Per dollar spent, content marketing produces three times the number of leads as paid search. There’s no doubt that businesses should be investing in content marketing to generate more leads, connect with customers, and improve ROI.
But how do you know if your content marketing is actually contributing to your bottom line? According to the Content Marketing Institute, 59% of Marketers are unsure what a successful or effective content marketing strategy looks like.
While content marketing is one of the best ways to create brand awareness and convert more leads, it’s crucial that you know where your marketing budget is going, and if it’s leading to a positive ROI.
Here’s how you can measure your content marketing efforts in 2019:
Create a Strategy
Without an actual content marketing strategy, it’s impossible for the people in your organization to know what you’re doing and why. In 2018, only 39% of marketers had a documented strategy. Among top-performing organizations, however, this number jumped to 65%.
When you create a content marketing strategy, you’ll be getting clear about your goals. Are you planning to establish your company’s thought leadership through blogging or whitepapers? Would you like to increase your social following or better understand your prospects and customers?
Here are some possible goals for your content marketing:
- Brand awareness
- Lead generation
- Lead nurturing
- Engagement
- Sales
- Customer loyalty/retention
Without specifying your goals, you’ll have no way to know if you’re achieving them.
Content marketing isn’t a set-it-and-forget-it strategy. Results take time to see, but a clear strategy will help you and your team stay focused on your goals.
Use Google Analytics
Google Analytics can be a good place to start when you’re measuring the effectiveness of your content marketing. This tool allows you to see what your visitors are doing on your website, where they come from, and how long they’re spending on each page.
For example, your pageviews will indicate whether your target audience finds your headlines and topics interesting and whether they’re sharing your posts on social media. Your exit rates and bounce rates help you see if readers are clicking onto other posts or pages after they read your articles. This is a good indication of content quality.
Consider Lead Quality
Great content should attract readers, and those readers can become leads. This is one of the reasons why content marketing works so well for lead generation.
Lead quality can be measured in many different ways. For example, if you create a lead magnet, you can tell if it’s attracting quality leads if people read your blog posts and then download your lead magnet. This shows that they may be considering your product or service.
Quality leads will also check out other resources you’ve developed as part of your sales funnel, and will get in touch with your team to ask questions.
Another way to track quality leads? Measure how many leads are visiting important pages like your FAQ page, pricing page, and contact page.
Track Sales
Your ultimate goal is likely to be an increase in sales for your business. But when you’re measuring the effectiveness of your content marketing, you need to be able to see a direct link between your content and your sales.
If your leads are qualified, and you’re providing them with excellent content at every stage of the buyer’s journey, at least some of these leads should become paying customers.
Measure Your Social Media Stats
People who find your content interesting and/or useful will often share it with their friends and acquaintances on social media. You can track your social engagement by using Google Analytics. Use the Acquisition tab, and then click Social and Network Referrals.
This will allow you to see how many of your conversions are from social media. If you’ve been using social media marketing and ads, this will help you calculate your ROI to see if that strategy is effective.
These are just a few ways you can measure your content marketing efforts. If you need help with your content marketing strategy, contact us today.