Calculating Content’s Role in the Revenue Cycle

© AberdeenGroup 2013

CALCULATING CONTENT’S ROLE IN THE REVENUE

CYCLE

Trip Kucera Sr. Research Analyst

Marketing Effectiveness & Strategy

@TripKucera #b2bContentEvent

© AberdeenGroup 2013 2

Who’s ready for some data?

@TripKucera #b2bContentEvent

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Lead Management is Like Scotch: Distillation generates value

Source: http://nextstarvodka.com @TripKucera #b2bContentEvent

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Sorry Gaga:

Good leads just are NOT born that way

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Content like Offers

© AberdeenGroup 2013 6

Aberdeen Maturity Class Framework

ü What are Best-in-Class companies doing differently?

ü What pitfalls are they avoiding?

ü Why are they achieving greater success?

ü What technologies and services are enabling them to succeed?

Abe

rdee

n’s

Met

hodo

logy

C

E

Pressures:External and internal forces that impact an organization’s market position, competitiveness, or business operations.

Actions:The strategic approaches that an organization takes in response to industry pressures.Actions:The strategic approaches that an organization takes in response to industry pressures.

Capabilities:The business competencies (organization, process, etc…) required to execute corporate strategy.Capabilities:The business competencies (organization, process, etc…) required to execute corporate strategy.

Enablers:The key technology solutions required to support the organization’s business practices.

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Leaders in Aberdeen’s Content Marketing and Management study achieved the following results: q 3.7% Average website conversion rate, vs.

2.9% for Followers q 10.2% year-over-year growth in Marketing’s

contribution to revenue, compared with 1.6% growth for Followers

q 15.4% year-over-year company revenue growth, vs. 1.6% for Followers

q 19.7% year-over-year increase in unique site traffic, vs. 2.5% increase for Followers

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12243

6345

0 3000 6000 9000 12000 15000

Website traffic necessary togenerate a customer

Unique Website Traffic, n = 81

Leaders

Followers

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350

237

0 100 200 300 400 500

Marketing "responses"required to generate one

closed-won deal

Marketing "Responses" (i.e. non-qualified lead), n = 81

Leaders

Followers

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$10,000

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28%

72%

18%

82%

0%

25%

50%

75%

100%

We have a robust contentmarketing program in place

We have some contentmarketing capabilities, andare taking steps to improve

our execution

Per

cent

age

of R

espo

nden

ts, n

= 7

5

Leaders Followers

Leaders More Likely to Have “Robust” Strategy in Place

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Primary Objective: Demand Generation

62%

27%

11%Lead generation / customeracquisition

Brand awareness and thoughtleadership

Customer retention and engagement

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Strategic Focus

47%

50%

53%

0% 20% 40% 60%

Increase the quantity of relevant content we’re publishing on our site

Focus on improving the targeting of our contentmarketing efforts (i.e. content personalization,

situational content, etc.)

Use content in nurture-based marketingcampaigns that move buyers closer to purchase

Percentage of Respondents, n = 81Leaders

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Top 3 Challenges to Content Marketing Success

1.  Talent / resources for content development & management

2.  Generating enough relevant content

3.  Ensuring relevancy of content

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25%

50%

75%

100%

0% 25% 50% 75%

Per

cept

ion

of V

alue

Effectiveness of Execution

Content Marketing Perception of Value vs. Effectiveness of Execution; All Respondents, n = 75

Producing high-quality content

Tracking the content utilization metrics(visits, views, shares, etc.)

Generating / publishing sufficientcontent to meet our needs

Tracking number of qualified leadsgenerated by content marketing efforts

Driving more traffic to our website withregularly updated content

Generating high-quality links to ourcontent from sources of authority

Ability to personalize web site contentbased on buyer profile, persona, or firm

Accurately forecasting and budgetingleads / customer acquisition fromcontent / search marketingAbility to roll out new sites or contentquickly

Generating social mentions of content

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CONTENT DEVELOPMENT

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Content Development Might be Everyone’s Responsibility, but it should be someone’s job

54%

46%44%

41%

20%

40%

60%

Ability to capture new content ideas / content “ideation” from across organization

Well-defined process for managing thecontent development process (i.e. ideation,

design, and approval steps are wellunderstood and utilized in projects)

Per

cent

age

of R

espo

nden

ts, n

= 7

5

Leaders Followers

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An Inside Job

56%37%

8% Primarily managed and developed withdedicated internal resources, butsupported by external resources (i.e.freelancers or agency)

Completely managed and developedusing dedicated internal resources

Primarily developed by externalresources, but supported or managed byinternal resource

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Align Content to Purpose

65%

54%

42%41%

24%18%

0%

25%

50%

75%

Content marketing efforts are well-aligned with sales methodology

Process to align marketing contentwith marketing / sales funnel stage

(i.e. content is developed withfunnel stage in mind)

Process to align marketing contentwith buyer persona (i.e. content isdeveloped with specific persona(s)

in mind)

Per

cent

age

of R

espo

nden

ts, n

= 7

5

Leaders Followers

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MEASUREMENT & METRICS

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Got Lift?

77%

41%36%

47%

16%21%

0%

25%

50%

75%

100%

Ability to track how specificcontent is performing

Ability to track attribution to aspecific piece of content (i.e.well-defined attribution model

in place)

Ability to measure uplift fromtargeted content

Per

cent

age

of R

espo

nden

ts, n

= 7

5

Leaders Followers

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Get Granular

36%

30%29%

15%

0%

25%

50%

Process to measure how specificcontent performs across various

channels (mobile vs. social vs. website)

Process to measure marketing content based on stages of the buyer’s

journey

Per

cent

age

of R

espo

nden

ts, n

= 7

5 Leaders Followers

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Measuring the Impact of Content Marketing

0.5%

1.8%

1.0%

2.9%

3.4%

7.6%

0.0% 5.0% 10.0%

Average website conversion rate

Average Click-Through Rate (CTR)on email marketing

Conversion rate of marketingresponse / lead to marketing-

qualified lead (MQL)

Current Performance, n = 81

Using ContentMarketing

Non-users

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Year-over-year performance of content marketing users

-4.3%

0.6%

0.2%

1.4%

1.4%

3.2%

4.5%

5.0%

5.4%

7.7%

-5.0% 0.0% 5.0% 10.0%

Average website conversion rate

Marketing's contribution to companyrevenue

Social sharing of content

Annual company revenue

Number of unique website visitors

Current Performance, n = 81

Using ContentMarketing

Nonusers

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2,564

327

- 1,000 2,000 3,000

Marketing "responses"required to generate one

closed-won deal

Marketing "Responses"(i.e. non-qualified lead), n = 81

Using ContentMarketingNon-users

77,135

12,221

- 20,000 40,000 60,000 80,000

Website traffic necessary togenerate a customer

Website Traffic, n = 81

Using ContentMarketingNon-users

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Take Aways

q Think about content as marketing offers q Alignment

q  Buyer stage q  Persona q  Impact and measurement

q Measurement and metrics q  Get granular q  Get lift

© AberdeenGroup 2013

Thank you Trip.Kucera@aberdeen.com @TripKucera