A long time back, there was no existence of content marketing.
The branding of a product or service is done with the help of Radio, Newspapers, Television, Banners, etc. These were consider as the best way of promotion and no doubt they also led us to grab the attention of customers and also help get a good success rate.
However, the internet started getting into the consumer market.The customers’ attitudes have got changed and they prefer to get everything available at the click.
Realizing customers’ footsteps, brands have turned their way from TV advertising to the content marketing over internet. Finally, internet has given a new meaning to the marketing.
Those brands refused to bring the change and have gone traditional, were extinct, or at the verge of extinction.
It’s the fact. OMG!
How important the content marketing has become?
Yes, Content Marketing is a season that will never end. Increasingly, businesses are taking it sincerely and investing a lot in content marketing.
77% of B2C marketers have uplifted their content marketing efforts in 2016.
It signifies content is king. This is adding credibility to the brands.
This all looks pretty good.
Now, when it comes to measuring the results of content marketing, things become complicated and businesses unable to figure out what to do.
According to a content marketing research institute, “33 percent of B2B marketers and 41 percent of B2C marketers quoted saying that measuring the content marketing success is a major challenge.”
Marketers need a thermometer with which they can accurately find out- what’s their marketing goal, where they have reached, how much success they have gained and what glitches are holding them back.
I bang on about this…
To measure the content marketing success, a list of key metrics or tactics are compiled that will let you know whether your content marketing strategy resonate with your audience or not. Here they are:
1) Website analytics
Google analytics has provided the ultimate way to look up everything right from your website ranking to the users’ activity. Let’s dig deeper what actually you can view:
- Pageviews: How many users have visited and viewed the page? It just counts the page views.
- Users’ behavior: Analyze which page is most visited by the users and at what portion of the page, users would have stayed for a longer session, maybe they liked it most.
- Bounce rate: The percentage of users left the website page without viewing other pages.
- Average time on page: Display for how long users have stayed on a particular page.
- Returning Users: Check the number of new users and return users coming to the website and for what session.
- Traffic source: Track what’s sending the users to the website page like- Facebook, Twitter, Google, or more.
2) Social media influence
You can view the impact of the content you are sharing across thousands of Social media channels like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr and more.
It can also be checked the number of times your content is shared in total or by distinct social media platforms.
Even, it would let you know what length or type of content would create a buzz on social media. You can measure up to which level it engages the target audience or convert the visitors into potential customers.
3) Content that goes viral
You can evaluate the content through the number of SHARES and COMMENTS it is obtaining. It encourages the discussion, which means more people are talking about your business and readers are listening to what you are saying.
Furthermore, you need to check the quality of the comments or type of discussion going on, as the comment’s quality also matters.
Social media can build up your business with good word of mouth, but negative comments can tear it down. So beware!
4) Content that really converts
Certainly, the businesses are doing content marketing to grow their business by generating maximum leads.
This is possible only when someone downloads the marketed content such as eBook, case study or White paper by providing their contact information or call for more information.
The data acquired is really valuable as it enable the businesses to connect with the customers who are interested in the services that they are providing.
Tracking which type of eBook has generated more leads would help businesses in connecting the dots between content and sales. Also, businesses can track how many visitors are coming to the page and performing any action.
5) Check conversions
You can identify the content you are marketing is adding value to your business or not. This is called conversion.
Still confused? Let’s clear up the air:
The number of potential leads, followers, subscribers or visitors you have acquired will be of no use, if you are unable to convert them into your customers or generate revenue through them.
Conversion is the best way to measure your content marketing impact. Also, the conversion rate signifies where do you stand and what changes you need to make in your content strategy.
6) Generate thought leadership
According to the content marketing report, “The second important goal of content marketing is to generate thought leadership.”
Quantifying thought leadership is quite a task.
Thought leadership? It is a brand’s authority in the market that content marketing creates. As content is the key that creates a first impression of the brand before the market.
Thought leadership showcases whether the insights shared are recognized, valued and influenced the target audience or not.
If the industry leaders mention about your content or you are REQUESTED in a corporate event to speak up, it defines your content success.
You can even check where your brand stacks up over different platforms because of the content marketing leveraging some advanced tools.
7) Email marketing success rate
91% of customers daily check their inbox for emails even when they are too busy.
It implies, there is a huge ground for email marketing.
However, the email marketing campaigns are challenging for many industries. Why open to click-through rate ratio is so fluctuating? Where actually the flaw is?
The email marketing platform- GetResponse stats for 2016 also stating the same:
Here is the answer!
Sending the right content at the right time to the right audience would certainly increase the email open and click-through rates.
So the sure shot success of an email campaign is defined by the content you are delivering to the customers. If they open and get converted, it means your content marketing was good.
8) Number of Subscriptions
You are publishing blogs, sending emails/newsletters or posting on social channels to take hold of your customers and make them regularly visit the website.
If up-to-the-mark content is able to draw the attention of the audience, then they will certainly subscribe by providing their details to get updates about new content.
This way content marketing would build the email-list and you get the chance to find a space in customers’ email inbox.
The higher number of subscriptions would define you are going the right way and your content marketing strategy is top notch.
9) Search engine ranking
Never consider SEO as a different segment, while it is an integral part of content marketing.
Yes, because SEO highlight what keywords are bringing more traffic to the piece of content that you have published and assess whether the content is helpful in link building or not.
Also, the competitive research, SEO and content optimization lets the content to get to the top position in search engine ranking.
If your content is able to find top positions on Google, it means it’s excellent.
What matters you the most?
No matter how many content marketing plans you have crafted to accelerate success, but it will be out of the question without the right content marketing strategy.
If right strategy adopted, the nine points would help you to quantify the content marketing performance.
May be you don’t find evaluating the content marketing strategy important enough.
But, when asked where do you stand as opposed to the competitors of your niche. Certainly, you won’t have answer to the question.
Furthermore, to step in with new trends would become beyond the bounds of possibility and your content will not remain greener forever. So gear up to employ these methods.
Have you ever used any advanced tactics to measure content marketing success? If yes, do share your content marketing success with us in the comments below.
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