You have your content marketing strategy set. Your content creators have crafted the appropriate content to fit your strategic goals and channels. The team has deployed all the necessary tactics. And now, you want to see the results of all these efforts.
So, how do you know if these content marketing efforts are actually paying off and which metrics to measure?
As part of your strategic content marketing plan, it’s important to determine which goals you want to measure: Is it to increase brand awareness, engage your audience, generate leads, boost sales or all the above? Once you determine which metrics are most important to your business, you can establish your metrics.
Goal 1: Brand Awareness = Monitoring website and app traffic is one of the easiest ways to measure the effectiveness of your content marketing.
Traffic: This measures the number of visitors to your website and app—without using unpaid search. Tracking overall visitors will tell you if your brand content is getting the attention of your target audience.
Views: This measures how often your web pages or app screens are visited, which can help you determine which content pages your audience is attracted to.
Keyword Rankings: This helps you determine how well your search engine results are, which can also determine the effectiveness of your brand’s SEO strategy.
Impressions: When you track the number of times your brand content was visible to a user, these impressions help determine how much exposure your brand is getting.
Tools like Google Analytics can provide valuable insights into your website's visitors, page views, and traffic sources. By analyzing this data, you can identify which content pieces are attracting the most visitors and adjust your strategy accordingly.
Goal 2:Audience engagement = How your audience interacts with your content can help you determine the interest and relevance your content holds for your audience.
Follower/Subscriber Growth: You can measure the impact of your content just by evaluating the increase in your social media followers or subscribers over time.
Engagement Metrics: Likes, shares, comments, reposts, etc., are all forms of engagement. Track them all to determine how your content works to appeal to them.
Time on Website/Page: When your users spend time on your website, it’s an indicator they like what they’re reading. Track the amount of time spent on each page, as well as an average for the overall site. Tracking this time will help you determine which content is more engaging for your audience.
Bounce Rate: When visitors to your content on your site or app leave right away, you have a quick assessment of how engaging the content is.
Higher engagement rates suggest that your content resonates with your target audience and drives meaningful interactions; however, a lower engagement rate, unfortunately, may mean going back to the drawing board for your content creators.
Goal 3: Lead generation = By tracking the number of leads generated through your content, you can assess its impact on your signups/sales.
Traffic Sources: How do visitors come to your website? Is it organic search, paid search, referrals, backlinks? Track these sources to determine where your leads are coming from, and then you can evaluate the best content.
Content Leads: Track the number of new customers coming in from all of your content, separate them by each content, and then you'll have the effectiveness of each lead generation effort.
Click-through Rate: This measures the number of users/visitors who click on a link—whether on a website, social media app, email, newsletter, etc.—in relation to the total number of users who view that content. It helps measure how engaged your audience is.
Email Open Rate: You send the email to X number of addresses from your list, and the number that opens your email is a percentage of that total list. This measures not only whether your subject line is appealing but also the total engagement of your email content.
This data enables you to evaluate the effectiveness of your content in converting visitors into potential customers.
Goal 4: Action ,i.e., Sign up or sales =Tracking these key metrics can tell you how successful your content marketing is in driving the desired action you want.
Conversion Rates: This measurement calculates the number of users/visitors who complete the action you want them to: make a purchase, sign up for membership, request a newsletter, etc. By monitoring this metric for each type of content, you’ll have a better idea as to which content is working better for you. By comparing conversion rates across different content assets, you can identify high-performing pieces and optimize underperforming ones.
Return on Investment: Are you gaining revenue for all your content marketing efforts? This measure takes into consideration how much you spent on your efforts versus how much you gained in leads, subscribers or sales. It is usually a very important metric for determining business profitability.
Assess Customer Lifetime value (CLV): Content marketing is not just about acquiring new customers; it's also about nurturing existing ones. By analyzing the customer lifetime value (CLV) of those who engage and act with your content, you can determine the long-term impact of your content marketing efforts. Higher CLV indicates that your content is effectively building customer loyalty and driving repeat business.
Once you have your content marketing strategy, goals, and metrics established, you're ready to implement your content across your various channels. Then, you can wait and watch as the metrics start to show how effective your content is.
If your company needs help determining which goals and metrics to track, let Radiant Digital help you today!
