A case in point is the good old Yellow Pages. Years ago, everyone invested in those published phone books that people used when looking for service providers. Over time, the number of calls driven through Yellow Pages advertising dropped significantly as the printed page was replaced by the internet, a more up-to-date and complete source of information. By now, most of you have likely dropped Yellow Pages advertising, as the ROI simply isn’t there anymore.

Much of today’s advertising is focused on driving business to websites or social media pages. Some of the largest marketing investments you make are in website maintenance, search engine optimization (SEO), and social media — all which are ultimately about expanding your network of business contacts, helping potential customers learn more about you and your business, and driving them to your website. The investments range from fees for hosting and support of the website, ongoing SEO work (like pay-per-click programs), and time involved in developing and posting new content, all while capturing customer feedback and testimonials that are vital to helping sell potential customers on the quality and value of your company and service. If you haven’t totaled your monthly or yearly spend, you should. Then assess the ROI.

Your website host and/or SEO provider undoubtedly delivers a monthly report showing the number of “people” who landed on your website, how long they stayed, how many pages they viewed, what search engine they used to get there, etc. OK, so you know how many visits were made to your site, but did any of them turn into business?

The answer comes from the intake call. Without knowing the number of calls that resulted from visits to your website or social media pages, you don’t know how effective they are and what your return is that investment. Because of this, you need to be sure the people handling your company’s inbound calls are armed with an intake form or script that includes questions such as “how did you find us?” or “where did you hear about us?”

You may be using other forms of advertising to increase your brand awareness, educate possible customers on the services you offer, and reach new markets. Whether that includes billboards, radio or TV ads, or sponsoring local events or organizations, you should have a semiannual review process in place to look at the dollars you invested and assess the amount of business and new customers that resulted from that investment.

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t mean a series of radio ads started in January should have generated enough new business by May or June to justify the investment. It takes time for advertising messages to have an impact. But you do need to be consistent in maintaining the messages and level of exposure over a period of time if they are to be effective. This fact needs to be part of your budgeting when you are considering an advertising program of any kind.

The last category of marketing investment I’ll cover includes trade shows and networking events. In my experience, these events — and the money and time that are invested in them — are most likely to be the biggest culprits when it comes to non-tracked and non-measured uses of resources. I group these events together because they both fill the role of “this is where we go to interact with existing customers or to gain access to companies and people we define as prospects.” It’s the vague definition of the purpose for participating that is the source of the problem. If you don’t clearly define why you are participating, it is likely that you will spend more time than is justified or not make the best use of that time.

Like other business development investments, you should expect a return on your time (preparation, travel, participation, follow-up) and money (booth fee, membership dues, expenses, giveaways, travel). In these cases, the direct return is not measured in increased revenue or new customers. The expectation, driven by the pre-event planning that is done, should be to initiate contact with specific attendees or a target number of organizations that meet predefined criteria. “I want to make contact with six new property management companies who are focused on managing multifamily residential properties in our market.” Notice the words “initiate contact.” These events are not designed for establishing relationships. They are intended to have enough of a conversation to engage with a contact, establish an area of mutual interest, and obtain the information and commitment to follow up with them after the event.

In a networking environment, the objective may be as specific as having an existing contact introduce you to another networking contact or specific prospect. It’s also acceptable to have “maintaining contact” with people where a relationship already exists as part of your goal.

The measure of success here is in both the number of meaningful contacts made and the success rate in connecting with them after the event in order to have a more in-depth business discussion. Earlier I mentioned pre-event planning. Setting objectives and expectations for each of these events (or investments) is critical. If you don’t have clear objectives or expected results, odds are you won’t realize the maximum return on the time invested.

The old adage “you can’t improve what you don’t measure” holds true, and marketing activities and investments are no different. Begin by evaluating where your company’s money and people’s time are being spent. Then assess what benefits or returns your company is receiving. Establish a planning and review process, set expectations for results, and do a formal debrief afterward to assess actual performance and follow-up. You may find there are some investments you are making where the returns will cause you to change your plans. There may be others where the benefits or returns are such that you will want to increase your investment.

Marketing is a critical part of growing a business. Be sure you are making the best use of your available resources.