in Today's Customer-Centric World"
How costly is it to evaluate the ROMI on our current campaigns?
For your first campaign, there is no charge. If you are a new client, we will evaluate one of your campaigns as a FREE DEMO of the value of our process. If you're an existing client, an ROMI evaluation is included in our program fees.
What is the additional budget expense to conduct research?
Research expense is not incremental to your planned marketing investment. It's an allocation decision vs. an incremental expense decision. You may already have much of this information internally, however if additional research will improve forecasted ROMI, then there is rationale for putting a portion of your budget toward research. The way to find out is to run the FREE DEMO of the ROMI Revenue Forecaster™. You can look at your ROMI with and without research based on the same budget.
What savings in time or expense can we expect by working with you?
Time - Your team will cut their agency management time by 20-40% because they will be working with senior level marketers who function as strategic partners rather than tactical executors of advertising tasks.
Expense - 50% (or more) of the average company's ad spend is wasted dollars; they fail to drive any revenue. The ROM Group will help you shift these wasted dollars (not driving revenue) and put them to work to directly drive up ROMI.
What is the biggest draw-back to the ROMI process, and why doesn't everyone do it?
Measurement exposes weakness. There can be internal staff (at all levels) or your ad agency who will see this type of scrutiny as a threat to their job security. "Any change to the way I am doing things today is a threat." This happens in all size companies from start-ups to Fortune 500. Over time, the ROMI process will be viewed as an indispensable tool for increased performance.
How do your solutions tie in to Continuous Improvement?
The ROM Group's approach is to measure ROMI in a continuous improvement style—that is continuously and with on-going incremental improvements to the campaign to drive up ROMI. In addition this level of measurement will certainly reveal lead generating and lead conversion process improvement opportunities.
What is the process for ongoing evaluation?
Each campaign is unique. A year-long campaign may be measured monthly. Whereas a 30-day campaign may be measured daily. Regardless of the campaign duration, The ROM Group evaluates ROMI performance at regular interim points throughout the campaign. We use this data to suggest campaign adjustments to refine and improve performance while the campaign is still running.
What if we don't get the returns we expected?
The entire ROMI process is designed to eliminate dramatic swings in results typical of current advertising. We know there will be variations in results. While there are always variations, our approach narrows those variations and reveals worst and best case levels in advance so our clients can choose how much risk they want to take.
With The ROM Group, if your campaign does not achieve the mean return, the variation range is small enough to ensure satisfaction. Think of it as an investment. You're putting money at risk. What's the worst case? Best case? Expected? Using the ROMI Revenue Forecaster™, you can adjust your campaign to control the range between worst and best case. You can customize your campaign design to meet your risk tolerance.
How can you guarantee to improve on our current efforts?
If you are not currently measuring ROMI, we can say with confidence that you will gain a 10-20% boost in revenue growth, market share and profitability simply by introducing the measurement process (Source: The CMO Council [www.cmocouncil.org]. If you use The ROM Group's process, you stand to improve significantly on that number.
How reliable is your marketing forecast?
The ROMI Revenue Forecaster™ is accurate to +/- 15% on revenue forecasts. The ROMI Revenue Forecaster™ uses a wealth of industry statistics to drive the Monte Carlo simulation. As with any calculation, it is as accurate as the data it uses. The ROM Group has a set of key inputs that are custom to your company that we review with you prior to running the forecasts.
Can you work with our current agency?
Yes. The ROM Group is a profit-neutral and media-neutral agency. We do not have a practice specific creative staff and our revenue model is not biased by a practice specific focus. We partner with many agencies, creative firms, PR firms, etc. You end up with best-of-breed.
Does the ROMI process potentially threaten any current marketing initiatives?
If they are underperforming or flat out failing to drive revenue, then yes. The ROM Group process will reveal what's working and not working. The good and the bad will be exposed.
What does the working relationship with our internal marketing staff look like?
We align our team with your team to ensure that strategic level expertise is aligned with your strategic level and our tactical execution staff is aligned with your tactical execution staff.
What do you mean by media neutral?
Unlike the traditional agency model, The ROM Group does not accept commissions on media and therefore our revenue is not influenced by the selection and/or recommendation of a specific type of media channel. This position allows us to choose the optimum media channel based on the stages of your prospective customers' purchase decision process vs. choosing media based on the revenue it will generate for our agency.
What are "Market Influencers," and how do we measure and improve ours?
Market Influencers are factors that impact your campaign's Lead Generation rate. If you rank high on the Market Influencers, then you can expect much higher Lead Generation rates than industry averages thereby driving up your ROMI. For example, if the industry average Lead Generation rate is 2%, and you rank high on your Market Influencers, you can drive that rate as high at 15% or more without adding one dollar to your marketing investment.
An example of a Market Influencer is brand building advertising or awareness campaigns. Brand awareness advertising rarely if ever drives revenue, but it definitely improves your Lead Generation rates when you do conduct a Lead Generation campaign. Because positive brand recognition is a Market Influencer, The ROM Group can actually put a revenue impact value on your brand awareness.
What is your policy with respect to working with our direct competitors?
Our non-compete policies meet the demands of most clients we do business with. If you would like a copy of our non-compete policies please email us and will send you a copy.
What is your specialty? (Core competencies)
Our specialty is aligning your value offerings to the value demands of your target customers. We are experts at uncovering the hidden value demands of customers; the real drivers behind their purchase decisions. And we're equally skilled at crafting messaging and positioning to help your brand align precisely with the value demands of your customers.
This process is universal to business. It is not sector or industry specific. We have done this for a broad range of businesses in both the B2B and B2C space. From distributors to consumers.
Once this work is done right, the rest is execution and management.
How closely can you link our Marketing Strategy to our Business Objectives?
As simple as this may sound, we've found that many companies of all sizes struggle with "translating" business objectives into marketing strategy. We've found the primary problem is two different languages.
On the business side, it's a "financial" and "risk management" language. Whereas on the marketing side it's a "recognition" and "sales" language. The ROM Group resolves this communication challenge by providing our clients with experts that can speak both languages.
In addition, we have resurrected the in-depth "creative brief" which translates "strategy" into "tactical instructions". The creative brief had been lost in the downsizing and cost cutting of the last 15 years. Too often the business side delivers strategy when what is needed is a tactical instruction plan so marketing understands clearly the specific expectations of the business side. The analogy is the blueprint for a building sketched on a napkin. Few contractors could deliver with that level on direction. The same is true for linking business objectives to marketing strategy.