There is a misconception about marketing that almost every dollar can and should be traced back to an ROI.
The reality is, it’s just not possible—for the most part—on a granular level.
Think about anywhere else in the business. What is the ROI of hiring one person over another?
Or delighting clients with a treat the next time you see them? Or choosing one office over another?
You just can’t measure it, even if there is one buried deep down inside.
So much of marketing can be measured, yes. And yet, so much of it relies on combinations of things that are hard to quantify individually.
Multiple touchpoints, taking risks, word of mouth, and many other factors combine to make an ROI equation almost impossible.
Marketing should instead be looked at as a whole. Like your health, it’s a system of things that make up the health of the individual.
It’s everything your business does that makes up the whole.
Sure, you can and should track all of the metrics that matter. But then you must zoom out and look at the big picture: are we getting opportunities and new clients at a cost we can afford?
That’s the true measure of marketing success. At least in my eyes.