Look Beyond Return on Investment

Return on investment in marketing is overrated.

What am I, some kind of heretic? Shouldn't everything a business spends money on have an ROI to determine if it is money and time well spent?

I think expecting every aspect of business to be measurable, especially marketing, can lead to adversity to risk. All too often, clients will say to me that they tried different marketing tactics and didn't have one direct client come out of the various initiatives they tried.

Granted, no one wants to spend money on something and not know whether they will get something of value, but some people take it to an extreme or have unrealistic expectations. The key is to understand what you are doing and why you are doing it and to have realistic expectations. Here are some classic examples of unrealistic expectations in various aspects of your business. ...