Inbound Marketing Blog

Calculating the value of online interactions, then coming up with an estimated return on investment (ROI) to inform budgets and forecasts, can be challenging. Fortunately, in today's data-driven, online world, it's never been easier to track ROI for your marketing campaigns, channels, and tactics.

Many aspects of inbound marketing can be tracked by web analytics platforms, which, when configured properly, can provide a wide variety of analytics data: from the number of form submissions you receive to the number of times your blog post was viewed.

By keeping an eye on the right metrics and performing simple calculations, you can get a better idea of how much return you’re getting for your investment in inbound.

We’ll walk you through ROI calculations for one-time and retainer clients and provide some tips for improving your overall inbound ROI.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• How effective is inbound marketing?
• What is a good ROI for inbound marketing?
• What inbound marketing tactics do businesses use?
• Key factors to consider before calculating inbound ROI
• Calculating ROI for one-time clients
• Calculating ROI for retainer clients
• Tips for improving inbound ROI
• Tools for tracking ROI metrics
• Measure your way to inbound success

But first, the elephant in the room . . .

It’s safe to say that lead generation is a top priority (and challenge) for most marketers this year.

Recent HubSpot reporting reveals that 61% of marketers rank lead generation as their number one challenge.

The same report also finds that the company website is still the most-used marketing channel for lead generation and roughly 55% of marketers consider search engine optimization (SEO) either “very important” or “extremely important” to their overall marketing strategy.

Consider that:

• 70% of B2B buyers already know what they need before contacting a sales representative
• 74% of B2B buyers report researching at least half of their work purchases online

Whether you’re a new franchise company trying to make the best initial investment possible, or an established brand looking to shift your marketing strategy to better reflect today’s market, there are a number of options available to help make the most of the resources you have.