Companies invest a lot of their resources into crafting content for their brand. About a quarter of marketers’ budgets go towards content marketing, on average, according to the Content Marketing Institute.
But why?
A smart business understands that content can serve a number of purposes:
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO): The more content and pages you add to your website regularly, the better it will perform in search rankings. The main idea behind this is that the more content you have and the effort you put into growing that body of content, the more relevant you become.
- Thought Leadership: When it comes to creating new content for your website, the ultimate end goal isn’t to just churn out a set number of words and tack on an image in the hopes that someone may read it. You want people to see you as a leader and an expert on whatever service or product you provide. Your content keeps you at the top of the mind of current or prospective customers so that when the time comes to make a purchase, they’ll remember you.
- Sales: If you have a website, you are selling something. So while it’s important to put that call-to-action in wherever you can on the site (or offsite if you’re using sponsored posts and remarketing), it’s even more important to create content that supports your product or service, directly and indirectly. Your site needs to be as effective as any salesperson you have in the field.
When it comes to content marketing, it’s important to set your goals and strategy very precisely. After understanding why you are creating content, you need to set some goals.
Defining Objectives
For a business to be successful, it needs to have a system of goals and metrics to measure its marketing success. It is important to begin with generalized goals and then move on to more specific objectives.
- The business goal is the overarching company agenda that defines all other team and individual goals in the company.
- The business objectives are the company-wide achievements that help businesses obtain the main goal.
- The key performance indicators (or KPIs) are the parameters you use to gauge the effectiveness of your efforts in achieving those goals.
- The targets are the specific quantity or percentage numbers that determine whether you have failed or met your KPIs and, consequently, goals.
The most important thing to keep in mind for content marketing is your KPIs. This metric helps you understand how well your content is performing, connect with your audience, and predict how they will react to your content.
Remember that KPIs are not the same as your business goals. The statistics are numbers that help you see how well your content is doing. The objectives of your business should be based on the conversions that come from your marketing efforts.
Content marketing KPIs to track for better results
Now that you have a content manager in place, here are 7 content marketing KPIs that the most successful content managers track.
1. Number of content marketing pieces published per week
You should aim to publish at least three pieces of quality content each week, as this is an important KPI to track when you are first starting out.
Search engines want to provide their users with the best possible answers to their questions and help them meet their goals. If you produce quality content on a consistent basis, search engines will acknowledge your website as a source of valuable information and you will see a rise in your SERP ranking.
This means that if you want your website to have a good ranking and be seen as an authority, you MUST publish regularly.
The data shows that companies that produce three or more pieces of great content per week for at least one year generally see a huge increase in traffic and leads.
Some companies publish more in order to increase their results. In order to get search engines to recognize your website, you need to have three high-quality articles, videos, or other pieces of content.
In order to achieve this goal, you will need to hire an in-house content manager. It is very difficult to get enough high quality content from freelancers or agencies to keep your website going week to week. Your content manager should have no problem hitting this metric and even exceeding it.
Try thinking of it this way: one great article should take a competent writer one day to produce. If the individual is good at their job and has access to subject matter experts, three solid posts should be possible.
It is important to have a content manager on staff in order to ensure that your content is high quality and up-to-date.
2. Organic website traffic
We believe that organic traffic is a very important metric to track at IMPACT, which is different from what other sources might say. One of the benefits of increased traffic to a website is that it can be seen as an indicator of how well the company is doing in terms of educating people about its products or services. This means that if you have a high number of website visitors, you’re likely to have more inbound leads and sales. You will have more opportunities to convert leads if there are more people on your site.
Now, is all website traffic great? Of course not. Just because you have a lot of website visitors doesn’t mean they’re all interested in what you’re offering. You need to generate traffic from people who are actually interested in your products or services in order to be successful. The surefire way to get qualified traffic on your website are real buyers looking for products and services like yours.
After teaching his method to hundreds of companies and helping them get the same results, it’s clear that most businesses aren’t doing this at all, or at least not well. The reason for this is typically because most businesses are afraid to tackle these topics head-on. Marcus found that these strategies can be effective for any business, whether it is B2B or B2C.
We call them The Big 5, and they are:
- Pricing and costs: How much your solution costs (factors, considerations, what defines value, etc.).
- Problems: The negatives about, or issues with, your solution that buyers ask about.
- Versus and comparisons: How your product or solution compares to similar products or solutions.
- Reviews: Honest and unbiased opinions and observations about your product, solution, etc.
- Best in class: What the best solution available is.
This is because when people keep coming to you for answers, it means that your content is relevant and useful, and therefore search engines will be more likely to offer your content to other users. Your content is gradually establishing trust with potential customers and search engines. This usually leads to a rise in organic traffic each month.
For most companies, choosing to track organic traffic metrics such as “sessions” or “new users” is not a big deal. As long as you pick one metric, measure it consistently, and make sure you’re seeing consistent improvement month over month, you can determine whether your content strategy is working.
3. Session-to-contact rate
After publishing content, it’s good to see organic traffic coming in; however, you want to make sure it’s the right traffic, not just any traffic.
You can measure your contact conversion rate to help you understand how effective your marketing is.
The contact conversion rate is calculated by dividing the number of new contacts by the total number of website sessions. A high contact conversion rate means that people who visit your website are clicking on your calls-to-action and filling out forms to get content they find valuable. (A tool like HubSpot will manage this for you.)
Some of the high-performing content we see our clients use that drives the most conversions include:
- Buyer guides
- Ebooks
- Webinars
- Self-service or self-assessment tools
An increase in conversions indicates that your content is valuable enough that your audience is willing to share personal information, like their name, email, and company name, to get access to it. It can be tough to share personal information because we all want to protect it.
4. Sales opportunities generated from inbound (SQLs)
The content marketing program’s success will be most closely monitored by the company in terms of KPIs related to increased organic traffic and sales opportunities.
The previously mentioned The Big 5 principles can help you attract potential customers who have problems that your company can help them solve. This allows your sales team to have more and better opportunities.
Prospects who reach out to you are already educated about your products and services. Your content is providing answers and solutions to people’s questions and problems, which is resulting in incredible content.
If you build your website correctly, it will be one of your company’s best salespeople.
5. Number of new visitors
Some industries rely on returning customers. Having people come back is a sign of loyalty and the true value of the product. Many businesses forget that they need new customers to grow. It is important to always appeal to a newer and bigger audience. This is especially true after you have done a thorough analysis of your analytics to see who is the most interested. Track this number along with the others and be sure to compare it against the total number of visitors, the percentage of new visitors versus returning, etc.
6. Average Page Views per User
This metric is often used alongside the bounce rate and average time on site, but it can be very revealing on its own. Make sure to only use custom content you’ve created for your marketing purposes and filter out everything else.
You can then focus on how these pieces performed in terms of generating interest past the initial landing page that the visitors found. The average amount of content consumed can give you a lot of information. Do the infographics on your website drive more engagement than your blog posts? Did any of the topics discussed not go over well with the audience?
7. Percentage of those who clicked on the CTA
Although it isn’t always the best practice, there are times when it makes sense to insert a call-to-action at the end of your content. This is especially true when you are trying to establish yourself as an educational thought leader rather than a salesperson.
It’s important to keep track of the number of people who not only read your blog, but also clicked on your call-to-action (CTA). This will give you an indication of how much interest your content is generating. A CTA, or call to action, is an important part of any marketing campaign, as it is what drives people to take the next step and learn more about what you’re offering. By including a CTA, you can increase the chances that people will take the time to learn more about your product or service.
8. Traffic Sources
It’s important not only to measure the amount of engagement with your content, but also to identify which content is most successful so that you can focus on creating more of that kind of content. This will give you an idea of which websites are encouraging visitors to come to your content, which can give you an idea of where potential leads are coming from.
You can improve future campaigns by figuring out which leads are giving you the best traffic. Look at metrics like page views, time on site, and bounce rate to see which leads are most interested in your content.
9. Number of Actions on [Social Media Platform]
The social media platforms you share your content on will be based on the following: the type of company you are, the type of content you are sharing, and your audience.
You need to consider your audience and what content they want before you create a social media program. You should always be prepared to modify your plan based on when and where your audience is most receptive. Monitor the number of actions taken on your content.
Although likes and favorites are great, it’s more important to see an interaction such as a comment, share, or click-through on your links. To get a more accurate idea of what is happening, take it one step further and calculate the rate of engagement by dividing the number of actions against the number of posts you have to share every month to get them.
Conclusion
The average content conversion rate is slightly over 2%. It is helpful to keep track of your KPIs in order to be successful. Remember that the numbers you are looking at represent the behavior of your potential customers. You need to find a way to use those numbers to guide your future content creation.
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