely, that during the last five years, it has become more difficult to maintain market visibility, customer loyalty, and a flow of referrals from clients.  The non-stop tidal way of marketing massages is making it harder to generate new business enquiries through all forms of marketing, including via digital marketing. In many ways that finding should not be a surprise to anyone with extensive practical sales and marketing expertise. Despite that there are so many pundits out there telling is that digital marketing is the Utopian way to generate new sales leads. The digital successes they quote probably apply to a few isolated examples, but our own experience, which is confirmed through this new research report, is that it has become more difficult to generate leads during the past five years. Furthermore, it appears that it is only the leader within each community or sector that can generate a significant volume of new sales enquiries via the digital methods.

Despite the difficulties, it doesn’t mean that we should give up. Digital marketing remains one of the tools available to everyone involved in business. It can contribute towards the generation new enquiries, and it can help businesses keep in touch with existing customers. That being the case, it is essential to find a way to test and measure everything you do within your marketing activities. For most small businesses that could mean modifying the existing bookkeeping system to capture the basic data that is necessary. This simple arrangement can provide the essential sales and marketing data, such as the amount of money spent, the frequency of the campaigns, the number of new enquiries, the number of those enquiries converted into customers, and the value and frequency of all those new sales. Whilst not as detailed as a dedicated marketing software system, utilising the existing bookkeeping software does give a small business the data that is essential, whilst avoiding the cost and complexity of dedicated marketing software.

If you need any help to modify your bookkeeping system, come and have a chat with ad+. As always, we are always delighted to chat with ambitious business owners about how to improve their business systems, profitability, and cash flow.

Get in touch with David Charles to arrange your initial discussion with one of our Chartered Accountants to learn how we could help you.

• E:  dcharles@adplus.co.uk
• T:  0141 643 9200