In some of
my previous posts, I suggested that social media is highly effective in generating marketing ROI.
Last week, I interviewed
Mike Volpe, VP of Marketing
HubSpot, for his perspective on social media ROI.
Mike started off our discussion by observing that most marketers believe that social media is only suitable for creating buzz and fostering brands.
However Mike disagrees and with good reason: HubSpot favors social media for demand generation.
HubSpot's inquiries from social media support Mike's position. Below are selected social media results for June 2008:
Editors Note: Although HubSpot defines 'leads' as any prospect who has completed an online form, it is more accurate to define these unqualified responders as 'inquiries'.
Mike has calculated his cost-per-inquiry as $10 per inquiry and includes the marketing overheads for content creation. This compares favorably to the $75 per inquiry he would pay for traditional outbound marketing.
Although Mike was unable to share the ROI on his social media marketing programs, he indicated that the ROI on social media is many times more than traditional outbound marketing programs.
This has created a 'fun' sales and marketing environment where salespeople do not make cold calls and marketing managers avoid having to focus on marginal improvements in response rates and trying to avoid spam filters.
Mike's advice is that social media should be viewed as any other top of funnel marketing activity. The goal is to build an audience rather than a database. Marketers should create content or tools that engage prospects to realize a social media outcome. Offers and calls-to-action will help move prospects along the buying cycle.
HubSpot's audience numbers are impressive with 6,000 blog subscribers and 3,000 webinar registrants - far surpassing HubSpot's forecasts.
Mike acknowledged that it can be difficult to measure interactions amongst social media and the impact on prospect conversions. However, HubSpot has generated a significant number of prospects and sales who can be attributed to clicking from a singular social media source.
I wish HubSpot continued success and applaud their success in defining ROI on social media.
P.S. I have to congratulate Mike on not once plugging his use of their own social media software as the key to HubSpot's accomplishments.
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