#content metrics

[ekremdum-blog]

Traffic charts don't survive budget reviews — revenue attribution does. Learn to measure content ROI with the metrics and models that persuade leadership.

How Do You Prove Content Marketing ROI to Leadership?

[theseoworkshop]

The Ultimate Guide to Content Optimization: How to Optimize Your Content for Search Engines and Users

Content optimization is critical for the success of any content marketing campaign. By optimizing your content for search engines and users, you can improve your website’s visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs), drive traffic to your website, and engage your target audience. In this article, we’ll explore the ultimate guide to content optimization and how to optimize your content for…

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[value4money]

New Post has been published on Digital Marketing Domain - Full Vertical - SEO, SEM & SMM services customized..!

New Post has been published on http://www.learn-digital-marketing.com/why-its-easier-for-b2b-to-measure-content-marketing/

Why it’s easier for B2B to measure content marketing

This is the seventh in a series of videos culled from an interview about content marketing I did with Terry Foster of Cision Canada. Cision (the USA version) is also a sponsor of Convince & Convert and our Social Pros podcast. (here’s a post I wrote about their nifty content amplification tool).

http://youtu.be/_xETCcyji0Y

For more of this series (and others) please subscribe to my YouTube channel.

Terry: Do you think communicators are missing opportunities if they don’t have conversion activities or call to actions plans in their campaigns?

Jay: Too often we are thinking about engagement and clicks and things that don’t necessarily lead to business outcome. They might. They might not. I think categorically people spend too much time trying to be successful at content and not enough time trying to be successful at business because of content.

The goal is not to be good at content, the goal is to be good at business because of content (click to tweet this please)

That being said, though, there’s no doubt that there are some businesses where tracking that relationship between content and sales is not easy. It’s actually much easier in business to business because you have insight into the purchase process. You know when somebody buys. They’ve got to fill out paperwork or talk to a salesperson. If you’re selling Steam Whistle beer and you have some sort of content execution, you don’t know necessarily who read this blog post and whether that generated beer sales. You can run some correlation studies on that, but it’s difficult to point to it exactly. So, to some degree, it depends on the business.

(to read my ebook on the 4 types of content marketing metrics, go up to the top left of this page and click on the “+” for ebooks and select the “Field Guide to Content Marketing Metrics” ~ jay)

Terry: How do you think companies who don’t have dedicated resources can create branded content?

Jay: I think agencies have a tremendous role to play in the content marketing process, and here’s why. We talked earlier about companies too often creating content that’s about them, that’s essentially just a fancy brochure. Agencies can really help with that because they have enough distance where they can see that marketing sideways opportunity and say, “Okay, here’s content that is relevant to your customers, but isn’t necessarily about your products.” Sometimes people who work inside the company are so close to it that it’s hard for them to have that distance.

Terry: Should they be mapping out their brand story first before going into a content strategy?

Jay: A brand strategy, no doubt. A brand story I think sometimes can be a little bit restrictive because the content executions aren’t necessarily adhering to that story. For example, we talked about the Columbia Sportswear mobile application. Being able to tell you how to tie knots isn’t necessarily part of their brand story, per se, but it’s still a great content execution. You don’t want to be hemmed in by the brand story, but certainly knowing who you are as a brand produces better content in most cases.

[connectyourcontent-blog]

Content Marketing Metrics That Matter

I’ve been on the receiving end of analytical scorecards overloaded with so much data, the conclusion wasn’t  whether something worked, but rather, a collective “that’s interesting.” There are downloads, website traffic numbers, open rates, click through rates, shopping cart abandon rates, bounce rates, engagement rates, engagement funnels, purchase funnels and so on. It’s enough to make your head spin. It’s also enough to cloud the picture of what's really important. TMG has boiled content marketing metrics down to what it calls the only five that matter. For the most part, I agree with the conclusions, but I’ve re-written some metrics and added opinions to others. The key, in all instances, is to understand how the below data will be gathered before embarking on an initiative. Only then, will it be possible to effectively sift through the mountain of metrics once a campaign is underway.

How many people did we reach: TMG gives extra points for reaching your target audience. However, if you’re a B2B firm with a campaign that reaches two highly qualified leads rather than 1,000 outside of your target audience, the campaign has failed. Instead of extra points for reaching the target audience, this metric should instead read “How many people within our target audience did we reach?

How many of them engaged with us? As with the first one, this metric should be “How many within our target audience engaged with us?” A viral video may capture the attention of millions, but if it fails to engage the target audience, it’s worthless.

How did their perception of us change? Did the content have an impact? Caveat – be sure to have a plan in place to measure this before going to market.

How many of them ended up spending with us? I would change this one to “How many of them spent or stayed with us” because it’s not always about gaining new customers, but it’s also about retaining existing ones.

How efficient was it? First, figure out your cost per acquisition and bump up the above data against other initiatives to understand the effectiveness. Something that seems effective on the surface may have had too high of a real, or in some cases, opportunity cost. As TMG says, “Did we spend diamonds to get silver?”

The above metrics are important, however, in all cases, it’s imperative to understand key performance indicators before beginning an initiative, understand how each will be measures, and ultimately, what success means for your content marketing.