Well...there's about a 40 sq/mi overlap between North Central Montana and something labeled French Southern & Antarctic Lands.....not that i think there are many people in either location to try.
This isn't the 1600s and a website isn't a wooden sign. In this day and age, all marketing tools are expected to prove that they were worth the investment. Why do you think so many questionaires have that "How did you hear about us?" question at the bottom. The guys at the top want to make sure they aren't wasting their money on advertising that doesn't work.
I think your understanding of ROI is a little narrow....Yes, in many cases it boils down to who bought your product in the long run but it's not always that simple in the short term and reporting aspects. What you track to prove ROI depends on the company and for a website it's definately not always "customers bought an average of 500 more [PRODUCT] on our site per month since we launched the new site design."
For example, on a new car dealership site you usually don't expect to sell the car online. You use it to get qualified leads. Get the prospective customers information and decide if they're worth the manhours it would take to close the sale in person. Schedule test drives and leave it up to the sales guy at the dealership to close the sale. He'll spend less time talking to people who aren't really serious and (if everything works properly) end up with more commissions and make more money for the dealership. The number of people referred from the site is something you CAN track as well as the percentage of them ended up being successful sales. Compare that to the number of people who wander in off the street and what percentage of them are successful sales and you have your proof that the site was worth the $$ spent.
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Well...there's about a 40 sq/mi overlap between North Central Montana and something labeled French Southern & Antarctic Lands .....not that i think there are many people in either location to try.
This isn't the 1600s and a website isn't a wooden sign. In this day and age, all marketing tools are expected to prove that they were worth the investment. Why do you think so many questionaires have that "How did you hear about us?" question at the bottom. The guys at the top want to make sure they aren't wasting their money on advertising that doesn't work.
I think your understanding of ROI is a little narrow....Yes, in many cases it boils down to who bought your product in the long run but it's not always that simple in the short term and reporting aspects. What you track to prove ROI depends on the company and for a website it's definately not always "customers bought an average of 500 more [PRODUCT] on our site per month since we launched the new site design."
For example, on a new car dealership site you usually don't expect to sell the car online. You use it to get qualified leads. Get the prospective customers information and decide if they're worth the manhours it would take to close the sale in person. Schedule test drives and leave it up to the sales guy at the dealership to close the sale. He'll spend less time talking to people who aren't really serious and (if everything works properly) end up with more commissions and make more money for the dealership. The number of people referred from the site is something you CAN track as well as the percentage of them ended up being successful sales. Compare that to the number of people who wander in off the street and what percentage of them are successful sales and you have your proof that the site was worth the $$ spent.