In this episode of Actionable Marketing In Minutes we discuss ways to measure your content marketing ROI.

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Problem

The million dollar question every marketing executive wants answered is “how do you measure the return on your investment for content marketing?”  If you’re listening to this podcast thinking you’ll get the answer to that coveted question you might be disappointed.

If you’ll join me for the next few minutes, I will help you understand why trying to attach a dollar value to content marketing could end up costing you sales.

Solution

Sure, there are formulas out there that provide different methods for calculating the return on investment from content marketing but we’re here to remind you that not everything can be measured in the form of direct ROI.  Content marketing is about more than the leads it can (and will) drive to your sales team.

Many marketing studies have shown that it takes, on average, 12 exposures to a brand before someone will engage and potentially buy from you. Add that to this information from GlobalSpec:

  • In their 2015 Digital Media Use In The Industrial Sector study:
    • 67% are researching products and solutions
    • 66% are comparing products and solutions across suppliers
    • 61% are looking for standards

Content marketing is the strategy of creating and sharing valuable information with the intent to build trust and authority to your target audience that will drive profitable customer interaction and ultimately lead to your desired conversion.

Businesses use content marketing strategies to:

  1. Position the company as a subject matter expert in your space
    1. This includes raising the level of conversion around your niche space in general, not just pushing your products and services
  2. Build communities of loyal brand advocates
  3. Mitigate risk
  4. Build awareness

These are things you can’t put a direct dollar value on. The real goal of content marketing is to affect consumer behavior by communicating with and engaging your audience without direct promotion. So if you’re only looking at dollars driven from this tactic you won’t always see it; but you will see greater engagement, your brand being held in a higher regard, and repeat, desirable behavior from your target audience.

If you value being able to measure manage the specific interactions your audience has with your brand across all channels, then you might be a good candidate for a robust marketing automation system, but we’ll tackle that in another episode.

Benefits of Content Marketing

  • Content marketing drives inbound traffic to your site
  • Attracts a more qualified lead
  • Works to nurture the prospects and leads you may already have.
  • Improves the overall customer experience

Where have your found success, or been disappointed with, content marketing? Connect with us on Twitter or on LinkedIn, to continue the conversation. Be sure to subscribe using iTunes, Stitcher or your favorite podcast platform, and share it with your networks using hashtag #actionablemarketing. Join us next time for more actionable marketing in minutes.

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