Content marketing is an important term in the dictionary of online marketing. It is the only varietal which involves creation and sharing of valuable information online, such as videos, social media posts, blogs, etc. The companies which are into online marketing and trading already know the statistics. Content marketing strategies can do wonders for such companies.
In the Open Learner’s Guide to Content Marketing, we discussed content marketing, its importance and its efficiency in lead generation.
We also included tricks to work on content marketing strategies and identification of marketing strategies.
Apart from that, we talked about using various content marketing tools for the generation of informative content. You also learned about the ideal way of using call-to-action for marketing strategies.
Once you become a master of these, it is time to measure how the tactics of content marketing aid your business. Even then, there aren’t many who can measure the ROI.
Do you have any idea about the essential metrics of content marketing which you must track for success?
This chapter will be answering all your queries and doubts.
Let us begin!
What Is Content Marketing ROI?
ROI is what helps in measuring the success rate of a business. Content Marketing ROI lets you ascertain the percentage of profits you can earn through your content marketing strategies. You will find how much revenue you gained from your marketing tactics by comparing it with your expenses.
For many business agencies, it is a significant aspect of the definition of business success. However, money isn’t always the ultimate metric for describing your success in the market. For instance, many websites measure ROI through the number of EBook downloads and number of followers.
You have to resort to different metrics for determining the success of content marketing. So, it is imperative to understand which parameter is for you to measure the ROI of content marketing.
We understand the purpose of generating multiple kinds of content for converting visitors to customers. The same is encouraging for a content marketing funnel which helps in the conversion of leads to clients.
Content marketing has several non-monetary advantages. These prove that your content is worthwhile. Keep an eye out for these;
- Trust building
- Generating brand awareness
- Engagement increment
- Becoming a leader of thought in your respective industry
- Bolstering relationships
- Enhancing search engine visibility
- Generating and amplifying the loyalty of customers
The measurement of content marketing ROI can be tricky because of the intangible factors. Though, there are some ways of scaling these metrics too. The truth is that no one will invest in contentment marketing if it doesn’t generate positive results for the company.
How to measure the ROI of content marketing?
The following are some of the most preferred content marketing metrics used to measure success:
Brand Awareness
According to statistical data, more than seventy percent of CEOs prioritize increasing and maintaining brand awareness.
The primary objective of a content marketing strategy is to enhance brand awareness. Although, it is problematic to determine its worth to ROI
Even after being problematic to measure and attach to revenue, you can track signs of progress by:
- Blog views
- Social shares and followers
- Website visitors returning
- Direct website traffic
- Shares and views from partnering audiences
Engaging the Audience
Once you build brand awareness, the next step is to engage the audience with informational and resolving content.
Brand awareness allows the audience to familiarize themselves with your services and products. It also helps them understand your brand’s concepts.
Whenever your audience connects with you, you can scrutinize their likes and dislikes, their challenges, and their expectations from you.
The ways with which you can find out ROI are:
- Blog comments
- Conversion rates on landing pages
- Likes, comments and shares on social media
- CTA or Click-through rates
- Views of your website
- Click patterns and heat maps
- Time spent on a page
- The bounce rate of sites
Directing the Website Traffic
Maintaining audience engagement and building brand awareness are both long-time processes. Those two should go simultaneously with the generation of website traffic. Excellent and engaging content undoubtedly drives traffic to the top of the marketing funnel. In the end, it helps in the restoration of the ROI.
Explore the following metrics to notice whether your content is driving traffic towards your website or not:
- Keyword rankings
- Unique visits (overview and breakdown by channel)
- New vs. returning visitors
- Onsite engagement (time on page, bounce rate)
Increasing the traffic on blogs is yet another goal of content marketing. To track your progress, measure the following:
- Keyword rankings
- Social shares
- Blog visits per month
- Engagement metrics (time on page, bounce rate)
- New vs. returning visitors
- CTA (Click-through rates)
Generation of Leads
More than eighty percent of marketers over the world believe that lead generation is the only way to measure ROI.
If you want to measure how well your content is faring for lead generation then measure the following:
- Landing page conversion rates
- Lead generations per month
- CTA (click-through rates)
- Conversion rates of leads to customers
Visibility on Search Engines
As you should know, SEO plays a significantly crucial role in generating traffic for your site. Numerous marketers dream of seeing their content at the top of the first page of Google.
Before anything else, make sure that you are eyeing the keyword rankings once in every quarter. We suggest that you check the reports once every month.
Track the following metrics after SEO:
- Topic clusters
- Website traffic from organic search
- Unique website visits
You can also use different SEO tools to generate your content according to the newest updates from Google.
The Sales
There is a lot to fight for if you want to achieve marketing goals. You have metrics to track every month or quarterly. In spite of that, some business owners and marketers recognize the lingua of sales only.
Content marketing is invaluable when you consider moving leads through the inbound marketing funnel. It is of inestimable worth when you want to convert leads to customers.
If you’re using the content for sales then monitor the following metrics:
- Sales conversion rates
- Contract size
- Lead to customer conversion rate (by content piece and overall)
- Cost per lead
- Length of the sales cycle
Upsells and Retention
The final point of consideration is about retaining the audience and upselling them. It is a challenging but mandatory objective of content marketing for retention improvement and encouraging upsells.
However, you shouldn’t stop creating personas when someone converts into a client. It is the moment when you should do something delightful for them and make your Happy Customer.
Naturally, when a customer finds satisfaction in your offerings, the individual will recommend you to others. It is the time when you can make the mistake of ignoring the existing Happy Clients. They place their trust upon you and will be happy to make more purchases from you. They will further drive your revenue through upsells.
Here are some metrics to track this goal:
- Repeat customer percentage
- Customer retention rate
- Revenue from upsells
Are there any mathematical formulas to calculate the ROI of content marketing?
Yes, there is a simple way to measure the ROI of content marketing. The technical term for it is known as “Convince and Convert.”
“Return subtracted from investment, divided by investment, shown as a percentage value.”
For example
If someone spends $1000 on framing a content piece and receives $2000 worth of leads, the ROI is 100 percent.
How so?
$2000-$1000 = $1000
$1000/$1000 = 1
1*100% = 100%
To conclude
It can be demanding to show how content marketing is faring in terms of ROI generation. Though, the metrics mentioned in this chapter can help you sense your performance levels.
If you put the right content by following the appropriate tactics, you will generate more traffic, leads, and sales.
It is safe to say at the end of the EBook that content marketing is undoubtedly worth the investment.
The Open-To-All Learner’s Guide To Content Marketing:
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Chapter 1 – What is content marketing? Why is it essential to your business?
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Chapter 2 – What is the relationship between content marketing and marketing funnel?
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Chapter 3 – How to construct an advanced content marketing plan for your business?
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Chapter 4 – How to recognize the audience for content marketing strategies?
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Chapter 5 – How to craft a content marketing calendar based on your business?
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Chapter 6 – 20 free-of-cost content marketing tools which you must know about and utilize
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Chapter 7 – How to prepare immaculate calls-to-action for your content marketing strategies?
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Chapter 8 – How will you measure the ROI of content marketing?
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Very informative post! Assessing how your content marketing is doing is very crucial to the success of your business. It’s important that you understand what is working and what is not. We are also using the above mentioned content marketing metrics to measure success. Thank you for sharing!
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