How to measure a content marketing strategy effectiveness?

Table of Contents

 #1 Set up measurable goals

#2 Choose the right metrics for your business

#3 Have an appropriate measuring system

How to measure content marketing strategy effectiveness?

In business, if you invest, you do it because you want a return on it. This is business 101. And there are a lot of studies and ways to measure the return on investments (ROI). But when we are talking about marketing, sometimes there is a disconnection between how much you invest, and how much you receive in return. I believe this is why sometimes it is too hard for marketers to maintain or gain a budget increase in their companies. So it is important to implement a method to measure content marketing strategy effectiveness.

If we were doing business and marketing back in the 50s, in the madmen era, I agree that it was pretty complicated to determine what Viceroy campaign was more profitable. What medium was the one reaching more clients and converting them? Marketing was more creative and artistic than statistically precise. To determine the ROI of a marketing campaign it was necessary to invest in expensive market studies, and many times you will get the results long after the campaign was over. So it was nothing you could do about it anymore. 

Nowadays, the panorama it’s totally different.  We can know almost everything. Thanks to marketing technology, we can predict the performance of our campaigns and select the best medium, copy, and audiovisual piece for it. We can also see how our campaigns are performing in real-time, and make adjustments accordingly. This is Digital Marketing 101.

Content marketing is an essential part of any digital marketing strategy. It involves researching, creating, publishing, and distributing content to attract and engage your target audience. It helps your business to build trust with your customers, increase brand awareness, and drive conversions.

The big question here is, with all the technology at our fingertips, how to measure content marketing strategy performance?

There are basic metrics like website traffic, total sales, or conversion rates, but to thoroughly understand and quantify the return on marketing, we have to go deeper than that.

Here are three recommendations to measure content marketing strategy results.

• Set up measurable goals
• Choose the right metrics for your business
• Have an appropriate measuring system

#1 Set up measurable goals

In marketing, and business in general, we should start establishing goals. From that point, then we can focus on the actions we are going to implement to contribute to those goals, and also set what looks like success for your company. 

Establishing marketing goals aligned with the business can help you create a comprehensive content marketing strategy that will lead to reaching the desired results. It will also ensure that your content is relevant to your target audience and that it meets their needs. By setting clear goals, you can measure the success of your efforts and make adjustments if necessary. With the right approach, content marketing can become a powerful tool for achieving long-term business success.

There are many methods to establish your business goals, some of the most common and that we can recommend to you are:

• SMART
• OKRs

SMART Goals

This is one of the first goals methods I started using, and I think that is one of the reference methods for many business people. So I’m not going to go deep into this, because maybe you are already using it.

Basically, it goes like this:

• Specific: Make sure your goals are articulated and well-defined. For example: Grow your newsletter subscribers.
• Measurable: Goals should always be quantifiable. For example: Grow your newsletter subscribers to 10k by the end of this year.
• Achievable: Goals must be doable and compatible with your current resources. For example: If you want to grow your newsletter subscribers to 10k by the end of this year, you should have the time, money, and team, to create the content to achieve this.
• Relevant: Goals should be aligned with your business. For example: If you want to grow your newsletter subscribers to 10k by the end of this year, is because this will help you attract and nurture your clients, or you plan to monetize the newsletter.
• Time-based: Goals should have an expiration date, which will motivate you to strive toward them.

OKRs

A not-so-long time ago, there was a lot of fuss around this method. I think you wonder why, well because Google started to use it. But they were first introduced in the ’70s in Intel. 

The objectives and key results method consist establish one objective (a meaningful, specific, well-defined goal) and then determine  3-5 key results that if there are accomplished, are translated into success. 

For example:

Objective: Increase the website conversions

 Key results:

1. Grow website visitors by 5% every month.
2. Generate 2% more Marketing Qualified Leads from organic search
3. Improve conversions on Landing Pages by 10% at the end of the first semester.

#2 Choose the right metrics for your business

To measure the effectiveness of your content marketing strategy, you need to track key performance metrics that will give you insights into how well your content is performing. By tracking these metrics regularly, you can make sure that your content strategy is delivering results for your business.

Your company’s sales and marketing objectives will determine the metrics you should pay attention to. Perhaps your blog’s goal is to expand your readership, or perhaps you want to create a network of influencers and supporters who can convince potential consumers that your company is the ideal one to work with.

The mandatory metrics for almost any type of business are:

• ROI from content marketing
• Engagement rates
• Website visits from different channels
• Lead generation from different content types

ROI from content marketing

The key to measuring Return On Investment (ROI) from content marketing is to track the performance of your campaigns and analyze the data. You have to identify which content pieces are performing well and which ones need improvement. With this information in hand, you can make informed decisions about your content strategy and ensure that it’s delivering the results you want.

Simply put, content marketing ROI is a percentage indicating how much money you made compared to what you spent on content marketing. ROI = (Return – Investment Investment) x 100.

 You can work this out by multiplying the average transaction amount by the average number of people that converted due to this blog and became customers.

In Google Analytics, you can set up goals to observe how many pages are viewed in a single session, how long the visitor spent on the site, where they came from, and any other events they generate while they are there. This information can then be used to determine the blog’s expected revenue for each objective.

Engagement rates

Social media is a powerful tool for content marketing. Tracking the number of likes, comments, and shares on your posts will help you determine how successful your content is. Depending on your type of business, your audience will be more engaged in one social platform. You should be able to determine which platform it is and concentrate your attention on content creation for that specific platform. Once you have dominated your presence there, then you can start working on your positioning on other social media platforms.

Usually, at Smartregy, we use social media content to test the engagement of the audience for certain topics. Then we measure the engagement, and if it was good, then we create larger pieces of content around that topic. 

Think about the objectives you have for each of your various audiences. You’re not only attempting to attract new clients. For new clients, you might use conversions or audience engagement; for partnerships, you might use shares and comments.

Using the same ROI methodology as website traffic, you may calculate your social media ROI once you’ve been monitoring these indicators over time. Don’t forget to account for all expenses, including those for your internal charges, social media listening tools, and freelance consultants.

Website visits from different channels

Analyzing your website traffic is a great way to measure the effectiveness of your content marketing strategy. You can track the number of visitors to your website, how long they stay, and which pages they visit. But more important you can track from wich channels they are coming from. 

By tracking website visits from different channels, businesses can gain insight into which methods are working best to drive traffic to their website. This data can then be used to inform future decisions on how best to allocate resources for content marketing and other digital strategies. Lead generation from different content types

If they are coming from organic search, for example, you can boost your website by creating more appealing content or optimizing the load time and responsiveness. 

Lead generation from different content types

Content comes in many forms including blog posts, videos, podcasts, infographics, ebooks, and more. Each type of content has its own advantages when it comes to lead generation. For example, blog posts are great for SEO purposes while videos can be used to engage viewers quickly. Knowing which content type works best for your business will help you get the most out of your lead-generation efforts.

Keeping track of the number of leads or sales generated from your content marketing efforts is a great way to measure its effectiveness. By understanding the ROI of each content type and tracking the performance of each piece of content, you can optimize your lead generation efforts and maximize the return on investment from your content marketing strategy.

#3 Have an appropriate measuring system

You need to take advantage of automation and implement a system that shows your statistics in real-time, preferably in one dashboard. That way you can have the big picture, make better analysis and take better decisions.

Marketing automation monitoring is essential for businesses to ensure that their content marketing efforts are delivering the desired return on investment (ROI). With the right tools and strategies, marketers can track their campaigns in real-time and make adjustments to optimize performance.

So for many marketers is quite a challenge to organize and track all the data generated from the different content marketing campaigns. There are many tools you can use, but my preferred one is Looker Studio (formerly Google Data Studio). 

There are a lot of advantages to using Looker Studio:

• You are already using some Google tools, like Google Analytics, Tag Manager,  and Google Search Console, so is easy to connect.
• There are many connectors you can install to help sync everything that’s not from Google, like my favorite Porter.
• You can personalize the design. 
• Live dashboards with all the data you need to analyze before making business decisions!

Definitely, nowadays it is perfectly possible to measure the value of the investment in content marketing. If you are not sure if your content marketing strategy is being effective and helping to achieve your business goals, contact us, and we will be happy to assist you.