Tips for SMEs on how to measure and understand their marketing ROI

UK SME owners are struggling to measure and understand the ROI of their marketing activity, according to the results of The Marketing Centre’s M360 assessment.

In the 2021 assessment, metrics scored lower than any of the other 12 categories. Of the 500+ responses, business leaders gave themselves an average score of 54%, or 2.7 out of 5 when it came to measuring their marketing ROI.

The Marketing Centre which specialises in providing part-time marketing directors, launched its Marketing 360 assessment in 2020, specifically designed to help businesses assess their marketing performance and marketing maturity score.

When it came to questions around their marketing metrics, respondents were asked to feedback on areas including: marketing performance measures, reviewing budget against objectives, measuring customer acquisition and retention, and costs per acquisition.

Clare Methven, co-founder and director of The Marketing Centre, said: “It’s disappointing to find that so many SMEs believe they aren’t properly measuring their marketing activities, and that they are struggling with establishing any form of meaningful marketing metrics.

“It is vitally important that business leaders do all they can to track and measure the success of that work. They can then budget accordingly, in the knowledge that their marketing spend is delivering results.”

Tony Galloni, one of the marketing director team at The Marketing Centre, who works with SMEs, added: “Marketing should be focused on identifying customers, winning them and then retaining them. As a discipline, it should add value and doesn’t need to be a cost. The first step when it comes to undertaking a marketing campaign is to be clear about why you are doing this? What is your goal? And what are you hoping to achieve?

Galloni’s top three tips when it comes to marketing metrics are:

• firstly, to be clear about what you want to measure and how measurement will add value to the business.
• secondly, to figure out how you are going to measure it
• and lastly, remember that "if it moves, measure it, and if you measure it, it will move.”

The other 11 categories that respondents were asked to feedback on included: communications, brand, leads, retention, sales and technology. On completion of the assessment the respondents receive a personalised action report setting out how improvements can be made.

Any business can take the Marketing 360 Assessment and receive the action report, it is free to use.