David Sher, Co-Founder Buzz12
When Ashley Prewitt and I meet with a Buzz12 prospect, we’re almost always asked the same question, “Is it possible to get a significant ROI with digital marketing.”
I’ve been a business owner my entire adult life and I agree that is the most important question you can ask.
Before I respond, however, I would like to point out that almost everything on the Internet is measurable—that is certainly not the case with traditional advertising like television, radio, and print. When you purchase an ad on traditional media, you may be told how many people might see it or hear it, but its usually not possible to draw a straight line between the person who saw your ad and the purchase of your goods or services.
John Wanamaker, the famous merchant, is often quoted, “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.”
Most business transactions—both consumer and business to business—begin on the Internet. So to measure your return on investment (ROI), you would only need to trace an inquiry on your Internet site to the ultimate sale and then calculate your cost.
So how does this work?
The first step is to attract a stranger to your website which you can do with blogs, key words, and social media. Note the blog is the most important component because without the blog, there is no attraction. The blog lets people know who you are and what you know. A blog has the power to make you a “thought leader” in your industry.
With your blog, a stranger gains familiarity with you and your company. You then have the opportunity to convert that stranger into a lead—and then a customer.
To compute a return on investment, it is simply a matter of dividing the revenue generated by your new customers by the cost of acquisition.
Creating a strong ROI with digital marketing requires effort. You have to have the expertise to attract searchers, great content to engage them, and the tools to convert them into a lead and then into a sale.
We founded Buzz12 in 2009 as a social media company. We still do social media, but social media is only a small part of how we now help our clients.
I spoke recently to a room full of business executives. At the beginning of my presentation, I asked how many of their companies have a blog. Only three of the one hundred people in attendance raised their hands. During the question and answer period someone asked what I thought would be the next big thing for business.
My answer is a “no brainer.” All businesses will have a blog.
According to HubSpot, marketers who write just 3-4 blog posts per month get 20 more monthly lead submissions, 800 more monthly site visits, 60 more Twitter followers, and 50 more Facebook likes than marketers that only write 2 blog posts per month. Eighty-two percent of marketers who blog on a daily basis acquired a customer using their blog, as opposed to 57% of marketers who just blog monthly.
Not too long ago, many business people didn’t think they needed a website. Today most everyone would agree that a website is mandatory.
Today’s question, “Is it necessary to have a blog?
You must have a blog to provide the content–to attract the strangers–to convert them into leads—and then into sales.
That’s how you get a significant return on investment.
David Sher is a co-founder of Buzz12 Advertising. You can read more of his posts by looking for the “David Sher Posts” category in the sidebar of Buzz12’s website.
