Do you know how to measure ROI on your sponsorship investment? Was it a success? How do you know? All great questions. And wouldn’t you be ecstatic if I had really simple answers? Well I do!
The simple way to measure ROI and determine if, as a brand or sponsor, your undertaking was successful is to define the goals at the front end. Clearly, you need to determine several things.
- If you are trying to increase sales, then by how much over what period of time? Is it that you need $100,000 in new sales over three months to be a success or is it a 4% increase in revenues over the same time last year?
- If it is about increasing brand awareness, is it a 20% unaided recall you are seeking based specifically on the fair-goers or is it a 6% increase in general public aided recall over the last year?
- Are you trying to recruit or retain employees? If so, what is your present cost of recruitment? Are you seeking just to increase applications, or do you qualify applicants, or is it about actual hires?
To measure ROI and success, you need specific goals and objectives to start. In your HR department, you probably have criteria that determine whether you or one of your staff members are measuring up to a certain level. My 14-year-old daughter just got her year-end report card. It clearly stated whether or not she was successful on several fronts—academics, community, and athletics. So, why don’t we set such metrics and measurements for our sponsorship investments?
Measuring success and ROI is simple. The key is to begin with measurable and realistic goals and objectives. Once you have those in place, you can easily measure success. You either achieved the goals or you didn’t. Little to no grey area. Little to no subjectivity. Wow!—real empirical data that reveals whether it was a success or not. By doing this, we will have come a long way from “Hey, I thought that sponsorship was great” or “That really didn’t seem to work—guess we will not renew.”
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