Demonstrate the Value of Your Marketing Efforts

The boss just came by your desk asking for some evidence that the expense and resources that have been invested into marketing lately are actually working. You start to perspire. You can relax! Proving that your business-to-business marketing makes a positive contribution to the bottom line is all part of your job. Here's how to do it:

The first step: have a look at the sales and revenue which is able to be immediately tied to your marketing efforts. In order to do this, simply make a comparison of the new customer invoices and the entries in your marketing database. You won't have to show every single sale that resulted from your marketing efforts; sometimes you'll just need to show one substantial sale in order to justify a full-scale marketing plan.

If the sales period is still open, start adding up the number of qualified leads, and use expected conversion rates and average size of sales to get a rough estimate of the value of these qualified leads. You may want to sand a survey to qualified leads, asking if they made a purchase in recent past. The answers they provide can help demonstrate that the prospects are making purchases from you. Ask what they bought, from who, why, and how much. If working with a large sample size, you can use the answers you get for an idea of the revenue that is represented in the total inquiries and leads you've generated.

You may be able to come up with a list of items you've accomplished in order to save the company time and money. It just takes a little thought. As an example, what about reduced print and postage costs by cleaning up and reducing the database? Or, have you added the option of email newsletter distribution? Consider the value of your new offerings in terms of savings.

Demonstrate the number of leads that were generated by your marketing outreach, calculating improvements that have been achieved. This can be measured in terms of cost per impression, inquiry, lead, or attendee. Marketers too often do not take their productivity level into consideration when attempting to justify the investment. People too often forget what happened last month, last quarter, or last year. In fact, they may have next to no idea what your activities are and what it takes to put your projects into action. By listing the projects you've completed successfully, you can illustrate your processes to others who might not otherwise be aware.

It's a good idea to put a couple of hours aside each month to practice making the case to show the value of your contributions. If you don't have the time yourself, perhaps you can enlist the help of an intern or temporary staff member. By putting the above tips into practice, a smart marketer will be able to demonstrate their value to the company in concrete, understandable terms. This may convert into a larger operating budget, or a lack of doubt about their contributions from senior management staff.