How to look at industrial marketing ROI
ROI is commonly known as Return On Investment. Unfortunately, it’s just as common to think that the return is one-to-one regarding lead generation. Of course, that rarely ever happens in a B2B lead generation campaign. A better definition of ROI is Realistic Opportunity Investment. Let me explain how this works for industrial marketing ROI.
Be Realistic
Most manufacturers will need to sell to other markets or deeper into the market they serve to continue growing. That growth will require cost, effort, and time. To evaluate the return realistically, industrial marketing ROI must factor in your typical sales cycle, which is the time from getting the lead to closing the sale. By factoring in the average time from the lead to the sales meeting to the proposal to any adjusted proposal to the closed sale, you can make a realistic projection of when you will start to see a return.
It’s an Opportunity
Remember that a lead generation campaign only produces leads that are opportunities to become a sale. Consequently, you need to consider all the factors of the opportunity. First, your sales team must qualify the initial leads to determine interest. Also, you need to know the purchasing cycle of potential customers or the demand for what you are selling. If your product lasts years, it will have a longer purchase cycle than a service the prospect uses frequently. Depending on the purchase cycle, leads must be followed up and nurtured to turn them into sales. Be honest in your assessment of the opportunity part of your industrial marketing ROI, and the time it will take to become a sale.
An Investment takes time
Of course, investment is still a component of industrial marketing ROI. After all, you are investing money from your business. However, also consider your investment in time and effort. Be sure you are not letting leads go to waste by not following up on them. You also must invest in patience. Like investing in stocks, a sales and marketing campaign will take time to produce results. As you must diversify a stock portfolio, develop a plan with multiple lead generation channels to yield the best results. Remember that there isn’t one magic channel that will deliver immediate sales growth. You need to commit to a proactive campaign that you realistically and honestly evaluate based on sales cycle, purchasing cycle, sales follow-up efforts, and other qualifications to judge your industrial marketing ROI as a Realistic Opportunity Investment.
Pappy
About the Author
Paul Kowalski (or Pappy as he is called around the office) spent over two decades working at other agencies before opening Conach Marketing Group in 2008. The early part of his career was working with Fortune 500 clients at different agencies. However, working with smaller clients was his preference. This choice was because of the impact on a client’s business growth and forming closer, personal relationships.
About Conach
When he was creating Conach, his goal was to bring those Fortune 500 strategies along with years of B2B marketing experience to small business marketing clients. As a result of focusing on business to business marketing, Conach specializes in construction marketing, financial marketing, and industrial marketing. Even though we are in Mid-Michigan, Conach provides marketing services to clients across the country.