David Meerman Scott, author of The New Rules of Marketing & PR had a good rant posted on his blog about this the other day. There is a growing sense of frustration among web marketers who find themselves repeatedly stonewalled by executives asking “What’s the ROI?” or making grandiose statements such as “I can only commit $X funds if you can guarantee that I’ll see Y% return.” Yeah, yeah, we get it. You’ve got to CYA. Here’s what you’re missing out on though:

A 2009 survey done by the Association of National Advertisers found that between 55-65% of advertisers felt Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Marketing were the most effective new media channels for advertising. That’s huge! In that same survey, it was found that the most common problem among advertisers was being able to prove ROI up front (45%).  However, even though they couldn’t prove the numbers in the beginning, the results spoke for themselves. It’s not a question of whether or not the web works for promoting business and achieving increased sales. It does! The real question is: How do you optimize your online presence to reach its maximum potential?

There are two main costs associated with being engaged on the web: the cost to become established (launching a website, setting up Twitter accounts and FaceBook fan pages), and the ongoing cost required to stay current and ahead of the competition (usually through ongoing content creation, analytics, SEM, and SEO).

The first cost is easy to prove, especially if your company doesn’t have an existing website. Your business has a healthy profit margin of 30%, your average sale is $150, and the website cost $9,000 to create. 200 new customers later, and you’ve broken even and are making a nice return on investment. Every customer that finds you through your website after sale 201 is like manna from heaven. As an added bonus, your existing customers can either become reengaged (meaning more repeat sales) or easily refer you to family and friends.

Unlike offline marketing, where information is scarce and expensive to come by (requiring surveys and focus groups in a variety of markets), the web comes with a variety of free tools made to help you get the information you need. Even though the information is easily found, making sense of it is still as difficult as ever. That’s why an experienced professional can help you sort through it, give you a better understanding of what’s happening with your online presence, and make adjustments to increase sales.

So, calculating ROI every time they do this? It’s pretty much just like taking your car to a mechanic. Sure, your business vehicle will give you a good ROI, but not if you don’t maintain it.  The same is true for your website. If you don’t adjust your PPC spending, or create relevant, useful content to keep visitors coming back, you’ll find your site stalled on the internet with other people passing you by, and pulling into your competitors’ parking lots.

RevenFlo Offers Search Engine Optimization Services

It takes time to get it right. It ALSO takes time to create a strategy for your company, target high quality linking opportunities and test the results.  The good news is that Revenflo has the tools and talent to get you in the game effectively.  So, give us a shout, and get your business found on the search engines with RevenFlo.