If you’re new to content marketing, figuring out how to determine what’s working and what isn’t can feel overwhelming, to say the least.
Our marketing efforts are shifting toward content marketing because we understand that the buyer’s journey has completely changed in the past several years. But now we’re trying to figure out how to plan our efforts and measure them effectively. Partly because any good marketer wants to see how her campaigns are performing.
And partly because we all have to answer some form of the question: “What’s the ROI?”
It’s difficult in most businesses to get buy-in for something new without being able to show the value in it. And no, volume metrics, such as “likes” and page views, don’t show the true value of your content marketing efforts. In fact, showing only these flimsy metrics does a disservice to the quality work that you’ve done.
To measure success, you need to figure out your goals first, tie metrics to them and create great content.
Sound difficult?
Luckily, Rebecca Lieb and Susan Etlinger from Altimeter Group recently released a report that includes a framework for measuring content marketing efforts. The framework outlines six ways content marketing can provide business value:
Brand Health – A measure of attitudes, conversations and behavior toward your brand
Marketing Optimization – Improving the effectiveness of marketing programs
Revenue Generation – Where and how your company generates revenue
Operational Efficiency – Where and how your company reduces expenses
Customer Experience – Improving your relationship with customers, and their experience with your brand
Innovation – Collaborating with customers to drive future products and services
Lieb and Etlinger follow the framework with supporting case studies and raw metrics that can be used to support business goals.
If you have a content marketing strategy already in place, the report can inspire you to take a step back and review what types of metrics you have in place, and which metrics you could begin to incorporate.
And if you don’t have a strategy in place and are just beginning your content marketing quest, the framework should inspire you to begin moving forward with your strategy. Figure out your goals and put some metrics behind it.
And then, go forth and measure.
This article was syndicated from Business 2 Community: Have We Finally Figured Out A Way To Measure Content Marketing?
More Sales & Marketing articles from Business 2 Community:
- The 2 Most Important Concepts For B2B Content Marketing Success
- How to Develop a Content Marketing Rhythm: A Guide For Creating Consistently Great Content
- 5 Colossal Ways Content Marketing Will Change in 2016
- Why You Should Use Education Marketing For Lead Generation
- 6 Sales and Marketing Strategy Problems You Can Start Fixing Today
