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Content marketing is a powerful tool for establishing brand authority, attracting qualified leads, and driving revenue growth. Most companies we encounter realize that. And often marketing teams are enthusiastic about creating content and posting it on their channels. But business leaders want to see more than some content: they want to see results. It’s crucial to ensure that your content marketing efforts are generating a tangible return on investment (ROI). And here’s how you can do that.
Before diving into the intricacies of measuring ROI, it’s essential to establish clear and measurable goals for your content marketing strategy. These goals should align with your overall business objectives and reflect the specific needs of your target audience. Some common content marketing goals include:
Increase website traffic: Measure the number of visitors to your website from organic search, social media, and other channels.
Generate qualified leads: Track the number of leads generated through content downloads, form submissions, and other engagement metrics.
Improve lead conversion rates: Monitor the percentage of leads that convert into paying customers.
Enhance brand awareness: Assess the brand’s reputation and recognition among potential customers.
Strengthen thought leadership: Evaluate the number of mentions, shares, and engagement on your content across various platforms.
Once you have defined your goals, it’s time to identify the key metrics that will provide you with insights into the effectiveness of your content marketing efforts. To make it as clear as possible for you, we have categorized them into 3 logical stages.
An obvious metric here for most organizations: you can track the total number of visitors to your website from various sources. That includes organic search, social media, and paid advertising. And while the amount of visitors in itself is a bit of a vanity metric, it does say something about how many people come across your content and therefor are potential leads.
Once you get people on your website, you want them to engage with your content. Analyze metrics such as page views per session, average time on site, and bounce rate to gauge the level of user engagement with your organization’s content.
Social media is indispensible for any business these days. Monitor the number of shares, likes, and comments on your social media posts to measure the reach and engagement of your content on the social media channels that matter for your business.
Track the number of leads your team generated through content downloads, form submissions, and other engagement actions.
Not only the number of leads matters: quality is important too. Evaluate the quality of your leads by assessing their industry, job title, and company size to determine their potential value for your organization.
A lead in itself is worth nothing until it actually becomes a paying customer. Monitor the percentage of your leads that become paying customers.
Track the overall revenue your organization generates from customers acquired through your content marketing efforts.
You’re spending money to get leads. Then you’ll also want to know the average cost of acquiring a lead through content marketing and compare it to other lead generation channels you are using.
Ideally you also calculate the total return on investment from your content marketing efforts, taking into account the costs involved. In the end, a healthy ROI is the goal of marketing anyway,right?
In today’s data-driven world, many many analytics tools are available to help you track and measure content marketing ROI. These tools provide comprehensive insights into website traffic, user engagement, lead generation, and other key metrics. Some popular analytics tools include Google Analytics, Matomo, Piwik Pro, Google’s Looker Studio, HubSpot, and Salesforce Marketing Cloud, to name a few. You can easily find many more online, but these are the ones we work with the most.
Measuring ROI is not a one-time exercise. It’s an ongoing process that requires regular evaluation and optimization. You need to regularly review your analytics data and identify areas where your content marketing efforts can be improved. So experiment with different content formats, distribution channels, and targeting strategies to maximize the effectiveness of your campaigns. Pretty soon, you’ll notice improved results, and increased revenue because of it.
By consistently tracking and analyzing key metrics, companies can gain valuable insights into the ROI of their content marketing efforts. This data-driven approach allows for continuous improvement and refinement. Doing this consistently ensures that content marketing remains a strategic driver of business growth.
Download our whitepaper and develop a content marketing strategy that will help you attract the right people and generate more leads.
