Many companies and Marketers alike, pontificate and debate how to qualify and quantify the effectiveness of their marketing dollars, especially when it corresponds to print spend. Most agree that the best time to market your products either B to B or B to C is during difficult times, in order to emerge with a larger market share.  That said, in a down economy, CEO’s look at marketing expenses as discretionary spending.  Without a sound ROI, this is an expense that is one of the first to either be reduced or cut.  So where do you spend your marketing dollars and how do you gage its effectiveness?  In the realm of process management, there is a saying that goes something like this:

If you can’t define it, you can’t measure it

  If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it

If you can’t manage it, you can’t control it

If you can’t control it, you can’t improve it

With direct mail and multimedia marketing campaigns, it’s imperative to create a P/L that ties to the costs incurred.  Whether the campaign is a test ongoing marketing, the ROI needs to be reviewed for each project, analysis, and if needed adjustments made.

There was an article in the July issue of Target Marketing www.targetmarketingmag.com , written by Philippe Graner.  He relates the important aspect of charting your costs, benchmarking and identifying key costs against your company’s financial plan.   Analyzing your profit-and-loss statement for your marketing campaigns, coupled with competitors’ results and industry averages will allow you to evaluate your market position, and make adjustments moving forward to improve your ROI and bottom line.

Being a print provider, it’s encouraging to know that print and direct mail are still the most cost effective and results oriented means of generating sales.  Feel free to give us a call at 316-206-1228 or check our website at www.McCromickarmstrong.com .  We’re here to bring solutions to your print marketing campaigns and help you increase your sales and the ROI of your print marketing.