The key to using ROI to improve marketing decisions is to have accurate data on the cost to obtain each customer and how much each customer contributes to the companys bottom line. Strategic Marketing for Growing Companies Why Marketers Must be Better By Cliff Allen on April 10, 2007 4:08 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks A lot has been written about increasing the ROI of various marketing activities. But, one thing is usually missing from those articles and sales pitches -- explaining just how to calculate that higher marketing ROI that they talk about. MORE >>

The cash flow I was referring to is the cash thats left over after paying all costs of making the product, serving the customer, and each customers portion of the operating expenses. Strategic Marketing for Growing Companies Cash Flow is Profit By Cliff Allen on April 12, 2007 9:48 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks My previous post on cash flow from marketing activities didnt explain which flows of cash it referred to. Some people who talk about increasing marketing ROI are referring to increasing sales revenue. MORE >>

That's why it's important to start the strategic marketing planning process with data about your industry and specific market, and about your customers. Customer behavior data. Most companies have an abundance of data about their customers that goes unused, such as: Web analytics data on how visitors perform on your Web site. Customer purchase history on which products are re-ordered with other products, and which types of customers buy which products. In addition to the internal data about customers, data needs to be gathered on non-customers, too. MORE >>

customer may have ordered a product that isn't normally purchased by that type of company. Or, a customer tells their customer service rep about a new way they used a product. Every marketer has done market research, even if it's just looking at a competitor's traffic at Compete.com. But, we sometimes forget just how many ways we can use market research. Recently, I found a list of ways market research could be used that included a few I hadn't thought about. The sales manager is likely to tell the marketing manager, "I found a new market we can sell to!". How big is it? MORE >>

customer may have ordered a product that isn't normally purchased by that type of company. Or, a customer tells their customer service rep about a new way they used a product. Every marketer has done market research, even if it's just looking at a competitor's traffic at Compete.com. But, we sometimes forget just how many ways we can use market research. Recently, I found a list of ways market research could be used that included a few I hadn't thought about. The sales manager is likely to tell the marketing manager, "I found a new market we can sell to!". How big is it? MORE >>