In 2017, Paris Saint-Germain signed Brazilian football superstar Neymar for a record-breaking €222 million (about £197 million). It’s a lot more than the likes of Bristol City’s Bobby Reid, who they sold to Cardiff for £10 million. But if you compare the two on their scoring record alone (strikers, after all, are there to score goals), Reid looks like the better player, with 19 goals at Bristol City compared to Neymar’s 13 at Barcelona in the season before their respective moves.

We’ve already looked at lead generation (and how it’s not the be all and end all of marketing) and big ideas (which are useless without informed predictions to back them up). In the latest instalment of Marketing Mythbusters we’re looking at one of the biggest misconceptions around - Return on Investment. To put it bluntly: too many business leaders believe marketing is nothing but a cost, an expense that doesn’t pay off in real terms.

If you don’t have effective marketing, do you have a business? How will you ensure growth? Secure leads? Build brand awareness? How will you hold on to your existing customers, or bring new ones through the door? Without a full and joined-up marketing strategy, businesses struggle to make sales – and eventually, to exist altogether.

No profit? No business. That’s why ROI – Return on Investment – forms the backbone of successful business leadership. Marketing ROI, on the other hand, remains a problem for some. It’s easy to lose sight of what your marketing spend is actually doing for you. Marketing consultants and agencies often lean on ‘vanity stats’ to justify their work, like Facebook views or being followed by X number of influential individuals on social media.

We originally wrote this post way back in 2016, a lifetime in social media years. Since then, LinkedIn has been acquired by Microsoft and the platform has undergone some significant changes. It’s time for a fresh look at what’s changed.