Measuring your Digital Media ROI – Small Business Marketing 101

This series includes:

Small Business Marketing 101
Step 1: Position and Plan
Step 2: Create an Identity
Step 3: Spread the word through Internet Marketing
Step 4: Measure your Digital Media ROI
Step 5: Measure your Social Media ROI

The Small Business Marketing series is a compilation of what most businesses should be doing to increase their visibility on the World Wide Web. We want to take the time to educate you, and empower you to increase your ROI. Now that we have covered the basics in Small Business Marketing we want to give you a macro view on how to measure your Digital Media ROI.

Before we begin, let’s go over the basics first. A digital media campaign is designed around the idea of building an awareness through various types of media channels. They can range between search marketing, public relations, social media, and online media. These mediums are generally specific in building traffic, increasing lead generation, as well as serving as a tool to monitor website performance analytics.

Keep in mind that you have to be patient, this does not occur overnight by any means. You have to understand the analytics by evaluating the types of visitors that approach your website, just the way you manage your brick and mortar facility. The right metrics are important when you want to see a solid return on investment. If this sounds like a lot of work, its not so bad once you get the basics down. In laymen’s terms, every aspect of your digital media strategy is measurable.

For example, let’s say that a visitor walks into your brick and mortar facility but is somewhat hesitant to make that purchase. We already know that he/she is likely to search on the World Wide Web for competing prices and service attributes. It’s a given. If this prospective customer were to visit your website he/she is likely to make a final decision based upon the quality of your website. Be sure that your website is positioned to obtain your target market, this is where proper design and marketing messages take priority.

Measuring ROI

In order to measure ROI in a digital media campaign, we must review the non-financial impacts first. Non-financial impacts are stages within your marketing campaign that include but are not limited to the following: the number of visitors, number of page views, time spent on website. In digital media the objectives are the following: increasing reach, awareness, coverage, and engagements across all verticals. Once visitors have engaged with the intended website and engagements occurs with the product/service – an ROI can be measured by the conversion rates. The higher your conversion rates the better your campaign is performing. This means that you have succeeded in obtaining successful website usability.

Conversion Rates & Why They Drop

Conversion rates drop for two primary reasons.

1. Website traffic is not targeted to the intended product/service. If you are selling fish tank equipment and a prospective user who is searching to purchase exotic fish, is not likely to remain on your site for too long. Takes extra measures to target prospective visitors for your intended product/service.

2. Website usability and the ability for the user to find the solution they intend is also another reason for poor website conversions. Usability is very important and design strategy plays a key component when it comes to conversion rates. Be sure to measure your shopping cart abandonment rate.

Stay tuned as we are going to be giving you Step 5 of this series in Small Business Marketing 101. If we can help national brands with their marketing strategies, who says that our agency cannot help you? All you have to do is take notes, and if you really want to be a step ahead, make a small investment in our Internet Marketing eBook. Both of these tools and resources will serve as the perfect guide in establishing your brand.