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COSTS AND BENEFITS OF MARKETING COMMUNICATION INVESTMENTS
FOR SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES (SMES): CREATING TOOLS FOR RETURN
ON INVESTMENT (ROI) ESTIMATIONS AND CALCULATIONS OF
LOCAL MARKETING (COMMUNICATION) CAMPAIGNS
Vicky FRANSSEN*, Ine ROMBAUT*, Ilse DEVROE**, and Isabelle STEVENS**
Artevelde University College, Ghent, Belgium.
* Dept. Business management, ** Dept. Communication management.
Abstract
The digital innovation that has led to the use of digital marketing creates more opportunities to measure the
results of marketing communication efforts. However, the opportunity to make digital marketing efforts
measurable causes a kind of pressure to also quantify non-digital and less quantifiable marketing resources.
Although Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) often make use of local media (leaflets, regional newspaper,
radio, sponsoring, digital marketing, …), they are typically unaware of what customers they can or cannot
'reach', and how to use marketing actions, and they fear too small Return of Marketing Investment (ROI) of
their marketing actions. SMEs often do not have (reliable) methods to measure the benefits of marketing, and
they often make decisions based on ill-tested assumptions. SMEs thus need evidence-based guidelines for the
possibilities and implementation of local marketing actions (purpose 1). They also need a way to calculate or
track their costs and benefits (purpose 2).
In the present study administered in Flanders (Belgium), we collected (a) 13 explorative interviews with
experts in the field of marketing; followed by (b) 27 in-depth interviews with locally based SMEs, and (c) a
quantitative survey of 157 Business to Business (B2B) organizations.
In this contribution, we aim to offer 1) a comprehensive state of the art, integrating the most used and most
cost-benefit effective marketing communication possibilities for SMEs, and 2) specific tools or templates for
continuous cost-benefit and cost-effectiveness analyses of local marketing efforts (for SMEs).
Keywords: return on Investment, marketing, SME, costs, benefits, local, business, digital and advertising.
Introduction
Although SMEs make use of local media (leaflets, regional newspaper, radio, sponsoring,
digital marketing, etc.), they do not know who they can or cannot 'reach'. They often do not
know how to use marketing actions and fear a too small ROI (UNIZO, et al., 2014). Most of
them do not have a marketing strategy, and if they do, many do not know how the content
they want to convey to their consumers should be structured across media channels
(Mediaforta, 2014). Moreover, many SMEs do not have methods to measure the costs nor
the benefits of marketing, and they often make decisions on the basis of ill-founded
assumptions and gut feeling (Gouden Gids, 2014). Briefly stated, SMEs struggle with
marketing (communication). SMEs and especially one-man businesses thus are in great need
of evidence-based guidelines for how to select the options available to them and a method
to measure and evaluate them.
Knowledge concerning the costs and benefits of marketing is a universal goal for all
organizations, not only for SMEs. “According to a 2013 online study of digital marketers by
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