A Beginner Article on How to Measure your Return on Content
Julien Ross
B2B and B2C storyteller, strategist, and creative leader | Helping businesses get returns on their content strategies. Talking about B2B content strategy, digital storytelling, building effective creative teams.
Can we talk about Return on Content?
I've heard a few people call this Return on Creative over the years. But here's my thinking:
Content marketing is a growing force not only in creating brand equity and awareness online but also has a measurable impact on demand and lead generation tactics.
Who is this article for for? You could be just starting out in a content marketing career, or you could be a small company struggling to make an impact with your content. Either way, it's important to know that great content has tangible value.
The problem is that validating it is a sometimes quite non linear when compared to paid ads - "We spent this much we made this much so the lines all go up, yay.". ( I jest, I know there's more involved than that.)
And I know, there's a lot of existing metrics to track content marketing strategies, but like I said, for some that are just starting out, focus solely on single-channel content (website content writers, for example), or companies just getting their feet wet with making GREAT content, it can be tough to make heads or tails of it.
Regardless, I wrote a quick guide to measuring just how much value your content is delivering, but first:
Understanding Return on Content (let's call it RoCo)
Content is basically everywhere. It fuels and supports social media, websites, sales, paid media, and brand strategies. For the sake of keeping this a bit more concise, let's focus on organic content.
Key Metrics to Track Return on Content
To gauge the effectiveness of your content, you must delve into a range of metrics. Here's a structured approach to discern the impact of different content types:
Website Engagement Metrics
Page Views: Measure the number of times your content has been viewed.
Time on Page: Determine how long users spend consuming your content.
Bounce Rate: Track the percentage of visitors who leave after viewing one page.
Traffic Sources/referrals: How you discover where your traffic is coming from.
Conversion rate: This tells you when someone takes an action on your website
Tool Suggestion: Use Google Analytics to get comprehensive insights into these engagement metrics.
Social Media Metrics (example: Linkedin)
Reactions, Comments and Reposts: Evaluate the level of conversation your content generates.
Profile Views: The number of times someone checks out your profile
Post Impressions: This is the number of times your content appears in someone's feed.
Follower Growth: Track how your content contributes to an increase in your social media following.
Visitors: You can track visitors, page views and button clicks on your Linkedin page just like you would on your website.
Tool Suggestion: Built into Linkedin but platforms like Hootsuite or Buffer can consolidate social media metrics from multiple platforms and offer deeper analysis.
Lead Generation Metrics
Form Submissions: Evaluate the number of leads generated through contact forms in blogs, white papers, and case studies.
Email Sign-ups: Track new subscribers gained from content marketing initiatives.
Tool Suggestion: Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems like HubSpot can help track these interactions seamlessly.
SEO Metrics
Organic Traffic: Measure the number of visitors who arrive at your website via search engines.
Keyword Rankings: Track how your content helps improve your search engine rankings for specific keywords.
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Backlinks: Assess how often your content is mentioned or linked to by other credible sources.
Tool Suggestion: Use SEMrush or Ahrefs to dive deep into SEO metrics and monitor progress.
Tying it all Together
Whew, quite a bit of stuff, right?
So how do you tie this all together to equal your RoCo?
Luckily the above tools can give you a clear picture of the impact you can have with content.
For example: I'm tasked as a B2B content marketer to grow Linkedin followers, drive traffic to the site and generate leads via the site (contact or email signup).
Now this will be a rudimentary example so bear with me.
In one month I create
an Increase followers to 7,000
my content generates:
So let's say 15 leads
Let's say I charge 800$ for my services.
800 divided by 15 is a CPL (cost per lead) of about 54$
Caveat: If you want to look at it like this, you can!
But this fictitious number doesn't take into account the compounding growth of your brand and your followers.
It also doesn't account for sales cycles and your increasing brand equity with decision makers.
Practical Steps to Implement RoCo Tracking
1. Define Objectives
Clearly outline what you aim to achieve with each piece of content—whether it’s brand awareness, lead generation, customer retention, or direct sales.
2. Set Up Analytics Tools
Equip your team with robust analytics tools like Google Analytics, HubSpot, or SEMrush for a comprehensive tracking environment.
3. Integrate Systems
Ensure integration between various tools, such as your CRM and content management system (CMS), to glean a holistic view of your content performance. This means creating tags (example: Linkedin insight tags)
4. Regular Reporting
Create custom reports and dashboards to monitor progress regularly. Weekly or monthly reviews can help you adapt strategies in real time.
5. Optimize Continuously
Use the insights from your RoCo metrics to refine and optimize your content strategies. Continuous improvement is key to maximizing your return on content.
What do you think?
Is Return on Content a good yardstick to use either in your career i making content, or as a business that is trying to harness its potential and validate its worth?