accountability

The reality of online marketing is getting harsher every day. Ad prices are up, conversion is down. Visitors don't buy. Pay per click bids are insane but only the top ten advertisers in each category care. The rest get barely any traffic at all.

During a recent meeting of my Million-Dollar Round Table--a master mind team of business owners--two significant decisions were made. They were not the only decisions made, but these happened to have resulted in several thousand dollars being saved and will earn several thousand more.

First the bad news As businesses "down size," "right size, " merge or are acquired, jobs are lost. So, if you're worried about your future, you're not alone. With today's business climate the way it is, I know many marketing and communications professionals who have had severe budget cuts, run understaffed departments, or fear being let go during the next wave of cutbacks.

More audits are being performed in financial departments today due to the irresponsible behavior of a few top executives. Why stop there? Might it not be useful also to look at marketing investments as a fertile field for scrutiny? A marketing audit would measure profit and loss just as an accounting audit does. That is, it would measure return on investment (ROI). This article points out the benefits a company can derive from measuring the ROI of marketing to see whether this vital activity is being used to its full potential.