Or, when ROI is not the best way to measure your results.

We talk a lot here at hmc² about being focused on results. And we are. Sometimes even more than our clients. Because we want to know what success for any program looks like. But sometimes, return on investment just isn’t the right measure of how well your marketing works.

The thing is this, brand advertising, social networking, customer relations or CRM don’t immediately translate into a return on investment. That doesn’t mean you can’t quantify their value, you just can’t do it with a simple ROI calculation. But the real point is that if you ignore these marketing opportunities, even your best performing ROI generators will loose their impact over time because you always have to be thinking about your brand’s future. If you only invest in the things that make you money today, you’ll be sacrificing long term brand health.

So, when you’re trying to decide how to allocate your budget (marketing and capital) to get the best return, remember some portion of it should be an investment in your future. With your marketing, remember that brand awareness is what puts you top-of-mind so when your prospect is ready to make a decision, you’re well positioned. It’s what keeps the funnel full so as your prospects move closer to purchase, there’s someone else already getting ready to move down the sales path. With your capital, think about the types of services or products you can add to your brand portfolio that will support not only who you and your customers are today, but who you want to be in the future and who you want to serve.

And, just like you would with your stock portfolio, make sure the mix is appropriate to where you are in your brand’s life cycle and to your risk tolerance. If you have a brand that’s well established (a kind way of saying “mature”), you better be thinking about ways to ramp it up again, or be prepared for the decline.

If you have questions about how to balance your marketing portfolio, give us a call. We’ll walk you through it.