Marketers know that the right content strategy can be a boon to their business, but they need to bring numbers to the table
Denver, Colorado (PRWEB) June 15, 2015
Customer Communications Group, (CCG) the full-service loyalty and marketing agency, shares four ways marketers can measure their content marketing success.
“Marketers know that the right content strategy can be a boon to their business, but they need to bring numbers to the table,” said Sandra Gudat, president & CEO of Customer Communications Group. “To decide which metrics are the right ones to measure content marketing success, the first step is to look at content marketing objectives.”
1. Content Marketing Objectives
Goals for content initiatives should align with overall marketing goals, such as increasing sales by expanding the customer/prospect base or increasing brand/product awareness. Meanwhile, building and maintaining customer relationships has never been more important, not only for sales but to turn today’s empowered customers into advocates. The clearer the established goal, the more precisely you can put metrics to work for you.
2. Metrics: Consume and Behave
The two core types of metrics are consumption and behavior, each measured by numerous yardsticks that can seem limitless. Choose the critical ones by reviewing overall content marketing objectives — and then working backwards to identify associated metrics. Some examples:
- Consumption Metrics - Tracking the number of people consuming content
- Email open and click-through rates
- How many times a piece of content was viewed or downloaded
- The number of unique and returning visitors to a piece of content
- How much time an individual spent viewing a piece of content
- What portion was read/viewed (e.g., articles and links receiving the most clicks)
- The number of friends/followers/subscribers to social sites, e-newsletters, RSS feeds, etc.
- Behavior Metrics – Content-Driven Action
- Call to action responders, e.g., clicking a link or calling a trackable phone number
- Likes and shares tied to specific social media posts
- Photographs, videos and comments contributed by fans, followers
- Comments and ratings of e-newsletter articles
- Registrations and downloads, e.g., special events sign-ups, information download
3. What about Revenue?
Identifying revenue from content can be tricky. Much content is designed to raise awareness and deliver education/information early in the sales cycle, or to maintain ongoing relationships with existing customers. But it is possible to connect your content to sales.
For instance, note what content has been consumed by specific individuals in the customer/prospect database. Or track who fills out lead forms tied to a piece of content or via browser cookies. Then, whenever someone converts, marketers can see what content had a hand in the sale.
4. Metrics Don’t Stand Alone
Metrics aren’t necessarily meaningful on their own. A brochure downloaded 50 times sounds worse if it was downloaded 75 times last month. Always measure against established benchmarks or compared to a quantifiable goal.
Find out more about measure content marketing success and many other content marketing tips and strategies that build loyalty and boost the bottom line, read CCG’s Guide to Content Marketing at http://pr.customer.com/ .
Customer Communications Group (CCG) is a full-service customer relationship marketing (CRM) agency that helps Fortune 2000 retailers and financial institutions improve their bottom lines by improving their customer relationships, loyalty and retention. Founded in 1977, CCG is a pioneer in the field of relationship marketing, offering expertise in strategic consulting, data-driven customer research, custom content, design and multi-media solutions ranging from print production to e-newsletters, social media and website development.