Measuring one’s marketing ROI seems to be the Holy Grail for financially focused business executives. Many marketers stay away from this subject. But they shouldn’t as it's key to getting the financial minded people on board of what a strategic marketing plan can really do for a business. Most business owners would love to monetize their marketing efforts, but few have the know-how and in fact, this is where I usually get a deer in the headlight’s reaction.

Here is a short explanation that I believe helps get the conversation going.

To truly measure the ROI of your marketing program, you must first identify what your company’s goals are and what it will take to meet those goals. This is where a Customer Journey becomes a great strategic tool.

Creating a Customer Journey is the process of knowing the mindset of your prospects and customers and how they interact with your category and brand at each step of the buying process. I have helped clients map their journey and identify the key touch points, which can be measured, on where they need their marketing messages to be and what to communicate at that point in time.

Once the journey is mapped out, I then help clients identify the Key Performance Indicators (there are 53 different KPI’s under marketing alone) that are most important to move their prospects through the sales process and through their Journey.

For example, if organic search is an important tactic in your new business efforts, then you will want to not only measure the number of leads that come to you organically, but also measure your organic ranking in your preferred search terms. By knowing your cost per lead, lifetime value of a client and cost of your organic search program (SEO), you will now be able to determine the ROI of these efforts.

This same process can be executed for each means of gaining new business prospects as well as increasing customer value. By focusing on outcomes (and the actions/inputs that will go into achieving those outcomes), I will help you identify the right combination of Key Performance Indicators to create a detailed picture of measurable performance tailored to your business.

You'll quickly learn what works, what doesn't and why, allowing you to accurately measure the ROI of your marketing efforts and ultimately, improve your bottom line.