What does the ROI of marketing mean today? Do you still track the return on investment (ROI) for all your marketing activities in the old fashion way?

Before jumping into the new way of understanding ROI, let’s watch this short video to see the old way of calculating ROI.

Well, now it’s time to wake up and face the new meaning of ROI = Return On Impression.

The 21st century ROI of marketing is a powerful metric tracking marketing performance beyond it’s dollar value.

The new ROI (Return on Impression) encompasses both:

1. The hard metrics = the number of people who see your marketing promotions.

2. The soft metrics = consumer perception of the brand.

The second metric becomes more and more relevant as large communities go viral and interact on different social media platforms. A company does not build a brand. A brand is built by customer perception.

So, why do so many businesses lack this new perspective? Why do they often stick to the old metrics when considering their ROI of marketing?

We all know that it’s a lot easier to measure hard facts. Soft factors are more complex and require deeper insights into customer behavior thus leading to the necessity to investing into consumer market research.

The new ROI of marketing also includes engagement (relationship marketing), opportunity (indirect marketing) and objectives (accepting the fact that not all goals in marketing are measurable).

The companies who already included these new perspectives into their overall marketing plan are definitely on the right track. Everybody else is well advised to catch up soon and include the soft metrics into the ROI of marketing.

Here’s what I recommend:

Keep the old way of calculating ROI because it’s a proven metric that delivers information on a consistent basis, and add the new way of looking into the depths of your marketing activities. Combine the hard metric with today’s soft metric and you’re good to go.

What do you suggest? How do you look at the ROI of marketing?