Marketing ROI - 15 Marketing Methods To Increase Sales With A High Positive Return On Investment Probability
Recently I calculated what the average ROI of marketing spending was of our clients across all of the marketing they do with us and on their own. I wanted to see what an average ROI should be for marketing activities. Based on the data we have it appears the ROI on one year of sales generated from the various marketing activities is 481% and on 3 years of sales ROI is 1,115%. This blog post looks at what marketing methods have a very high chance of having a good positive ROI for any business.
15 Marketing Methods With A High Positive Return On Investment Probability
1. Meeting With Complimentary, Non Competing Companies
Description: Simply call up and meet with other companies that don't compete with you that supply products or services that are complimentary to yours. Work to send them referrals and build relationships with them so that they will send you referrals as well.
Cost: $20 to $30 per hour for appointment booking
Reason it has a high probability to return a positive ROI: A third party recommendation to a prospect to use your company is extremely powerful, and the cost of meeting with complimentary companies that could turn into referral partners has minimal costs to execute. They key is that your product should make it easier for them to sell their product, then they will be enticed to refer you to their prospects.
2. Request For Proposals
Description: These are documents sent out by organizations that give you specific instructions on how to bid on a job. These types of opportunities are not available for all businesses but there are usually a few each year for most types of businesses if you know where to look for them.
Cost: $25 to $80 per RFP for mail fees
Reason it has a high probability to return a positive ROI: They cost almost nothing to complete (just the cost of printing, the mail fess and the cost of the time to complete them) and if you focus on only the ones you have a good chance of winning they can have a great ROI.
3. Email Marketing To Existing Customers - use Aweber.com for email marketing
Description: Sending emails on a monthly or weekly basis to your customers with information that would be of interest to them using a program like Aweber.com that makes it easy to send personalized emails to all your customers at once. This could be links to useful articles on your blog, links to useful articles on the web, announcements from your company that pertain to them and occasionally (like once or twice a year) some kind of survey to get feedback from them. By keeping in contact with them they will be more likely to think of you when they need what you sell or when talking with other people to give referrals. For instructions on how to conduct effective email marketing strategies go to the email marketing section of our blog by clicking the link in the column to the right of this article.
Cost: $5 to $30 a month
Reason it has a high probability to return a positive ROI: Email marketing is very inexpensive per impression, email is a key communication tool for most people and because you can repeatedly send messages to the same recipient (repetition marketing).
4. Hiring A Sales Manager
Description: Hire an additional sales manager or a fractional sales manager to meet with your existing customers to learn what their needs are, how you can improve your service and what your customers like most about your service. Having these discussions should lead to new revenue ideas, product improvement ideas and also open up additional revenue opportunities at your existing customers.
Cost: $25 to $60 an hour
Reason it has a high probability to return a positive ROI: Usually the easiest way to increase sales is to sell more to your existing customers, they already know you and trust you. The key to selling is relationships so having a sales manager to build those relationships should lead to more sales opportunities
5. Email Marketing To Existing Customers To Cross Sell - use Aweber.com for email marketing
Description: Send emails to customers to cross sell them on items they don't currently buy from you. If you are a business office machine seller and you have customers that buy printers from you, send them emails on information about faxes and scanners. Be sure to send useful information to them like case studies and news on new products instead of just the products and prices. For instructions on how to conduct effective email marketing strategies go to the email marketing section of our blog by clicking the link in the column to the right of this article.
Cost: $5 to $30 a month
Reason it has a high probability to return a positive ROI: Email marketing is very inexpensive per impression, email is a key communication tool for most people and because you can repeatedly send messages to the same recipient (repetition marketing).
6. A Website - get your website hosted on BlueHost.com
Description: Build a website that shows what you do, what makes you different, provides a means for people to contact your business and a way to capture prospect information.
Cost: $2,000 to $10,000
Reason it has a high probability to return a positive ROI: Websites are a one time expense that have recurring benefit for the life of your business.
7. Website Search Engine Optimization - learn more about our search engine optimization services
Description: This is taking steps to optimize the web pages on your existing website and new pages you create to be found and rank high in search engines like Google and Bing for the right words. This can either be done by someone one on your team that is an SEO expert or by hiring a firm that specializes in this to do it for you. Review our search engine optimization services
Cost: $100 to $2,500 a month
Reason it has a high probability to return a positive ROI: Websites optimization has recurring benefit for the life of your business and can lead to 2x to 50x the amount of traffic for your website.
8. Blogging & Website Content Creation - get your blog hosted on BlueHost.com
Description: This is adding a section to your website where you add information regularly to your website. These articles need to be relevant to your industry or it will not be effective. You don't have to call it a blog, you could label it any title you want. For example our blog is called "Sales & Marketing Insights".
Cost: $15 to $40 an hour
Reason it has a high probability to return a positive ROI: It has a tremendous impact on the amount of traffic you get from your website and the cost of doing it is very low, if done correctly it can also cement your company as an expert on the topic you are writing on and people like to buy from experts.
9. Website Link Building - learn more about our search engine optimization services, which includes link building
Description: Getting links from other websites to your website will help the search engine rankings of all of your web pages on your website. Getting these links to your website can happen by guest posting on another blog, commenting on forums and having links go back to your website or by people finding your information so useful that they link to it.
Cost: $100 to $1,000 a month
Reason it has a high probability to return a positive ROI: It can be relatively low cost and lead to 2x to 50x the amount of traffic for your website with recurring benefits.
10. Email Marketing To Prospective Customers - use Aweber.com for email marketing
Description: Send mass marketing emails to prospects on informative and helpful articles that are on your blog and on the internet using a program like Aweber.com. In your emails to prospects ask them questions as well from time to time to see if you can get a response, start a conversation and turn that conversation into a meeting date. For instructions on how to conduct effective email marketing strategies go to the email marketing section of our blog by clicking the link in the column to the right of this article.
Cost: $5 to $30 a month
Reason it has a high probability to return a positive ROI: Email marketing is very inexpensive per impression, email is a key communication tool for most people and because you can repeatedly send messages to the same recipient (repetition marketing).
11. Door To Door
Description: This approach is creating a list of high value prospects and driving to each asking to talk to the appropriate person and if you get to talk to them asking for another time you can come back for a meeting.
Cost: $5 to $10 in gas per trip
Reason it has a high probability to return a positive ROI: You can be very selective to only target the most valuable prospects and by having a face to face interaction you can build rapport with the prospect faster.
12. Direct Mail - give Graphic Edge Print Solutions in Kitchener a call for your direct mail needs at (519) 208-8190
Description: This approach is sending a post card sized mail piece directly to your prospects with an offer on it that compels them to take action. The offer needs to be very attractive and entice them to contact you. For more information on how to do effective direct mail strategies go to the direct marketing section of our blog by clicking the link in the column to the right of this article.
Cost: $0.25 to $1.50 per recipient
Reason it has a high probability to return a positive ROI: It can still be relatively inexpensive per impression if you use low cost design services, print a large run and send a simple and regular sized post card type mail piece.
13. Attending Networking Events
Description: This approach is creating a list of high value prospects and driving to each asking to talk to the appropriate person and if you get to talk to them asking for another time you can come back for a meeting. For tips on Networking click here.
Cost: $20 to $100
Reason it has a high probability to return a positive ROI: Networking events are usually low cost, most people you meet with at least be willing to meet with you, which is often the hardest part of the sales process. The key is to get the contact information of as many people as you can at each event so that you have more people to follow up with.
14. Telephone Marketing
Description: This approach is calling high value prospects on a regular basis with the goal of booking a meeting to discuss further. The key we have found to having this approach be successful it so use a SPIN selling approach before asking for a meeting.
Cost: $15 to $40.00 an hour
Reason it has a high probability to return a positive ROI: It can be relatively inexpensive and you can target your calling to the largest opportunities, it also gives you a way to repeatedly market to the same prospects and targeted repetition is key for marketing to work.
15. Video Marketing
Description: This approach is creating instructional videos relevant to your industry that will display that you are an expert in your field.
Cost: $150 to $1,500 for a video camera - shop for one on ebay
Reason it has a high probability to return a positive ROI: High quality videos can be created with minimal cost with an video device, in addition videos can rank very high in search engine results and provide benefit to your business for the life of your business.
If you are looking for specific details on the average ROI by marketing method click here to see our last report.
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