The current economic situation has led to many companies cutting down on costs, including marketing expenses. One area that companies are struggling with is measuring the impact of content on revenue. While content is an essential aspect of marketing and contributes to long-term low CAC, it is challenging to measure its impact on revenue directly. Companies often rely on vanity metrics and second-order effects to measure the impact of content, which may not be adequate for demonstrating the value of content.
A study of 254 sales calls with Seed to Series D startups revealed that 43% of content marketers did not have concrete marketingKPIs around content. Most of the answers given were vague, such as "traffic" and "brand awareness" without any goal number. While it is true that 100% attribution is not possible, companies can still tie content efforts to revenue. One way to do this is by using revenue-based KPIs.
Content Experience: The key to revenue
Successful marketing teams use content-influenced revenue as their primary content marketing metrics. They track every instance where content is part of the buyer journey. Companies can tie the Annual Contract Value (ACV) or Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) of a deal to the pieces of content that a customer touched. For instance, if a customer found a blog post via search, signed up for a newsletter, opened three emails, downloaded a report, and engaged with a marketing tweet before signing up for a demo, all those touchpoints count as content-influenced.
Companies like Klaviyo track content-assisted MRR, where a prospect visits a page and becomes an MQL or closes within 60 days of that visit, counting toward content-assisted revenue. Scribe invests heavily in SEO as an acquisition channel, publishing ~100 pages/mo. Lauren from Scribe tracks monthly traffic, signups from content, activated signups from content, and paid signups from content. Every month, she reports the percentage change from the prior month and the percentage difference between the actual value and projection.
Some companies start by measuring something easier to track, such as product signups, and then transition into tracking revenue as they mature. Lucia Tang, Head of Content at Keeper Tax, made the switch as they grew.
How to Measure the Impact of Awareness
Once companies have defined their KPIs, they need to instrument revenue-based content marketing metrics. Tracking this can be challenging, especially for companies without engineering resources to spend on instrumenting metrics around revenue and content mkt. Most companies do not have a mature revenue operations system, so they do not have an accurate picture of how much revenue they generate.
As a marketer, it may be challenging to have control over all of this. Chief Revenue Officers (CROs) can help bring data across sales, content marketing, engineering, and finance together to get an accurate picture of revenue. Still, it is essential to focus on what you can do as a marketer to track the impact of content on revenue. Companies like Scribe have invested the engineering effort in setting up custom Mixpanel dashboards for their metrics, but this may not be feasible for all companies.
In conclusion, measuring the impact of content experience on revenue is crucial for companies, especially in today's economic situation. While it is challenging to track all touchpoints, companies can use revenue-based KPIs to tie content efforts to revenue. Measuring the impact of content mkt on revenue requires instrumenting revenue-based metrics for content, which can be challenging for companies without engineering resources. However, companies can still focus on what they can do to demonstrate the value of content to their stakeholders.
Content marketing is an effective way to attract potential customers and create brand awareness. While revenue and conversions are the primary metrics for measuring the success of a content marketing campaign, tracking additional key performance indicators (KPIs) can give a more in-depth view of how your content is performing.
At the top of the funnel, the primary goal is to create brand awareness and educate potential customers about their problems and how your product or service can solve them. The top of the funnel is like shouting into a megaphone at a crowd, so it's important to track metrics that measure how many people are hearing your message.
Organic search traffic is a crucial metric to track because it indicates how many people are finding your website through search engines like Google, Bing, or ChatGPT. Such content marketing metrics are an excellent indicator of how well your content is optimized for search engines and how well it is ranking in search results.
Social media impressions are another metric to track at the top of the funnel. Impressions refer to the number of times a social media post was viewed, and this includes your company's posts on employee accounts. It's important to focus on social media platforms where your target audience is most active to ensure that your content is reaching the right people.
Building Stronger Relationships
As potential customers move down the funnel, the focus shifts from brand awareness to building relationships and engaging with them. Owned media is a way to identify and nurture potential customers who aren't yet in the market for your product or service. This involves tracking metrics that measure engagement with your content.
Active newsletter subscribers are a critical content experience metric to track because it indicates how many people are engaging with your content regularly. It's important to track who is actively opening and engaging with your emails rather than just the total list size.
Metrics that Matter: Bottom of Funnel KPIs
At the bottom of the funnel, the focus is on converting potential customers into paying customers. Demos booked and signups (free and paid) are essential metrics to track because they directly contribute to revenue.
Content-influenced revenue or conversions from content is the best KPI for B2B content marketers to track. This metric ties the efforts of the content marketing team directly to revenue and demonstrates the dollar value of the campaign to the executive team. Without tracking this metric, content marketers risk not being able to show the ROI of their campaigns.
In conclusion, while revenue and conversions are the primary metrics for measuring the success of a content marketing campaign, tracking additional KPIs can provide a more detailed view of how your content is performing. Top-of-funnel metrics like organic search traffic and social media impressions can indicate how many people are hearing your message, while owned media metrics like active newsletter subscribers measure engagement with your content. At the bottom of the funnel, tracking demos booked and signups can directly contribute to revenue, and content-influenced revenue is the best KPI to track for B2B content marketers.
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One of the key ways RELAYTO helps with content marketing is by providing a range of templates and tools to help users create high-quality content quickly and easily. These templates include interactive presentations, case studies, reports, and more, all of which can be customized to fit a brand's specific needs and messaging.
Additionally, RELAYTO offers powerful distribution tools that make it easy to share content across multiple channels and platforms, including social media, email, and more. This allows brands to reach a wider audience and increase engagement with their content.
Another way RELAYTO helps with content marketing is through its advanced analytics and tracking features. These features allow users to track the performance of their content campaigns in real time, including metrics such as views, engagement, and conversions. This data can then be used to optimize future campaigns and improve overall ROI.
Overall, RELAYTO is a valuable tool for businesses and marketers looking to improve their content marketing efforts. With its intuitive interface, customizable templates, and powerful distribution and tracking tools, RELAYTO makes it easy to create engaging, effective content that resonates with audiences and drives results.
Sources for the article: HubSpot, Content Marketing Institute, Search Engine Journal, Letterdrop. Hootsuite
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