Driving Up Revenues Between 2017 and 2018

Background

In the last post, Marketing and Advertising Works, Right?, we looked at the value of investing in marketing. Our conclusion was that if done wisely increasing the amount in marketing will most likely lead to an increase in revenue.

In this post, we will look at the same company but examine the specific changes that were made to improve the effectiveness of their investments in marketing.

As mentioned in the last blog post we are using data from one of our clients. I’m not able to divulge the name of the company but I can tell you that the numbers are real. The company is located in Calgary, Alberta. They have been in the renovations industry for nearly 30 years. Our company, Anduro Marketing, has done a variety of marketing activities for them including Digital Marketing, Traditional Marketing (via a media buyer partner), Website Design Consultation, and in recent years Marketing Strategy Consulting.

Below is the same table that we introduced at the end of the last post.

The data are for the full years of 2017 and 2018. Here is an explanation of each row and column:

• Marketing Investments are the amount invested in marketing for the entire year

• Booked Revenues are the total value of revenue for the projects committed to by customers

• Investments / Revenues % is the percentage of revenues invested in marketing

• The acronym for Return on Marketing Investment is ROMI

• We format this number as a dollar. If the answer is $10 we would say, “For every $1 invested in marketing we generated $10 in revenue, not including the investment in marketing”. By the way, $10 is a good baseline number.

• The formula for ROMI is [(Revenue - Investment) / Investment]

• Change is the difference between 2018 and 2017

• % Change is the percentage of the change between these 2 years

Marketing Investments

As we can see from the table, investments made in marketing increased by 15% from almost $195,000 to nearly $225,000. This is a significant increase.

Before we look at the results of this increase in investment in marketing I have to add that this decision - to increase the budget by nearly $2,500 per month - takes guts, faith, planning, commitment, and a talented team to execute the plan.

Booked Revenues

Revenues that were committed to by customers (booked) increased from nearly $1,835,000 in 2017 to almost $4,000,000 in 2018. This is a significant increase of 117% (an increase of over $2 million). Wow.

Investments / Revenues %

If we look at the percentage of investments compared the revenues booked we can see that this amount actually decreased from a bit more than 10% to just over 5%. This is excellent.

This means that we are investing a lower percentage of revenues in marketing and actually generating more revenue. In other words are investments in marketing are more efficient and more effective - exactly what we want.

ROMI

ROMI increased by 99% from just over $8 in 2017 to nearly $17 in 2018. In other words, for every $1 spent on marketing in 2018 we generated $17 in booked revenue (not including the amount invested in marketing).

This is fantastic for 2 reasons: a) the trend is going in the right direction (improving) and b) the return of $17 for every $1 invested in marketing.

Recommendations at the End of 2017

Here is a list of recommendations that we made and which were adopted by the company we are working with:

1. Implement a customer relationship management system (CRM)

2. Hire a female salesperson (most of the buyers are women)

3. Target traditional advertising (radio and billboards) to specific areas of the city where those in the target market live

4. Increase ad spend for traditional marketing campaigns (radio and billboards)

5. Focus on getting referrals and repeat business using incentives

6. Increase the number and scope of customer participation events

Recommendations at the End of 2018

Here is a list of the recommendations that we made at the end of 2018 for the upcoming year of 2019:

1. Improve SEO

2. Increase scope for Google Ads

3. Add Google Display Ads and Remarketing

4. Have a stronger presence on social platforms

5. Increase the number of reviews

6. Increase the number of followers on specific platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, email)

Next Post

In our next post we will look at how these recommendations are being implemented and the corresponding results.

Marketing and Advertising Works, Right?

Case Study Background

Of course, marketing and advertising works. I also know that I'm biased but let’s not stop there. Let’s see if numbers — real data — actually PROVE that marketing is effective.

In this blog post, we are going to review a case example using data from one of our clients. I’m not able to divulge the name of the company but I can tell you that the numbers are real.

The company is located in Calgary, Alberta. They have been in the renovations industry for nearly 30 years. Our company, Anduro Marketing, has done a variety of marketing activities for them including Digital Marketing, Traditional Marketing (via a media buyer partner), Website Design Consultation, and in recent years Marketing Strategy Consulting.

Our recommendations for changes in strategy and tactics are a result of using data collected with our Revenue Catalyst software product. Revenue Catalyst is like an X-ray machine for marketing - it illuminates everything in marketing that is going right and everything that is going wrong.

In this post, we will specifically review data related to Marketing Investments, Sessions to the Website, Booked Sales generated and resulting Booked Revenues booked. The measures in each of these areas, for the year of 2018, are as follows:

Investments ($) include any expense related to marketing. These break down into four main areas:

• Digital: SEO, Backlinking, Reviews, Paid Search, Display, Remarketing, Email

• Social: Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest

• Traditional: Radio, Out of Home Billboards, Signage on Trucks, Trade Shows

• Internal: Customer Referrals, Repeat Business

Sessions (#) include all visits (including repeat visits) to the website as recorded by Google Analytics.

Booked Sales (#) is the number of projects sold in a month. One project is one sale. We did not include upsales or changes in scope during the project.

Booked Revenues ($) includes the total value of the sale in dollars as agreed upon at the time the agreement is made with the customer.

The basic premise of marketing is that there should be some desired outcome as a result of funds invested in marketing. If the investments are done wisely and effectively then there should be a positive correlation between the amount invested and the desired outcome (most often Sales and Revenue).

In this case study, we will review 3 desired outcomes:

1. Sessions (visitors) to the website

2. Booked Sales (#)

3. Booked Revenue ($)

As mentioned, our hypothesis is that investments in marketing should correlate positively with these three outcomes. With this in mind, let’s look at three graphs (and a fourth later on).

Investments vs Sessions

In this first graph, we will plot the amount invested each month in marketing (Investments) and compare that to the number of visitors to the website (Sessions). Ideally, when the company invests funds into marketing and advertising, we would expect that the number of visitors to the website would increase, either immediately or shortly after the investment.

This is in fact what we observe when we compare these two measures. Investments in marketing (red line) was high in the last month of the first quarter and all during the second quarter. Sessions (blue columns) correlates very well with the investments made each month. As investments increase so do Sessions. As investments drop off later in the year, so do visit to the website (Sessions).

Investments vs Booked Sales

Wouldn’t it be nice if there was an increase in sales when we spent money on marketing and advertising? Using our case example, let’s have a look. Just to be clear, what we want to see is more sales generated at some point in the future as a result of investing funds in marketing.

Notice in this chart that Investments (red line) are exactly the same as in the previous graph — high in the first two quarters and significantly less in the last two quarters of the year.

A quick look at Booked Sales (blue columns) shows us that there is a strong relationship between Investments and Booked Sales but that there is a lag in some months. In April there was a significant investment of $37,249 made in marketing but the jump in Booked Sales doesn’t occur until the following month, May. This is not uncommon.

A lag like this depends on a variety of factors like time for customers to make a decision, the volume of orders that a company can process in a month, and the time of year. The lag between marketing investments and a closed sale will also vary between products, companies, industries and geographical areas.

In this case, the company in our case study made significant investments in traditional advertising including trade shows, billboards, and radio. Obviously, their investments paid off.

Investments vs Booked Revenue

It is possible to invest funds in marketing and have an increase in Sessions and an increase in Booked Sales but it doesn’t really matter if there is not an increase in Revenue. In our third chart, we will determine if there is a correlation between the funds invested in marketing and the resulting Booked Revenues generated.

In fact, this is what we see. As Investments increase so do Booked Revenues and as investments decrease so does Booked Revenues. Similar to the chart for Booked Sales, we can also see the lag between the Investments in April and the Booked Revenues generated a month later in May. We can also see a significant lag between the Investments in June and the resulting Booked Revenues in July and August. Better late than never!

Return on Marketing Investment

While we are looking at numbers and performance we might as well review the Return on Marketing Investment (ROMI). The formula for the calculation is [(Revenue — Investment) / Investment]. Although the $ signs cancel out, we format the resulting product with a dollar sign. An example would be $10. Essentially, the number means that for every $1 that we spend on marketing (subtracting the cost of the investment), we gained $10 back in Revenue. A table of the data is as follows:

Let’s look at the chart.

This chart is quite different from the preceding charts. In the previous charts we saw a positive correlation between the Investments made and the desired outcomes. In this case, we see the opposite — when Investments are high, the ROMI is low and when Investments are low, ROMI is high. Why is this?

The answer is in the lag time that we discussed earlier. In this case study — with this company — high investments in marketing do result in an increase in Booked Revenues but there is a significant lag. The result is that in months like July and August when Investments are low but Booked Revenues are high, ROMI is high. Makes sense!

An Interesting Conclusion

Here is an interesting Year over Year comparison. Same company. Same measures but different years.

• Between the two years, there was a significant increase in Investments (15%).

• Sessions increased by a similar amount (16%).

• Booked Sales went up by a third (35%). Excellent!

• Booked Revenues more than doubled (117%). Wow!

• And ROMI doubled (99%). Impressive!

Overall this is FANTASTIC.

In the next post we will look at the changes that our client made in order to get such a significant improvement in Revenue and ROMI.

Jeff Nelson
@JeffxNelson

An Endless Stream of Referrals

Photo by Bryan Goff on Unsplash

It’s Not About You - Give

How do I say this gently? Okay, I won’t bother being gentle. I’ll just shout it out: IT’S NOT ABOUT YOU. If you want referrals, you can’t talk about how great you or your company are. You can’t talk about how great your clients are.

You have to give. To get a referral you have to give something of value.

What you give and what is of value depends on what your referral sources want. People are people. Most people want something. You just need to figure out what they want.

Some want a referral from you - easy to do. Some want a coffee - also easy. Some want to be treated to lunch - I do this all the time. Some want a shout-out on social media - again easy to do. Some just want to be acknowledged for who they are - simple. Some want cash - which we do sometimes. Some want a Ferrari - this is not going to happen, unless I win the lottery.

Be Different - Be Unique

This is obvious but I’ll mention it anyway. If you don’t stand out from the crowd no one will notice you. I know a guy who wears an orange shirt - all the time. I bet you know who he is. If you guessed Craig Elias then you are right. I dare you to click on the link but be sure to wear sunglasses first. This is my favorite picture of Craig - he’s wearing a purple shirt but the background is orange.

Speaking of purple, have you read, Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable by Seth Godin? Me neither but I’m going to - soon - I promise. In fact, I’m thinking of starting a group that meets in the evening, near Longview, AB, and we read the book and we talk about the book and we apply the concepts. Are you with me? Let me know if you are interested. Email me: jeff@anduro.com Or call me: 403-703-2247.

Remind People - Ask

Sadly, not everything is about giving. You can give and give but if you never ask you won’t get anything. Some people are just takers. These wallowing worms wiggle around waiting for wayfarers like me to wrestle with and waste my time. Ignore them.

On the other hand, everyone I know is busy. Even people, like my Dad, who are retired are busy. I know some people who have made a lot of money - guess what - they’re busy. The only people I know who aren’t busy are people with no money and, interestingly, they often don’t have anything to give either.

As a result, in order to get a referral you are going to need to remind people and ask. How you ask can vary. It could be over coffee or during a phone call. It could be on your website, although that is often overused. It could be at an event that you are hosting - this makes a ton of sense.

To get an endless stream of referrals you are going to have to keep in touch. Here are some of the things that I do:

• Interact with people on social media. For me this is mostly on LinkedIn. You need to find the platform that works for you

• Write a blog post at least once every 2 weeks

• Send out a newsletter a couple times a month

• Call or email people who have referred companies to us

• Attend networking functions

My Offer to You

Here’s the deal - If you complete the referral form below AND you come to Longview, I’ll treat you to lunch at Little New York Bistro. I’m specifically looking for referrals for our Revenue Catalyst program.

I’d love to hear from you.

Jeff Nelson

403-703-2247

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First Name

Last Name

Referrals (Include Name, Email, Phone) *

Creating a Landing Page Using MailChimp

Getting Started

Various versions of Landing Pages have been around for a long time. I remember looking at some in the early 2000’s and they were long, full of text, bolding, highlighting and basically annoying. I suppose that some people subscribed but I sure wasn’t me.

Landing pages have gotten much more sophisticated since then, and cheaper. In this article, we are going to look at how to build a landing page using MailChimp. I really like MailChimp as a platform for learning. The technology and things that can be done using MailChimp are quite incredible. AND FOR FREE, well at least it is free if you have less than 2,000 contacts.

Here is what you need before you get started:

1. An account on MailChimp - easy, just sign up at https://mailchimp.com/

2. An email address that you can use for testing - easy, just use Gmail, https://www.google.com/intl/en-GB/gmail/about/

3. A PDF ebook that you can offer as a giveaway - easier said than done and a great idea for a future blog post

4. A web page where the ebook resides. This can be a bit tricky because it depends on what platform you are using for your website and how well you know the platform to add a page and a link to the PDF. Here is a link to an example from a campaign that we set up:

   https://www.anduro.com/business-coaches-survey-results-download

5. A logo or an image for the landing page - not critical but a good idea

6. An idea of why you are doing this and what you want your audience to do after they download the ebook

1. Create an Audience

You need to have a place that stores a list of contacts. In MailChimp, this is called an Audience but creating the audience (or List is a little tricky). The simplest ways to log in and go to https://us14.admin.mailchimp.com/lists/.

Alternatively, you can click on Audiences, then under Current Audience click View Audiences, and finally click on on the grey Create Audience button on the right.

Skip Tags, you can learn about that another time.

Click Create Audience.

Fill out the Audience details.

Skip Form Settings.

Select the Notifications that you want.

Save.

2. Create a Landing Page

Next, click the green Create button at the top right of the page.

Select Landing Page.

Give it a name.

Select the Audience.

Begin.

Select a Template - e.g. Grow Your List

Add a Logo or an Image.

Add a heading.

Add some details and information.

Complete “A few more things to do.”

And publish

Done! Have a look: https://mailchi.mp/anduro/landing-page-example1

Comments

There are other ways to do landing pages but this is a start - at least for learning. You may want to try creating the page on your website and adding a form from MailChimp to the page. That is a little more professional because the URL of the landing page is actually hosted on your hosting server.

Let me know what you think.

Jeff Nelson

Find Your Social Selling Score on LinkedIn

Every once in a while there is something on the Internet that is actually interesting. This doesn’t happen every day, just once in a while.

Recently, I got an mail or read an article or got a notification about LinkedIn’s Social Selling Index (SSI). To see your score you will need an active profile on LinkedIn, obviously. Next go to:
https://business.linkedin.com/sales-solutions/social-selling/the-social-selling-index-ssi

Click on “Get your score free”.

Once you log in you should see a page that looks similar to this:

This is the Social Selling Dashboard. At the top, you will see your Industry and Network Ranks.

Then you will see your SSI as of today. This is broken into 4 categories:

• Establish your professional brand

• Find the right people

• Engage with insights

• Build relationships

As you can see I need to work on the middle 2 sections. If you click on the headings which are links, a popup will appear with a slide presentation on how to improve.

The information isn’t all that helpful and of course, there is the obligatory sales pitch at the end for Sales Navigator.

At the bottom of the page, there are comparisons to People in your Industry and People in your Network. If your score is lower than in your industry or your network, then you have lots of work to do.

If you want suggestions on using LinkedIn better you may want to look at a blog post that I wrote a while back, Tips and Tricks Using LinkedIn.

Alternatively, you can view this presentation called Outstanding Use of LinkedIn on SlideShare to how I manage my profile. The section of the presentation include:

• Navigating

• Setup

• Connecting with people

• Posting

• Engaging

Send me a message on LinkedIn and let me know what your score is. I’ll give you some suggestions.

Jeff Nelson