On-the-job training and learning are important to Flow Communications, and our popular Flow School sessions are an ideal way for staff to share their know-how and expertise.
The concept is simple: team members who can offer valuable insight into topics key to the company, are asked to present short sessions to broaden colleagues’ scope of knowledge.
The net effect is astounding – instead of a scenario where each department considers only its own field of expertise, the company benefits from people who have at least a grasp of other departments’ focus areas.
“It’s always interesting to learn new things, and Flow School has certainly improved my knowledge. When I came to Flow, I didn’t have much technical knowledge, so it’s great to discover new techniques and processes. Also, it’s generally fun and light-hearted too,” says senior writer and editor Sue Blaine.
Flow School has been a great way to introduce new products and services, to improve staff members’ understanding of software programmes the company uses daily and how to use them more effectively, to explain complex concepts such as digital advertising and user experience, and also to help them keep up with the latest trends. Recent topics have included:
- Branding basics
- UX (user experience) at Flow
- Trends in video
- Talking to millennials
No matter the topic under discussion, the training room is always filled with staff members eager for more knowledge. They may sometimes come prepared with a topic or two for debate – and those debates may get rather heated – but the hour-long sessions are always a success and team members come away feeling they have learned something valuable.
“I enjoy Flow school as it’s always a learning experience. Knowledge is power,” says website developer Fabio de Abreu.
As a digital marketer and number fanatic, I was asked to present a Flow School on return on investment (ROI) in a digital landscape. ROI is a major measurement of success for many companies and being able to calculate it, or at least ensure that it can be estimated, can add a lot of value to a project.
The problem is that it can get pretty complicated when it comes to things that are slightly more intangible – such as the value of media coverage, or a “like” or follower on social media. Yet clients are entitled to know what their ROI in search engine optimisation has been.
The basic calculation is not complicated. The return on an investment is:
The problem comes with calculating the profit or income generated by a digital campaign. Luckily, we have a unique tool at our fingertips: Google Analytics. If correctly implemented, this tool allows you to track movement on your website, where traffic came from, whether or not money was spent on your online shop (and how much), and much more. This means that, with a few neat tricks and a little lateral thinking, an estimated ROI can be calculated for just about anything.
Search engine optimisation can be compared to the cost of generating the same amount of traffic through Google Adwords. Social media posts can be compared to the cost of sending out news by flyer, on radio or via television.
Public relations can be checked in terms of what it would cost to publish an ad in a newspaper or the effort required to get an interview published. Training can save on outsourcing costs and make staff more efficient, thereby cutting down on person hours.
Let us take a content marketing campaign as an example.
The scenario is that you have written and posted a piece related to life insurance on your website. It took you two hours to write and perfect your post and share it on social media. The post generated 40 visits to your website simply because it was well publicised and relevant to current industry trends.
The cost:
Your time to write and publicise the post. Let us assume that you are paid R300 per hour. This makes the total cost of the post R600.
The gains:
The post brought in an additional 40 visitors to the website. These visitors can be qualified as potential leads which it is up to your website to convert to sales. The same amount of traffic on Google Adwords, using the keyword “life insurance” as the search criteria, would have cost an average of R167.87 per click. This means that the post essentially saved you having to spend R6714.80 on Google Adwords to generate the same amount of traffic.
The ROI:
ROI = Gains - Cost / Cost x 100
ROI = R6 714.80 - R600 / R600 x 100
ROI = 10.91 x 100
ROI = 1091%