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Return on Marketing Investment: Marketing ROI Strategies and Case Studies

Learn how to achieve higher ROI from your marketing investments. Explore strategies and success stories to help you achieve efficient growth.

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Chapters

Chapter 1

Introduction

Chapter 2

Understanding ROI in Marketing

Chapter 3

Strategies for Boosting ROI Across Your Tech Stack

Chapter 4

Extracting More ROI from Sales and Marketing Spend

Chapter 5

Real-Life ROI Success Stories

Chapter 6

Implementing ROI-Driven Strategies: Tips and Best Practices

Chapter 7

Conclusion

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Introduction

With its many channels and strategies, marketing can sometimes feel like a complex puzzle. So, you’re bound to ponder the effectiveness of each dollar spent, wondering if your efforts genuinely drive a return on marketing investment (ROI).

Here’s a quick overview of what we’ll discuss in this blog:

  • The formula for understanding and calculating return on marketing investment
  • Why ROI is crucial for assessing a marketing campaign’s effectiveness
  • Strategies for boosting ROI across your tech stack
  • Examples of companies that achieved greater ROI with tech stack enhancements
  • How to get more ROI from your sales and marketing spend
  • Essential tips and best practices to communicate the value of your marketing efforts

Whether you’re a seasoned marketing pro or new to the field, this blog post will help you communicate which marketing initiatives are propelling your business forward and which are merely spinning wheels.

Chapter 2

Understanding ROI in Marketing

Return on Investment (ROI) is a critical concept in marketing, and it essentially boils down to one fundamental question: Are your marketing efforts generating more revenue than they cost? 

The ROI formula to answer that question is straightforward:

ROI = (Net Profit from Marketing Campaign / Cost of Marketing Campaign) x 100

In this equation:

  • Net Profit from Marketing Campaign refers to the revenue generated from your marketing efforts minus all associated costs, such as advertising spend, software subscriptions, and personnel expenses.
  • Cost of Marketing Campaign refers to all the expenditures related to your marketing activities.

Multiply your result by 100 to express it as a percentage. A positive ROI indicates that your marketing efforts are profitable, while a negative ROI means your campaigns run at a loss.

Key metrics used to measure marketing ROI

To calculate ROI accurately, you’ll also need to track and analyze several key metrics, such as:

Conversion Rate: the percentage of website visitors or leads who take the desired action, such as making a purchase or signing up for a newsletter. A higher conversion rate often leads to a better ROI.

Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC): the expenses incurred to acquire a new customer. Lowering your CAC can directly impact your ROI positively.

Customer Lifetime Value (CLV): the total revenue a customer is expected to generate throughout their engagement with your brand. A high CLV relative to your CAC is a positive sign for ROI.

Marketing Attribution: the process to determine which marketing channels or touch points contributed to conversions. Accurate attribution helps allocate resources effectively.

Why ROI is crucial for assessing campaign effectiveness

ROI forces you to justify every dollar spent on marketing and ensures you use resources efficiently.

By analyzing ROI, you can also make informed decisions about which campaigns to scale, optimize, or stop. 

Chapter 3

Strategies for Boosting ROI Across Your Tech Stack

Your tech stack is the engine that powers your marketing efforts, helping you execute campaigns, gather data, and analyze results.

Here are some examples of how the right tech stack tools can improve your ROI:

Comprehensive Data Insights. Your tech stack allows you to amass a wealth of B2B data, encompassing customer behavior, campaign performance, and emerging market trends. This data provides insights into what’s working and what needs adjustment.

Informed Decision-Making. Whether it’s optimizing ad spend, refining messaging, or adjusting targeting parameters, your tech stack empowers you to make decisions that directly impact ROI.

Efficiency and Productivity. Marketing automation tools can handle repetitive, time-consuming tasks such as email drip campaigns, lead nurturing, and even social media posting. By automating these processes, your team gains precious time and resources to channel into high-impact, strategic activities.

Personalization and Targeting. Your tech stack empowers you to craft personalized marketing messages that resonate with individual customers. By delivering tailored content and offers, you significantly increase the likelihood of conversions.

Audience Segmentation. Audience segmentation allows you to categorize your customer base into distinct groups based on demographics, behavior, or preferences. Targeting these segments with specialized messaging makes you more likely to capture their attention and drive conversions.

Continuous Improvement. The data collected by your tech stack also fuels a culture of continuous improvement. By regularly evaluating the performance metrics provided by your tools, you can fine-tune your marketing strategies.

Examples of companies that achieved greater ROI through tech stack enhancements

The recent Total Economic Impact (TEI™) study by Forrester Consulting found that organizations using the 6sense Revenue AI solution achieved an impressive ROI of 454% over three years, recouping their initial investment in under six months, with ROI continuing to rise steadily. How?

By implementing 6sense’s sales intelligence platform, these companies were able to efficiently capture buying signals, target high-potential accounts, and significantly increase sales revenues, with some reporting 2X increases in average contract value, 4X increases in win rates, and 31% increases in opportunity volume.

Chapter 4

Extracting More ROI from Sales and Marketing Spend

Here are some pivotal strategies that can help you maximize your sales and marketing spend ROI. 

Sales and Marketing Alignment 

Alignment between sales and marketing departments makes sure that the leads generated are not only numerous but also of high quality. When both teams work together, the chances of converting those leads into paying customers also significantly increase.

Efficient Budget Allocation

Analyze the performance of various marketing channels and campaigns to identify what’s delivering the best results. Focus your resources on strategies with a proven track record of driving conversions. 

Measuring ROI

Implement robust tracking and measurement systems that allow you to monitor the effectiveness of your marketing and sales efforts. Analyze key metrics like conversion rates, customer acquisition costs, and customer lifetime value.

For a deeper dive into these strategies, check out How to Get More ROI from the Same Sales and Marketing Spend.

Chapter 5

Real-Life ROI Success Stories

Here are two additional examples of companies that improved their marketing ROI with enhancements to their tech stack.

PTC – Building the ROI Revenue Orchestration Intelligence Engine

When PTC, a global software company, decided it wanted to lead the digital transformation of marketing, it faced significant challenges. They needed to meet the evolving demands of a dynamic business environment. Their key challenges included:

  • Identifying Net-New Accounts. PTC needed a way to uncover potential customers actively seeking solutions—those elusive high-intent accounts that often go unnoticed.
  • Outbound Prospecting. To boost growth, they aimed to optimize their outbound B2B prospecting efforts, ensuring they reached the right accounts with the right messaging.
  • Lead Scoring. PTC wanted to refine its lead qualification strategy to identify accounts truly in-market and ready for sales engagement.

PTC partnered with 6sense to address these challenges effectively. Their strategies included:

  • Identifying Net-New Accounts. Leveraging 6sense’s predictive data, PTC uncovered 1200 net-new high-intent accounts in North America. This allowed them to expand their reach and engage with previously undiscovered opportunities.
  • Outbound Prospecting. Implementing focused “power hours” for cold calling, powered by 6sense data, PTC’s sales team achieved remarkable success. They generated millions of dollars in pipeline within just four months by targeting accounts with high intent.
  • Lead Scoring. PTC transitioned to 6sense’s predictive lead scoring, identifying 1,000 6QLs in a matter of months. This shift contributed to an $18M net-new pipeline that would have been missed using traditional scoring methods.

By incorporating 6sense’s insights into their marketing and sales strategies, PTC achieved remarkable results:

  • 1200 net-new high-intent accounts
  • 1,000 6QLs in 2-3 months
  • $18M of net-new pipeline in 4 months

The key lesson learned is that harnessing predictive data and intelligent lead scoring can significantly impact revenue growth and ROI. PTC’s success story with 6sense also underscores the importance of data-driven strategies in transforming marketing outcomes.

6sense Fuels 800x ROI on Ad Spend for Five9

Five9, a leading customer engagement platform, confronted challenges related to its complex MarTech stack and manual processes. They sought solutions for:

  • Data Integration. Overcome the fragmentation of data across disparate systems.
  • Deliver personalized online experiences.
  • Account Orchestration. Efficiently engage with target accounts.
  • Account Prioritization. Identify high-potential accounts for sales outreach.

Five9 adopted the 6sense Revenue AI™ platform, enabling them to:

  • Centralize Operations. They streamlined their MarTech stack and established seamless data flow, eliminating manual inefficiencies.
  • Use Real-time Insights. They enhanced decision-making by providing teams with real-time insights from account activity and intent data.

This strategic shift brought remarkable outcomes:

  • >800x ROI on ad spend.
  • >3x increase in engagement.
  • ABM intent signals led to identifying trending accounts and contacts, funneling fresh Total Qualified Leads (TQLs) to the sales team.

By prioritizing streamlined processes and leveraging 6sense’s tools, Five9 achieved exceptional ROI, streamlined lead generation, and improved cross-team collaboration.

Chapter 6

Implementing ROI-Driven Strategies: Tips and Best Practices

By implementing the following essential ROI-driven strategies and best practices, you can reliably demonstrate the value of your marketing efforts to your organization’s success.

Align Marketing Goals with Business Objectives

Make sure your marketing initiatives directly contribute to revenue generation, customer acquisition, or other key performance indicators (KPIs) that matter most to your organization.

Develop a Data-Centric Approach to Decision-Making

Leverage analytics tools and platforms like 6sense to gain deeper insights into how specific buyers and accounts progress along their journey. Use these insights to inform your decisions and optimize marketing strategies effectively.

Tailor Strategies to Your Specific Industry and Target Audience

Tailor your approaches to your industry’s unique dynamics and the preferences of your target audience. Apply account-based marketing (ABM) principles by focusing on the most impactful accounts for more accurate measurement.

Leverage A/B Testing and Continuous Optimization

Implement controlled experiments to determine which marketing tactics and strategies yield the best results. Continuously optimize your campaigns based on the insights gained from these tests to maximize ROI.

Incorporate Feedback Loops for Ongoing Improvement

Monitor the performance of your marketing activities and gather feedback from sales and other stakeholders. Use this input to refine your strategies and ensure they remain aligned with business objectives.

Chapter 7

Conclusion

Understanding ROI, measuring key metrics, and implementing data-driven strategies are tools to communicate the value of your marketing efforts. By doing so, you ensure your work helps guide your organization toward its overarching goals.

Apply what you’ve learned in this blog post as you begin working on your next campaign!If you need inspiration, check out the case studies we’ve referenced for more insights and strategies.

Ready to see 6sense in action?

The 6sense Team

The 6sense Team