ROI Calculator

Calculating ROI for communication tactics can be challenging. The key is to focus on small pieces of communications that either increase the organizations revenue or reduces it’s costs

Step 1

Focus on one project or initiative individually – don’t try to estimate the ROI from an entire campaign. Determine the total intended financial value the initiative should either add to revenue or reduce from costs.

Step 2

Reduce the financial value by the percentage credit that can be attributed to the communication effort. This percentage could be determined a number of ways:
o 100% credit if no other inputs affected the outcome
o Ask management what percentage they feel should be attributed to the
communication effort
o Ask the employees who enacted the initiative what percentage they feel should be
attributed to the communication effort
o Conduct a study using a pilot group and a study group. The incremental increase
is the percentage that should be contributed to the communication effort

Step 3

Multiply the step 1 by step 2 to calculate the financial value of the outcome that could be attributed to the communication. Always use a conservative estimate in this step.

Step 4

Subtract the amount that was spent on the communication initiative from the result in step 3. Be aggressive with this number – include costs of human resources, products and any research that was conducted. This is your net financial value.

Step 5

Divide the net financial value (from step 4) by the total communication cost. The result is your estimate return on investment.

In addition to measure the financial outcome of the communication initiative, it will help your cause to measure the volume and timing of the activities that were initiated. Also, measure employee perceptions before and after the change to understand how your efforts affecting employee perspectives.