CONTENT MARKETING METRICS Finding Meaningful Insights in All That Data

© Sharon Moore 2014

BUSINESSES DEMAND MORE METRICS TODAY

  The trend toward more analytical, data-driven business decisions is not abating. If anything, the trend is increasing as new technologies, tough economic realities and market fragmentation drive the need for highly targeted and effective marketing strategies.

  Business executives want to know what kind of return they’re getting on specific marketing strategies. They want to know that the most cost effective strategies are being implemented, and delivering results.

  The challenge for marketers is to design meaningful and useful metrics programs.

BUT STRATEGY FIRST, THEN METRICS

Don’t let metrics be the tail that wags the dog!

Metrics really serve two basic purposes: 1.  Optimizing how marketing budgets are used. 2.  Demonstrating the value derived from

marketing expenditures.

As a marketer, you decide which metrics are the most useful to succeeding at bottom line business objectives for your company.

FOLLOW STRATEGY TO THE RIGHT METRICS

Your starting point is the business objectives of your organization. What are your primary goals?

o  Enter new markets? o  Increase market share in existing markets? o  Launch new products or businesses? o  Increase revenue and/or profit margins?

FROM BUSINESS GOALS TO MARKETING PLAN

Marketing Objectives

  Build awareness   Increase customer loyalty and

engagement   Drive brand preference

  Increase word of mouth referrals

Content Objectives

  Increase social interactions on multiple platforms

  Provide quality content and interaction on blog

  Increase email subscriptions

  Reward customers for sharing content

BEFORE CRAFTING YOUR CONTENT METRICS PLAN, ASK YOURSELF THESE QUESTIONS

Budget What is your total marketing budget and what percentage of it are you willing to allocate to measuring results?

Staff Consider the skill sets and time availability of your staff. How much time does it make sense to spend on measuring results and do you have the right people to do it?

Systems Does you company have an existing CRM system? Do you use marketing automation software? The sophistication and usability of your existing systems will make a big difference in what you can expect to achieve with metrics.

Accounting Are there systems in place that will make it easy to enter and track all of the costs associated with each marketing campaign? Will accounting staff be able to provide overhead costs to include in overall campaign costs?

Time Tracking How will your staff consistently track time invested in each campaign? Do you have an existing system for this?

Consistency Metrics are only meaningful if the same measurements are done consistently over a long period of time. Do you have the commitment of management to stay on strategy?

BEYOND ROI: A WEALTH OF USEFUL METRICS

 Stop thinking of marketing as an investment that needs to be measured and validated against other potential investments.

 Starting thinking about how you can maximize the positive impact of your marketing budget by choosing the right mix of tactics for your goals.

 Remember, metrics are a tool to help you refine strategy. Put the useful tools to work for you and ignore the rest.

7 TYPES OF CONTENT MARKETING METRICS

Traffic Engagement Consumption Social Interaction

Lead Generation Sales

Thought Leadership

Organizing the data you collect into sets that align with your sales funnel will help you focus in on the metrics that matter most.

Traffic

•  Increase in traffic •  Increase in unique visitors •  Inbound link quality •  Increase in search engine rankings •  Impact of organic SEO

Engagement

•  Bounce rate •  Average time spent on website •  Page views per visit •  Return frequency •  Social sharing •  Backlinks

Consumption

•  Downloads •  Page Views •  Video Views •  Document Views •  Blog Visits •  Blog Return Rates

Social Interaction Facebook: Likes, Comments, Shares Twitter: Followers, Replies, Retweets, Mentions, Favorites YouTube: Views, Likes/Dislikes, Comments, Favorites LinkedIn: Likes, Comments, Shares, Follows Google+: +1, Comments, Shares Instagram: Likes, Comments Pinterest: Followers, Likes, Pins Tumblr: Reblogs, Likes, Other social actions (Likes, Tweets, Shares)

METRICS BY SALES FUNNEL STAGE Traffic Engagement Consumption Social

Interaction Lead

Generation Sales

Thought Leadership

Lead Generation

Contact forms from website

Registrations to download content

Registrations for webinars

Email Subscriptions

RSS Subscriptions

User sign-ins to comment on blog posts

Entrants in contests on social media platforms

Sales

Sales Leads – Quantity Sales Leads – Quality

Direct Revenue Buyer first engaged with business through content then moved directly to ecommerce purchase.

Indirect Revenue Buyer nurtured through sales funnel with content.

Customer Retention Use CRM system to track content consumption of current customers and identify high value content.

Thought Leadership

Press mentions of content

Content references by other experts / thought leaders

Others linking to your content

Guest blogger invitations

METRICS BY SALES FUNNEL STAGE Traffic Engagement Consumption Social

Interaction Lead

Generation Sales

Thought Leadership

MAKING SENSE OF THE DATA These 7 types of content marketing data can be collected and analyzed with web analytics programs, CRM systems, marketing automation platforms and social media platforms. In fact, the challenge isn’t not having the data you need, it’s how to sort and use all of the data you collect. The key is to focus on our primary objectives.

For instance, if your priority is to increase customer engagement, the metrics to track are: o  Average time on website per visit o  Page views per visit o  Time spent with different content types o  Rate of return visitors o  Sharing of content via email o  Social sharing of content

The data is available. Just step back from it, think through what it is you need to know and then go back and pull out the metrics that matter.

THE QUESTION OF (M)ROI

ROI (return on investment) or MROI (marketing return on investment) is one of the most sought after metrics for many marketing professionals.

The formula is quite simple:

Gross Profit – Marketing Investment / Marketing Investment.

What is not at all simple is answering the questions that allow you to run the formula.

CONSIDERATIONS IN CALCULATING ROI

  How much profit do you attribute to a particular campaign when you’re running multiple campaigns?

  How do you accurately account for all of the costs that make up a particular marketing investment?

  How do you properly account for non-revenue successes tied to marketing campaigns such as increased brand awareness, brand preference, future purchases and customer loyalty?

  How will you apply the same values to all types of marketing campaigns so your results are equivalent? For instance, how will you compare the ROI of print ads vs. social media campaigns?

  Inevitably, you will have a mix of campaigns that can be measured fairly accurately and ones that do not lend themselves to accurate measurement. How will you address this issue?

PUTTING ROI IN PERSPECTIVE

  The bottom line of ROI is that it is a financial formula designed to evaluate large one-time capital projects. It is useful for evaluating these kind of investments.

  Trying to apply ROI to marketing, either as a decision making tool or an accountability measure is a much trickier endeavor.

  The financial reality is that marketing is a business expense, and as such, appears on a company’s Profit & Loss Statement. Investments appear on the Balance Sheet.

  But …

ROI CAN BE CALCULATED FOR SOME OF YOUR CAMPAIGN TACTICS

The data needed to complete this ROI analysis must to be collected from marketing staff, Google Analytics or other web analytics programs, and your CRM system.

Note: The 2.3x ROI metric assumes acquisition of these 5 new customers can be attributed 100% to this content campaign.

Profitability

I R O

PUTTING THE PIECES TOGETHER

 Be Realistic: What % of your marketing budget should go to measuring results?

 Be Pragmatic: Use correlation of campaigns and revenue outcomes when a direct ROI calculation is not possible.

 Be Strategic: Measure what matters most.

NOW YOU’RE READY TO BRING MEANINGFUL MEASUREMENT TO YOUR CONTENT MARKETING