4 little-known factors influencing your ROI

The one thing nearly every business on the face of the planet has in common, is they are all trying to bring their rate of investment (ROI) to a profitable level. While ROI applies to every aspect of business operations, the bottom line almost always comes down to the ability to convert customers.

A recent study by Econsultancy shockingly found that only about 22 percent of businesses are satisfied with their conversion rates. That doesn’t mean the rest need to radically change their ways of doing business. In many cases, solutions come from small tweaks that clear big roadblocks. Let’s talk about some factors that can significantly boost your sales and make your marketing investments work hard.

There should be no clutter involved whatsoever. At the end of the day, clear-cut messaging and compelling CTAs are what drives your ROI.

1. Simplicity of your messaging

One of the byproducts of the internet, and living in a world overloaded with information, is attention spans are disturbingly short. In fact, studies have put the average these days right around eight seconds.

Regardless of the channels you use to promote your brand, you should always be aiming to slim down your messaging wherever possible. If you are trying to appeal to new prospects, it’s a fair assumption they won’t likely be keen on spending hours to hear what you have to say. Therefore, you need to communicate the primary functions of your business in a short-and-sweet manner. The trick is condensing this information in a way that doesn’t compromise your USP.

Depending on your business model, try to edit the general idea of your mission to a well-crafted elevator pitch. Keep a close eye on your analytics. If you notice common disconnects or bounce rates in certain areas across your content, there’s a good chance you need to make some changes to simplify your messaging. Clicky is a great tool for this purpose as it shows heat maps on your website so you can see how your audiences are navigating your platform and pinpoint the bottlenecks turning people away.

Dipti Parmar

There should be no clutter involved whatsoever. At the end of the day, clear-cut messaging and compelling CTAs are what drives your ROI.

2. Granular view of spending and income

Analyzing numbers, in terms of revenue and total spend, is the bare bones of what defines a company’s ROI. However, to improve profitability, you must be able to optimize your spend. Spend analysis can help businesses unlock significant cost saving opportunities. And the first step toward doing that is to have granular spend visibility.

To achieve this level of visibility into your spend, you would need the right tools and processes.

The good news is you live in a time with an abundance of resources to make this aspect of conducting business simple. A common issue is that teams tend to use a plethora of software for managing their sourcing and purchasing processes. For example, SMART by GEP, a cloud-native procurement software, provides a unified platform to manage all your sourcing, procurement and payment processes, thereby allowing you to have greater visibility of your enterprise-wide spend. Such software allows you to analyze spend by category, region, supplier and business unit to identify bottom-line savings opportunities and boost overall ROI.

Dipti Parmar

If you really want to improve ROI across the board, you need to equip yourself with all the necessary means to track every little detail of your operation. Otherwise, the nickels and dimes will add up quickly.

3. Creating a unique community

Gaining new customers is essential for business growth. But, the real money comes from repeat customers. In fact, a study by Invesp found that recurring buyers typically spend 33 percent more than new ones.

Keeping this in mind, your ROI will benefit greatly from your ability to create an authentic community in which customers cannot find the same value anywhere else. Ultimately, this is what keeps them coming back.

Truth be told, there are most likely countless numbers of businesses offering similar products or services and working towards the same goals you are. It’s up to you to think outside the box and create something truly unique.

Planet Peepz for example, is an upcoming discount shopping app where businesses can create their own promotional material for free within the platform. Additionally, they can manage things like reservations and appointments. Essentially, this program is aiming to create its own special “For the People, By the People” universe where both consumers and professionals are able to compile a shared pool of knowledge to find the best deals in the area.

There are thousands of companies built on promoting local deals and coupons. However, not many do so within their own virtual world.

The “Age of the Customer” is in full swing. Keeping your ROI healthy is extremely dependent on how well you are able to retain buyers.

4. Content aligned with buyer’s journey

One of the most common issues in struggling content strategies is failure to properly sync up with the buyer’s journey.

Content marketing is all about creating valuable material for the right people at the right time. All too often, marketers create messages for themselves, rather than the reader. When this is the case, not only will your ROI suffer, you will turn people away in droves.

Each piece of content you distribute needs to have specific goals in mind. What action do you want the audience to take afterward? Where does this fall in terms of guiding them down the sales funnel?

This is by far the most important aspect of a healthy content ROI.

For the initial stage, you should be focusing on educating, rather than selling. This can be in the form of helpful blog posts, e-books, case studies, etc. Basically, this content should be about identifying and addressing common issues related to your niche.

The consideration stage is all about nurturing interest. This is where your content should get a little more in-depth and personal. While you should still be educating, the nature is not so much to address problems, but to show how your service is a viable solution. Consider creating interactive courses or webinars to a) showcase your expertise, and b) demonstrate how you can improve lives.

Finally, content for the decision stage should aim to validate purchases. In this area, promote your brand via customer success stories, testimonials and reviews. These forms of third-party input are extremely powerful in assuring customers they made the right choice.

Parting words

With each business decision you make, ROI is a metric that should always be in the back of your mind. Every company will have its ups and downs. Ultimately, your focus should be on creating profound value for both you and your customers. Once you find a healthy balance, everyone wins.