ROI in the Digital Age

How do you measure the results of your marketing? Is it an increase in traffic, a rise in rank? Phone calls? Social media attention? The uncomfortable truth is if you can’t define your terms of success, what hope do you have to determine the ROI of your MSP marketing campaigns?

I Have an MSP Website, I’m Done.

Many businesses, not just MSPs, believe that once their website is complete, they’ve finished their marketing. For instance, if you have our MSP website, that’s a great first start, but understand that it’s only the first step. Your website is the strategic foundation around marketing your MSP… but as the foundation of a home, if you don’t build on it, it’s just a hole in the ground. To successfully market your MSP, you need more than just a website with the right keywords. 

Marketing your MSP takes much more than that. You have to use content marketing, social media marketing, direct mail marketing, and more, and it changes based on what your competition is doing and how aggressive they are. You need a marketing plan and of course measurable objectives and goals if you want to have a successful ROI.

S.M.A.R.T Goals for Determining ROI

S.M.A.R.T goals must be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely. Once you have the goal, you can use the tactics mentioned above to obtain them.

Measure the Correct ROI

One of the primary ways many businesses, including MSPs, measure marketing ROI is whether or not the phone is ringing and that is certainly a valid metric. However, in the age of digital marketing, traditional metrics aren’t always transferable due to so many other metrics involved in generating leads. This is why it is critical to have a marketing plan to help coordinate all the moving parts.

Using our S.M.A.R.T goal of 100 Facebook Likes as an example, here are the steps needed:

1. A website with content interesting enough to share 
2. Create a landing page with a deliverable, and form, providing visitors from your social media a place to ‘land’ (Don’t forget your call to action)
3. Share/post the content (blog, photo, offer) on social media
4. Someone to monitor the social media account and engage users (just posting your blog isn’t user engagement)
5. Boost posts and run a small Like Campaign against your existing clients and prospects
6. Collect, measure and analyze leads
7. Follow up with leads either via calls, email or direct mail
8. Remember the Rule of Seven. Generating leads isn’t a one-shot endeavor, it takes time. This means you have to reach out to potential customers multiple times, using different media

Notice in these steps there are no calls until step 7 and you’re the one making the call to prospective MSP clients, as opposed to clients calling you for information. A successful online marketing campaign will provide all the information and solutions to potential clients upfront. This makes it easy for potential customers to feel you’re an authority, take a chance on you, and fill out a contact form.

The goal of your content marketing is to transform potential customers into leads. The only way to do that is by what you write, how you share it and how responsive you are to their concerns...all which occur online.

How to Calculate Your Digital ROI

• Set your conversion goals: As noted, a conversion goal can be any metric you deem valuable. As an MSP, one valuable metric could be completing a form for a free audit.
• Track the conversions: This can be done using Google Analytics or the social network’s internal tracking capabilities.
• Assign a monetary value: This can be a little tricky, but one way to approach it is by treating a digital lead the same way you would treat a traditionally found lead. What’s an initial contact worth to you? Use that number as a start. You will also need to know your close rate and how many form completions you received. The equation for your benefits looks like this: monetary value x close rate % x completions. This number is your Benefits.
• Total costs: Even though we’re using sweat equity, there is still a cost in man hours to create the landing page, the content, and to maintain social media. One thing to consider is once the landing page and content is done, it is a one-time investment which is reusable. Your only constant investment is the person(s) maintaining social media accounts. This number is your Costs.
• Calculate your ROI: Take a look at our infographic: 

By treating digital marketing as you would traditional marketing you are able to see there is a ROI to SEO, content marketing, to your website and all those ‘fuzzy’ concepts. In fact, when properly managed, monitored and maintained, the completion of a form can be as valuable as a phone call.

Digital marketing is unique as potential customers to find you, as opposed to trying to find them. This is why it is critical that your MSP marketing plan provides the searcher a reason to read your content, click on a link, fill out a form and yes, even call you.

Ready to meet your potential leads? Contact us today at 888-546-4384.