B2B Digital Marketing ROI: How To Measure and Improve it

By now, you probably already understand why digital marketing is important, so find out what comes after that awareness. 

“How do I improve B2B digital marketing ROI?” is a question you’ve asked yourself as a  marketer at some point, usually with a slew of additional questions and exclamation points.

Nailing marketing and, as a result, the game of improving ROI might always feel like a task, like the elusive unicorn that you can't get a rope around, regardless of the stage of the business.

It is because the real world is highly unpredictable, which makes businesses and economies equally uncertain. No matter how thorough your study is, something is bound to go wrong.

See ethical issues in digital marketing as an example, many companies subjected themselves into these issues but there are fixes and prevention available. 

So, how does one reclaim a smidgeon of assurance in such an inherently uncertain situation?

Where does one turn when money has to be made to keep the business running and the customers coming?

The Ninja Gods have heard your requests, and voila! I’ll explain how to enhance B2B marketing ROI below, but first, I’ll remind you what marketing ROI is.

What is Marketing Return on Investment (ROI)?

Simply said, your marketing ROI (Return on Investment) measures how much income you generated versus how much money you spent on marketing.

Neil Patel, for example, has seen a 13.11x return on Google Ads. It implies that for every $1 he spends on Google Ads, he gets $13.11 back in revenue.

‍The most basic method used for determining marketing ROI is:

Return on Investment (ROI) = (Returns - Marketing Investment) / Investment

You can measure returns using a variety of indicators, including Total Revenue, Gross Profit, Net Profit, and Customer Lifetime Value, but how it's calculated differs from company to company. But generally, there can be a good ROI.

What Is A Good B2B Digital Marketing ROI?

44.3 percent of marketers admit they still don't know the ROI after measuring it over the sales cycle—the majority of those who do claim an ROI of 1.1-1.5X.

The general rule of thumb for the ROI is a 5:1 ratio, with a 10:1 ratio as remarkable. Anything less than a 2:1 ratio is deemed unprofitable, as the costs of producing and distributing goods/services frequently cause businesses to break even on their expenditures and returns.

Costs and overhead that are less than 50% of the sales price, on the other hand, can see gains on their efforts at lower ratios. Because every company is distinct, it's critical to think about overhead costs, margins, industry factors, and standards specific to the business.

Now that you understand what B2B marketing ROI is let's see how you can improve it.

How to increase B2B Marketing ROI?

1. Use a multichannel marketing strategy.

You must be omnipresent to maximize your ROI. Adopt a multi-channel marketing strategy to make your company available on as many channels as feasible.

When it comes to merchants and enterprises with physical locations, multi-channeling becomes ten times more important. Because the entire world is now connected to the Internet, shops must have an online presence to attract a global audience.

Adopting this technique also necessitates a suitable strategy for spreading your network, and it should be avoided if it does not make sense or brings no profit to your company.

According to reports:

If you want to be one of the 9%, the best way to figure out if it's worth the work or not is to try out the best 2 or 3 tactics for around 3-6 months and see if they're perfect for you.

2. Make the most of inbound marketing

Inbound marketing emphasizes the human element. It makes it one of the most effective ROI B2B marketing strategies. It has also been proven to be the most effective in today's business and consumer market.

Your customer will undoubtedly cherish a relationship founded on a sincere desire to provide value. You can use it in the following ways:

You should start by acquiring clients, which you can do by writing fascinating blogs and putting them on high-traffic websites, investing in video marketing, or providing interviews to more prominent newspapers.

Following that, an attempt to engage clients with high-quality material in the form of white papers and e-books might be made. Your blog area must be fantastic and solely dedicated to informing people.

If you don't delight your customers, all of your other techniques will be for naught. To do so, you'll need a strong customer service team that encourages repeat transactions. A customized email marketing strategy that appeals to your customers may also be used to support ties. Make sure to take note of the type of feedback your customers give you.

3. Create material that is relevant to your target audience.

"Content is King!" - You've probably heard this a lot. It's never enough to praise the importance of content marketing as a technique of increasing ROI. However, the emphasis should be on providing useful material appropriate for and relevant to your target audience.

In B2B, the primary guideline is to keep the company profitable. You must publish relevant and high-quality material that adds value to people's lives to achieve this. Providing free educational content to your customers can also help you build trust with your target demographic.

Choose the social media networks best suited for your promotion based on the type of business to reach the correct audience with your content.

Then, develop a goal-oriented content marketing strategy that increases website traffic, enhances brand visibility and reputation, and engages with clients and customers.

4. Customize your customer's experience

A B2B buyer's journey is far from straightforward. The fact that the majority of them take place fully online adds to the complexity. When it comes to helping businesses support their customers throughout their whole journey, a personalized approach can go a long way.

A buyer’s journey is a period between when they first learn about your business and when they make a purchase — personalization at each stage of the process will make them feel appreciated and respected.

The Buyer’s Journey

You must now define the next step for your customer and ensure that the required message is sent. As a result, if someone comes to your website after engaging with personalized information, your site should be able to convey your industry knowledge.

Allow your customers to find what they're looking for without having to browse the entire site. By positioning yourself in the market, your organization should demonstrate that you understand their problems.

5. Prioritize the quality of your work over the quantity of your work.

When it comes to enhancing your ROI in B2B marketing, your company's blog is one of the most powerful inbound marketing platforms.

Companies that blog can generate 67 percent more leads than those that do not. Investing more in a blog, believe it or not, can help you not only generate leads but also nurture them.

How should you invest in a blog? In this situation, quality triumphs over number. A single informative blog post is worth more than a half-dozen brief entries that offer nothing but vague ideas and hackneyed material.

Long-form content (1200-1600 words) optimized with actual data, starts, or even facts backing your claims is excellent in B2B. It could not be the stats if the piece is solely opinion-based, but make sure the opinion you're presenting is well-communicated.

You should include at least one or more screenshots, statistics, in-depth instructions, photos, and embedded tweets in your blog entries. Maintain a clear and concise message. If you're writing long-form blog content, 3 to 4 pieces each month should be sufficient, whereas two articles per week should suffice.

Lastly,

6. Track your progress and make adjustments as needed.

Any b2b digital marketing strategy must include analytics. However, the plan is only valuable if the data is used to take action.

Keep in mind that you have to measure your ROI. You must pay attention to what the data is saying to you if you want your efforts to multiply your ROI. Then re-engineer your actions to reflect this.

Adapting necessitates bravery. It could entail doing something completely different and trying something you've never done before. But, if done correctly, all of these efforts will be worthwhile and will undoubtedly yield benefits.

How can you measure your ROI on B2B digital marketing?

1. Apply the ROI formula.

You're ready to do the math now that you've tracked the data from your website.

It isn't as complex as it appears!

Begin by calculating your ROI using the formula below:

Calculate your digital marketing revenue first.

Determine how many leads you receive each month, for example.

Sort your leads into contact forms, quote requests, newsletter signups, phone calls, and whatever else your business employs.

Then, for each lead generation source, figure out how many leads you converted. Depending on your company's lead time, you may need to estimate after collecting a full year of data.

For example, if you had 30 contact forms filled out in May and 15 of them become clients, your conversion rate is 50%. You have a 20% conversion rate if you have five newsletter sign-ups and one of them becomes a customer.

Finally, figure out how much a lead is worth to your business. You may have completed this step when setting up goals in Google Analytics. If you haven't already done so, you'll need to do so immediately. It might be difficult, especially if you provide a variety of services. Don't worry if your accuracy isn't perfect.

2. Install tracking software on your website (i.e., Google Analytics)

Setting up website tracking software is the first step in evaluating ROI.

It may seem obvious, but I'm shocked at how many B2B companies don't have a strategy for analyzing their online traffic. It is not bliss to be ignorant!

Unlike traditional forms of marketing, Internet marketing is relatively easy to track, so take advantage of the tools available!

Google Analytics, in my opinion, is the best tracking program. It's simple to set up, costs nothing, and delivers a wealth of data, including the option to build custom reports, scheduled emails, and receive notifications for traffic decreases, among other things.

3. Double-check that you're looking at the correct data.

In measuring B2B marketing ROI, the worst error you can make is focusing exclusively on overall traffic.

People visit your site in a variety of ways (mediums), with the following being the most common:

• Unbranded, organic traffic refers to visitors that arrive at your site via non-paid traffic and are unfamiliar with your brand.
• Unbranded, organic traffic includes non-paid traffic from those already familiar with your brand but did not directly type your website into their browser.
• If appropriate, paid traffic—This is a paid service. You pay for each ad click (which leads to a visit to your website).
• Referral traffic- It is all traffic to your website that comes from a link on another website.
• Direct traffic-This information includes all visits to your website by individuals who input it straight into their browser.

4. Create Goals in Google Analytics for measurable conversions.

Determine the definition of conversion for your business. Is there a contact form to fill out? Is it a phone call? A subscription to a newsletter? Are you looking at the Directions Page?

Setting up a separate thank-you page for all forms on your site (contact form, quote request, newsletter sign up, etc.) and tracking the views of that thank-you page as a goal is the most straightforward approach to track form conversions. 

Go to Admin > View > Goals to find out more. You should enter a "Value," which will give someone who contacts your firm or registers for an event a monetary value.

Final Note

Increasing your return on investment will necessitate efforts and modifications in a variety of areas, as well as long-term initiatives. It will require a commitment to being brave in your B2B marketing efforts and abandoning established tactics.

However, with the right plan, understanding what your customers want, effectively communicating with your audience, and keeping track of statistics, you will be able to see your ROI skyrocket, making all of your efforts worthwhile.

Let AI bees help you reach those goals. Talk to us today, let’s figure out your next big step.