What exactly does content marketing success look like for B2B?
Many teams explore this question through metrics related to lead generation, newsletter sign-ups, and top-of-funnel page views. The fact is, content marketing success is different for every organization and every step of the conversion funnel.
This variability creates challenges for marketers who often feel like they’re fitting a square peg in a round hole with their content analysis. What if lead generation isn’t relevant to the type of marketing campaign that you’re running? What if your audiences consist of busy executives who aren’t likely to sign up for newsletters? What if your prospects’ decision cycles are complex?
Assessing Content Performance: 3 Key Areas of Focus
You need to take a shorter path to measuring content ROI. Instead of chasing metrics, focus on building pillars that assess the long-term health of your program. Here are some areas where you’ll want to focus:
1. Health of Content Production
One of the most important components of a successful content program is consistency. But few organizations take the time to measure their own efforts. Think about it from a logical standpoint. Let’s say that you’ve found your content to consistently generate X number of leads a quarter. What would happen if you doubled production?
There are many variables at play, so you may not double your ROI. By measuring consistency, however, you’ll be able to better assess the connection between effort and performance. You’ll be in a position to determine your ideal content production frequency. And by measuring this metric consistently, you’ll be able to stick to your goals.
2. Bottlenecks in Workflows
Editorial processes can quickly become long, convoluted, and overrun with waste. The slower you operate, the more likely you are to encounter opportunity costs in your marketing. It’s important to make sure that your workflow processes are moving efficiently and that you’re not bogged down by common time sinks and wasted opportunities. You may be stuck in endless approval cycles or copyedits, for instance.
Remember that content marketing is about tradeoffs. While quality is important, you’ll want to ensure that you’re balancing speed appropriately.
Remember that content marketing is about tradeoffs. While quality is important, you’ll want to ensure that you’re balancing speed appropriately.
3. Coverage Gaps
Remember that content is versatile. In addition to supporting your sales enablement process, the resources you create can help drive SEO and social media traffic. You can also use content to support your paid advertising strategy. That’s why you’ll want to diversify your content efforts, ensuring that you’re covering all questions that your prospects are likely to have.
Final thoughts
Building a framework to measure content marketing success will always be challenging. Don’t worry if you feel like you’re struggling or aren’t hitting the mark your first time around. Plan to refine your ideas over time.