While many companies conduct ROI analyses, it’s hard to know truly which marketing efforts are bringing you the best results, considering other factors such as employee manhours spent, additional costs besides software and ad spend, etc.
Here are Maximum Marketing, we’ve done the heavy lifting and have some interesting results. When you include estimates of employee time spent on each marketing method, software costs, ad spends, creative costs, and more, the ROI picture clears up fast!
Of course, your results may vary, so ask us about our ROI tracking spreadsheet where you can add your data and see where you end up. Or, have us do it. We’ll do it for you within 72 hours, and you can immediately see where your lowest cost results are coming from.
With no further ado, here is where we found the greatest ROI for each online marketing effort.
#1 in ROI: Email marketing
It’s surprising that email marketing is still the top performing marketing strategy for actually making sales. While all marketing methods are important to help you get the revenue you’re after, email has proven over and over (even this year) to be the most consistent and highest ROI activity.
#2 in ROI: Influencer Marketing
As a newer entrant to the marketing tactic lineup, influencer marketing has already shot up to gain prominence in the online marketing arena. Due to tactics such as targeting micro influencers, you can quickly recoup your marketing dollars with influencer marketing. Find some small influencers who also have good engagement numbers, and you may be on your way to one of the highest ROI marketing tactics around. As long as you choose wisely (i.e., always check engagement percentages), you’ll be pleasantly surprised at the results. We’ve seen companies get far past 10x their expenditures with influencer marketing.
#3 in ROI: SEO (AEO, GEO, AIO)
Optimizing for showing up where it counts is huge for ROI. Showing up in search (whether that be in AI searches, Google searches, or anywhere else) plays a huge role in keeping your revenue streaming in every month. If you pay a consultant (hint: We do this at a very reasonable rate) or hire a full-time person, you’ll get your money back and more. While there are many moving parts to search engine optimization, it’s well within your reach, and it tends to bring a very high amount of traffic and sales if done right. Once your business is well established, SEO often will become the highest ROI-producing marketing strategy. The only caveat is that it does take several months on average to get Google to trust you. That’s one of the reasons SEO is #3 on this list. However, if you already have a website that’s been around a while, this can shoot to #1 or #2 quickly when you revamp and fix your technical and other SEO issues. Of course, all of this depends on how strong your other marketing games are.
No matter where you are at in your journey, whether you’re just starting a business or you’re a seasoned veteran, these marketing skills are crucial to your success. Need help? Contact us, and we’ll tell you how we can help you get the results you’re after.