How can you tell if your 1:1 print efforts are working? Measure them. Even if you don’t have a full-time staff of business analysts, creating a simple ROI doesn’t have to be daunting. Here’s how to get started.1. Set specific goals for your campaign.
What are the goals of the campaign? If you don’t have well-defined goals, you won’t know whether you are meeting objectives or not. The first step is to get those goals nailed down. Do you want to increase total revenue and profits? Is the purpose to increase sales of a particular product or service or expand into a new market? Is it general branding?
2. Crunch the numbers.Customize this basic print ROI model with your own assumptions to determine whether your campaign will be successful.
| Assumptions |
|
| Number of Pieces Printed |
20,000 |
| Total Cost |
$2500 |
| Response Rate Anticipated |
2.5% |
Percentage of Respondents
Expected to Purchase |
25% |
| Average Profit per Purchase |
$50 |
|
| Actual Metrics |
|
| Number of Respondents |
500 |
| Cost per Response |
$5.00 |
| Number of Buyers |
125 |
| Cost per Buyer |
$20 |
| Cost per Printed Piece |
$0.125 |
| Profit per Printed Piece |
$0.31 |
|
| ROI |
|
| Total Profit/(Loss) |
$6250 |
| Total Cost |
$2500 |
| Print Marketing ROI |
150% |
|
|
3. Design your printed materials to track responses. Include a customized coupon, personalized barcode, or use campaign-specific landing pages or 800 numbers to determine which customers are responding to which printed pieces.
4. Document how new customers found you. Train your sales and customer service personnel to ask how a client learned about you so you can be certain new sales are a result of your marketing efforts rather than another factor, such as a competitor going out of business.
5. Recognize that it’s not all about dollars and cents. While some metrics are black and white, others can only be captured through market research. For example, you might organize a focus group or survey of those who received a specific printed piece to measure their recall, perceptions about your company, and purchase intent resulting from the piece.
These strategies will enable you to cost-justify your print marketing budget and focus your efforts where you will receive the greatest returns.
Our thanks to Ian Flynn and Direct Response Imaging for these words of wisdom. |
