Erin Valusek
ROI, or Return on Investment, isn’t just a tool for the sales team anymore. Marketing campaigns in this day and age have become more tactical, calculated, and strategic. However, even with all of the extra time and money that is put into executing a successful campaign, many marketing professionals are unsure about how to measure the success of their efforts.
Being unsure of how to properly gauge how effective your marketing strategies are can present a huge problem in your business. But with all the grey territory that surrounds it, paired with the knowledge that some content platforms are easier to measure than others, it’s understandable that marketers are left confused by the impact that they are leaving.
Luckily, there are a few tangible ways that you can measure your content marketing ROI that will leave you with a strong marketing vision.
What is Content Marketing ROI?
Before you start measuring this statistic, it’s important to understand what exactly it is, and why it is important in a marketing context. Simply put, content marketing ROI is a percentage that shows how much revenue you gained from content marketing in comparison to what you spent on the campaign.
A popular way to measure your content marketing ROI is by taking the return and subtracting the total investment. Your answer will be in the form of a percentage. Again, I’m describing this in laymen’s terms because with different platforms come different (and more convoluted) ways of measuring success.
Why are you Measuring ROI?
Measuring your ROI is a waste of time if you don’t know exactly why it’s beneficial to your company’s future. According to CMI’s 2019 report, about 64% of B2C content marketers say that their company is extremely committed to content marketing, but only 33% were reported having a documented strategy.
The answer to measuring your ROI is often a mistaken content tracking strategy. Measuring your ROI metrics isn’t for the sole purpose of displaying your results, and determining your department’s budget. In fact, when used for this intention, you’ll likely garner confusing results on what is working, areas of opportunity, and effective ways of making your strategy stronger.
A perfect example of this is blog traffic. Blog and website traffic is a great metric to look at if you’re in the beginning stages of your business and looking to gain your audience. However, the amount of people that visit your website on a daily basis doesn’t effectively equate to sales. In that instance, a more appropriate ROI measurement would be conversions made through specific blogs, or even subscriber growth from various pieces of content.
Instead of looking at the overall number of users visiting your website to measure the success of your content, you’ll want to take it a step further and dive into specifics. Unless you’re looking at how many of those visitors are being converted into customers, there’s no way to know if the information you are providing your audience is valuable enough to make a sale.
Determine your Most Successful Platforms and Campaigns
A great way to begin your content marketing ROI measurements is to start with the platforms that drive the most success, and hyper-focus on perfecting those campaigns. Obviously, this is easier said than done, and as mentioned above, some measurements are much easier to track than others.
Conversions from blog posts are typically much simpler and less time-consuming than tracking metrics from social media platforms. But it’s worth doing your research on each channel that you are actively using, and seeing what’s working. Here are some over-arching rules for successfully tracking ROI in your content platforms.
Onsite Engagement
The primary focus of content marketing ROI is onsite engagement. No matter what your long or short-term marketing goals are, you should always strive to interact with your user base. In fact, every single piece of content that you produce should be designed to engage with your key audience.
According to a report produced by CMI in 2019, 82% of marketers state that their organization is interested in creating content that builds loyalty with their customers. And in a day and age where a global pandemic forced a lot of consumers to change the way that they shop, it’s never been a better time to build a strong digital presence through engagement.
Here’s how you can determine your onsite engagement. You’ll want to measure the following components:
- The number of people visiting your website on a monthly basis.
- Where your traffic comes from – Is it emails? Blog posts? Social media posts? Organic leads? Breaking this down into individual percentages will give you a better understanding of your campaigns that are working well.
- The bounce rate of your content. If users land on your website and leave after just a few moments, it’s a strong indicator that your content isn’t valuable to them and that changes might need to be made.
Social Media Metrics
It’s no secret that social media can have a huge impact on your business’ success. Not only does it encourage engagement, but it’s a great way to directly drive traffic to your website. But with social media’s constant changes, it’s hard to determine exactly what “social media success” looks like for your business. For starters, consider the following metrics when tracking your company’s upward mobility on social media:
- Link Clicks
- Likes
- Shares
- Comments
- New followers per month
- Profile visits
- Overall impressions
After analyzing all of these KPIs, you should cross-check them to see if they have generated any sales. If your social media accounts are not leading to direct sales, it’s time to redefine your strategy.
Take Note of the Sales Made
With all of that being said, at the end of the day, the ROI of your content strategy will come down to how many sales it generates. Through a carefully crafted content strategy, you can attract the right audience to your product while also providing them with valuable content.
This can feel like an intimidating, long-term goal, so it’s important to set benchmarks for your campaigns. “Success” isn’t a catch-all phrase. Setting goals for where you’d like to see your metrics after three months, six months, one year, etc. are going to immensely help you determine whether you are improving or sustaining your losses.
The Bottom Line
At the end of the day, establishing a strong content marketing ROI strategy is imperative. But that’s not to say that it’s easy. It will require a lot of trial and error, and that is totally fine. If you are determined to drive sales for your company through content marketing, the key is to consistently analyze what is working, and where your opportunities for improvement lie. By understanding what constitutes as success, you’ll be able to eventually see a clear picture of how you can optimize your sales and create a strong, effective marketing strategy that’s beneficial to your entire business model.
