Digital has claimed its position in the marketing world. Completely moving away from traditional methods of promoting products or services, it is now imperative for marketers to learn new skills and adapt to an environment embracing the shift to digital marketing. However, digital is a tricky form of investment for many companies.

Business owners are often cautious about adopting digital technologies as they fear the added difficulty to measure its return on investment will cause them an overall loss. Understandably, the unfamiliarity of digital marketing means this becomes the primary reason companies hold off investing in digital, but there are a number of ways in which you can guarantee a significant return. 

The following are key tips to ensure a return on investment on digital. 

1. Revisit your brand. This means first identifying who your audience is, and then determining what you want to communicate to them.

2. Competitor research. Completing a SWOT analysis of your competitors is an effective way to gage where your product stands in the market. It is then much easier to implement good digital strategies that other businesses have used, customising it to your operations. 

3. Planning calendar. Creating a calendar of important dates in your industry is a useful tool when writing content as this ensures what you say is relevant which appeals to your audience.  

4. Attribute accurately. Often businesses misunderstand which of their marketing models is the most effective because results in the non digital world aren’t immediate and most businesses still apply old, non-digital techniques to digital marketing. This means that the last interaction model (such as emails between customers and the business) are thought to be the sole contributor to how well a digital marketing campaign fares. To avoid this confusion, using time decay and position based models are an appropriate solution as they show how various platforms perform holistically. Moreover, intelligent use of measuring and analytics can lead to a shorter feedback loop and correct attribution of ones’ marketing activities.

Source: Ensure you get a return on your digital marketing investment campaigns 

A company has the potential to reap several benefits from ensuring a return on digital investment, however, without having the capability to measure the value of the investment, these benefits are cannot be entirely realised. With 90% of global marketers unable to calculate return on investment, let alone the return on investment of their digital marketing spend, it is vital for marketers to know how to track the progress of their campaigns in order to optimise return on digital investment.

The following are simple yet efficient ways in which to measure the return on digital investment.

1. Think beyond outcome measures. It is important to be aware of the various things that contribute to a positive return on investment. For example, when thinking about your company’s social media image, consider how your product quality may be impacting your online presence.

2. Measure what matters, not what’s easy. Many marketers who are new to digital marketing look at the number of clicks or likes as indicators of customer interaction with their campaigns. However this only gives a surface level understanding which can’t be built upon. Instead, key performance indicators are more helpful in simultaneously monitoring the progress of multiple campaigns, producing useful insights which can be interpreted to improve performance.   

3. Don’t stop with descriptive analytics. While descriptive analytics has been the norm, it is time to employ predictive analytics. Predictive analytics is particularly handy as it builds models with big data to discover relationships amongst factors that influence the return on digital marketing investment.   

Source: Marketers may need to develop new skills to effectively track the performance of their campaigns 

Here at OnQue, we are about all things digital. We specialise in digital marketing strategies tailored to any product or service and understand what it takes for your digital investment to be worthwhile. We use our customers’ data to enable them to make informed decisions in a timely manner and stay ahead of the curve marketing and business wise. Contact us for more information on how we can help your business reach its digital marketing potential!