Marketing is an Investment not an Expense: How to Get a Return on Your Marketing Investment

By July 7, 2022 March 6th, 2024 Sales & Marketing Advice

Last Updated on March 6, 2024 by Dave Schoenbeck

Marketing is an investment—not an expense. It’s an area of your business that demands time and resources while often taking months to see results. Knowing and understanding that, however, are two different things. Being patient with your marketing investment can be hard when unsure of what ROI to expect.

Stacks of gold coins sprouting young plants indicating a growing marketing investment

The best way to anticipate a higher return on marketing investment is to make sure you’re investing in the most profitable forms of marketing. In addition, you can learn a lot from looking at how other companies are distributing their marketing budgets.

1. Engage in Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing is on the rise. Paying an influencer in your niche to promote your product or service can seriously boost your return on marketing investment. Influencer Marketing Hub says influencer marketing ROI averages $5.78 per dollar spent. In that same report, 91% of respondents said they believed in the effectiveness of influencer marketing.

Influencers know their industries well and typically have a devoted, engaged audience. However, influencer marketing might not be for everyone. Some industries lend themselves better to influencer marketing than others. Therefore, you might want to try a pilot program before investing too much of your budget into influencer marketing.

2. Make Videos Short and Sweet

Every year, renowned marketing platform HubSpot releases a Marketing Industry Trends Report that combines data from over 1000 marketers across the globe. This year they noted that 89% of marketers plan to continue their current spending or increase their marketing investment in short-form video content.

These short videos, anywhere from 30 seconds to 2 minutes in length, are popular on TikTok, Instagram Stories, and Reels. The good news about creating video content is that it can be repurposed across multiple platforms without extra cost, making it an illustrious source of ROI in digital marketing.

3. Written Content is Still Kicking

According to the Hubspot report, blog posts have the third highest content marketing ROI out of all types of content. When paired with images and infographics, a quality blog post can build trust with potential customers, establish your company’s reputation as a thought leader, and increase your organic reach in Google searches.

The key word here is quality. Google’s algorithm constantly evolves to serve its customers the best content. Gone are the days of marketing tactics like keyword stuffing and bland listicles. Instead, getting the most value out of your content creates something user-friendly people want to read.

The most important thing to remember about marketing is it’s constantly changing landscape. So, it would be best if you were ready to shift your budget towards new avenues as they arise. Who knows what the top trends will be this time next year?

Ensuring you get a good return on your marketing investment is only one tiny facet of a successful business. As a business coach, I share new articles on business and leadership weekly on my blog. Click here to sign up to receive these articles and learn relevant business topics to help your business thrive.

Coach Dave

Dave Schoenbeck
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