ROI in Content Marketing

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Return on Investment in Content Marketing

tel: 323.212.6020, www.fluiditypartners.com twitter: @fluiditypartner - e-mail: info@fluiditypartners.com 2

Measurement is a key area where B2B marketers are struggling. Only 21% say they are successful attracting ROI, referred to as Return on Investment. However, having a documented strategy helps.

35% of those with a strategy say they are successful.

What is ROI?

✓ ROI is known as Return on Investment.

✓ ROI is the money that flows back into your business after making an investment, such as spending the content marketing aspect of your marketing budget.

✓ ROI blends the art of Content Creation with the science of metrics and accountability.

✓ ROI can show your CEO, CMO and CFO the real results of Content Marketing in terms of cost, revenue and margins.

Why is ROI Important?

✓ You need ROI to know what is working and what is not working, in every aspect of your Content Marketing plan.

✓ ROI allows you to create a process and analytical framework for the Content Marketing budget, tying it directly into your company’s bottom line.

✓ Allows you to create new marketing budgets because you will understand what is required to meet your marketing goals.

✓ ROI allows you to tell a story. It is the tool required to explain trends, justify strategy, and submit reports in a logical manner.

✓ The entire process allows you to make fact based decisions.

✓ Showing your team a solid ROI report will garner further support for your initiatives.

✓ KPIs are known as Key Performance Indicators.

✓ Select the right KPIs and you will know what is required for business growth.

✓ If you are not selective in choosing your KPIs you will get buried in the weeds and find yourself in an unmanageable data dump situation.

✓ Content marketing KPIs are a direct reflection of your company’s ability to manage the Buyer’s Journey and the sales pipeline.

Choosing Your KPIs

✓ How effective is the content at exposing your brand?

✓ How effective is the content in creating interest, engagement and interaction with your brand?

✓ How effective is the content at driving actual revenue?

✓ Ultimately, we want the KPIs to measure Reach, Engagement and Conversions.

✓ Metrics answer the question, “What should we measure?”

✓ KPIs answer the question, “Is our content building our business?”

Metrics and KPIs for ReachCK

Metrics

ImpressionsTrafficSubscriber and Audience SizeSharingAudience PenetrationConversations GeneratedInbound Links

Is our contact being amplified and seen?How large is the audience?Is the audience growing within our defined buyer persona targets?What are the sharing results?What types of content is getting shared well with our community? What types of content is not resonating with our community?

Metrics and KPIs for EngagementCK

Metrics

Average page timePage viewsReturn visitsSocial sharing and interactionInteractions and flow

Click through rates on calls to actionCost per lead and cost per acquisitionAverage sales cycle durationWhere and how are people engaging with us?Average revenue per userCustomer retentionRevenues per channel and category

Metrics and KPIs for ConversionsCK

Metrics

Sales volumeLead volumeFollower or fan volumesBehavioral conversions

Conversion rate to saleChannel conversion rateOnline originated sales and revenueAverage order sizeCost per sale

Organizational Goals for Planning A Content Marketing Plan

Setting up Content Marketing Goals

✓ Establishing brand awareness

✓ Setting up lead generation

✓ Boosting community engagement

✓ Lead nurturing through the Buyer’s Journey

✓ Customer retention

✓ Develop customer evangelism

✓ Develop upsell and cross-sell opportunity

Three Pillars of Content Marketing Measurement

This should be measured to see if you are attracting your target audience.

This should be measured to see if the content you are publishing, is actually grabbing and keeping the visitor’s attention.

Engagement

Every content campaign should have conversion goals. Identifying the conversion goals allows you to measure results.

Conversion

Reverse Engineering A Content Plan and ROI

Defining the Buyer’s Journey

Generate traffic for visitors during the research & information gathering stage.

Content types consist of Analyst Reports, Research Reports, eGuides, eBooks and Educational Content.

Awareness

Generate content specific to the evaluation stage, where the lead is continuing to understand all approaches and methods to solving a defined problem.

Content types consist of Comparison White Papers, Expert Guides, Live Interaction and Webcasts.

Evaluation

Generate content specific to the decision stage, where the lead is finalizing a decision by reviewing supporting documentation, benchmarks, data or endorsements.

Content types consist of Vendor Comparisons, Product Comparisons, Case Studies, Product Literature and Free Trials.

Decision

The Goal is to retain customers, extend life time value, upsell, cross-sell and create company advocates.

Content types consist of access to product resource centers, video and written tutorials, ideas on how to use the product in new ways, referral programs and workshops.

Retain

Framework for ROI

The framework for establishing and measuring ROI, user behavior and sales should evaluate transitions between each step, not just the final step of customer acquisition.

Regular metrics reports establishes transparency for all stakeholders in your organization.

Create a Content Performance Report Card to identify and measure top performing content. This means you will metric (measure) the cost per lead, acquired from your content through a web form.

Create a Channel Level Report to provide an aggregate view of the business impact, resulting from your marketing activities. This allows you to fine tune the correct marketing mix.

Forecasting ROI to Build A Budget

If you are new to creating a Content Marketing budget, you are probably overwhelmed with sample budgets and spreadsheets in an effort to answer just one question; “How much money do you need to budget?”

Start by creating a forecast of what ROI you expect to achieve. Now you can work backwards to create the budget.

Some standard costs to account for include:

X – Original contentY – Syndicated contentZ – Staff editors

Now you can solve for X, Y and Z

Across your marketing campaigns, say the average conversion rate is 4% and the LTV (Loan to Value Ratio) of the customer is $1,000.

For every 100,000 website visitors, your business generates 4,000 new customers.

At an LTV of $1,000, this traffic stream is valued at $400,000.

If you spend an additional $100,000 on content production, content licensing, traffic acquisition and team members, your operating margin is 75%.

Your cost per customer is $25.00 and your cost per unique visitor is $1.00.

Remember, a number of variables will impact conversions and sales.

To accurately capture ROI from your content marketing program, you will need to customize your analytics tools with the right attribution models.

As defined by Google Analytics, “an attribution model is the rule or set of rulesthat determines how credit for sales and conversions is assigned to touchpoints in conversion paths.”

Two examples of an Attribution Model Include:

•Last Interaction Attribution, which assigns 100% credit to the final touchpoints (i.e., clicks) that immediately precede sales or conversions.

•First Interaction Attribution, which assigns 100% credit to touchpoints that initiate conversion paths.

Sample Content Performance Report

White Paper Webinar eBook Total

Number of Campaigns – 5

Marketing Spend - $4,137

Leads Generated – 279

Cost Per Lead - $14.83

1 2 3 4

Data Reporting

Avoid the Data Dump!

Standardize Reports

Automate the Data

Streamline the Presentation

Define All Terminology

Establish Reporting Consistency

Staff Different Segments Appropriately

Make All Reporting Actionable and Growth Oriented

Getting the Right ToolsWith so many tools out there, how do you choose the right one and avoid the “shiny new toy” syndrome?

At a minimum, you need the following:

1. Content Drill Downs

2. Traffic Source Analysis

3. Conversion Analysis

4. Conversion Reports

5. Social Sharing & Engagement

Reality Check

You might be a huge fan of your content, but does your audience love it?

Always be asking the following:

✓Do you underachieve, overachieve or just simply achieve your marketing goals? _ This should be answered with data driven information and KPIs.

_ Marketing leader and author, Andreas Ramos highlights these steps:✓State the campaign costs.✓State the revenue produced as a direct result from the campaign.✓Describe the tracking process.✓State the number of leads and sales with a conversion rate.✓State the maximum profitable cost per lead (maxCPL) or cost per action. ✓Use statistically relevant numbers.✓Describe the control group that you use to draw conclusions about your campaigns.

Key Takeaways

One size does not fit all when designing your Content Marketing and ROI goals. Every program should be custom tailored to fit your company goals.

AttributionFocus on attribution so you can directly connect your sales and revenue to specific content marketing programs.

Reality CheckAlways ask why and challenge assumptions. Ensure your decisions are data driven.

Pinpoint Your MetricsGet granular on the metrics that are applicable, so your team can consistently find ways to drive down customer acquisition, costs and boost customer lifetime value.

Customize Your Plan

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E-mail: info@fluiditypartners.com

www.fluiditypartners.com

Offices in Los Angeles & Orange County, CA ____and Las Vegas, NV.

Fluidity Partners is a management consulting agency, specializing in business strategy, marketing excellence and technology solutions.

We address and resolve the most complex and challenging issues that face our clientele.

We strategically analyze issues and vigilantly resolve existing problems, with high touch analysis, solution design and implementation.

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