A lot of time, money, and energy goes into creating content for businesses’ brands. According to the Content Marketing Institute, marketers spend, on average, 25% of their budgets on content marketing.
But why?
A smart business understands that content can serve a number of purposes:
The better your website performs in search rankings, the more content and pages you should add regularly. This means that if you want to be relevant, you need to have a lot of content and work hard to grow your body of content.
The hope, rather, is that your content will inspire people to want to learn more about your company, its mission, and maybe even buy from you. The goal of creating new content for your website is not simply to produce a certain number of words and add an image, but rather to inspire people to learn more about your company and its mission, and potentially make a purchase. You want to be seen as a leader and expert by others in the same field as you. Your content promotes your brand and keep you top-of-mind for current and prospective customers, so that when it comes time to make a purchase, they will remember you.
If you have a website, you are likely selling something. It is essential to include a call-to-action on your website or sponsored posts and remarketing, but it is even more crucial to create content that both directly and indirectly supports your product or service. Your website is just as important as any salesperson you have working for you.
Content Marketing KPIs to Track for Better Results
Here are some content marketing KPIs that the most successful content managers track:
Number of Content Marketing Pieces Published Per Week
It is most important to publish three pieces of quality content each week when you are just starting out.
Search engines are designed to find information that best answers the questions of their users and help them achieve their goals. Publishing quality content on a regular basis will help improve your website’s ranking on search engines. The more useful information your website provides, the higher it will rank in search results.
If you want your website to rank well and be seen as an authority, you need to publish at a consistent rate.
The data suggests that companies who produce at least three pieces of quality content per week for at least one year see a significant increase in traffic and leads.
Some companies publish more in order to increase their results. To get search engines to recognize your website, you need to publish three higher-quality articles, videos, or other pieces of content.
Take Ragan Roofing, for example. After publishing two articles per week, they saw a slow increase in website traffic, with around 200 to 300 page views per month. IMPACT’s client experienced a 16x increase in organic traffic after publishing 3 pieces of content per week, with page views nearing 40,000 per month.
Hiring an in-house content manager will help you achieve this goal. It is difficult to rely on freelancers or agencies to get enough quality content per week. Your content manager should be able to reach this metric easily and surpass it.
If you think that writing three articles per week is too much, then consider that a competent writer should be able to write one great article in a day. Assuming this individual is good at their job and has access to subject matter experts, they should be able to produce three high-quality posts.
It is imperative that you have a content manager on staff in order to be successful.
Number of New Visitors
Some industries rely on returning customers. If people keep coming back it shows that they are loyal as well as that the product has true value. New customers are essential for business growth. You should always try to appeal to a newer, bigger audience – especially once you have looked at your analytics to see who is most interested. Event though this number may be large, compare it to the other data to get a well-rounded perspective.
Average Page Views per User
This metric is most useful when looking at the bounce rate and average time on site together, but it can still be helpful on its own. You should only include custom content that you have created specifically for your marketing campaign.
you can focus on how these pieces performed in terms of generating interest once the visitors landed on the initial page. The average amount of content consumed can give you a lot of information. Do people spend more time on your infographics or blog posts? Were there any topics that this audience didn’t respond well to?
Organic Website Traffic
We believe that organic traffic is a very important metric to track at IMPACT, contrary to what other sources might say. One of the benefits of increased web traffic is that it can be used as a metric to gauge how well a company is doing in terms of educating people. More traffic means that more people are finding the company online, which is a good indication that the company’s marketing and educational efforts are effective. What this means is that the number of new visitors to your site is a good predictor of future sales. The more people that visit your site, the more opportunities you have to convert them into leads.
Now, is all website traffic great? Of course not. The traffic to your website is only valuable if it is the right kind of traffic. The surefire way to get qualified traffic on your website are real buyers looking for products and services like yours.
The+2008+recession+nearly+destroyed+Marcus+Sheridan’s+pool+business,+River+Pools+and+Spas. In order to keep his business from failing, he put out content on his website that addressed the questions his customers were asking. But only in an honest and transparent way.
As a result of his hard work, the company’s website traffic and sales increased dramatically, saving the company from bankruptcy. The company is still doing well today.
Marcus saw that content was driving a lot of success so he decided to take a closer look at what type of content was causing this success. He found five topics that were the most popular among potential buyers, which led to more sales opportunities.
After teaching his method to hundreds of companies and helping them achieve the same results, it’s apparent that most businesses either aren’t doing this at all or aren’t doing it well. The reason for this is most likely because businesses are afraid to tackle these topics head-on. Marcus has found that these tactics can be effective in any industry, for businesses that are either 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.
Percentage of Those Who Clicked on the CTA
A call-to-action (CTA) is not always the best way to end your content, especially if you are trying to be seen as an educational thought leader and not a salesperson. However, there are times when a CTA is appropriate.
It is important to know how many people are reading your blog and taking action on your Call to Action (CTA). This will give you an idea of how effective your content is. The CTA should encourage people to take the next step in their journey, whether that’s signing up for a newsletter, downloading a white paper, or scheduling a consultation. Your CTA should be something that encourages people to do the next step in their customer journey, whether that means signing up for a newsletter, downloading a white paper, or scheduling a consultation.
Sales Opportunities Generated From Inbound (SQLs)
The metric your company is likely to focus on most when you invest in a content marketing program is whether the content is driving more organic traffic to your site and increasing sales opportunities.
You will attract potential customers who have problems that your company can help them solve by applying the principles of The Big 5. This results in more and better opportunities for your sales team.
When your prospects contact you, they will already have researched your products and services and be educated about them. The incredible content you create helps answer questions and solve problems, resulting in more followers.
Your website can be your best salesperson if you set it up correctly.
Number of Actions on Social Media Platforms
The best social media platform(s) to share your content on will vary depending on the type of company you are, the type of content you are sharing, and your target audience.
Not every social media platform will be appropriate for every business or type of content, so it is important to think about this before starting a social media program. Even if you have started, you can always change your plan based on when and where your audience is the most responsive. Keep track of how often your content is being interacted with.
It’s better to see people interacting with your content than simply having them like it. Things like comments, shares, and clicks on your links show that people are engaging with what you’re posting. To get an even better understanding of how this works, take it one step further and calculate the engagement rate by dividing the number of interactions on your posts by the number of followers you have.
Average Length of the Sales Cycle
We teach at IMPACT that it is important to align marketing and sales to shorten the sales cycle. If your sales team and content manager are working together to create content that will help sales close deals more efficiently, it can have a huge impact on your revenue.
We refer to these teams as revenue teams, where representatives from your sales and marketing teams meet weekly to ensure both departments are working towards the same goal: increasing company revenue.
The revenue team is responsible for developing and implementing a content strategy that can be used to increase sales and close deals faster. We do this by using the process of assignment selling.
Remember the incredible example of Mr. G.? He and his wife read a lot about swimming pools and knew exactly what they wanted.
When Marcus arrived for the sales appointment, it only lasted 45 minutes instead of the typical 2.5 hours. He didn’t need to do any convincing or hard selling. The couple had their minds made up.
You should assign around 30 pages of content to prospective buyers before they meet with your sales team. This will give them a better idea of your products and services. This means that when prospects contact you, they will have more information about what you are offering and will be more likely to make a purchase.
HubSpot tracks which specific pages prospects visit so you can see what interests them. This allows your sales team to save time and close more deals more quickly. They will know which information is unnecessary and be able to quickly fill in any gaps in what your prospects need to know in order to make a purchase decision.
Ranking for Important Keywords
Your website’s ranking for top keywords in your industry is a sign that your commitment to valuable content and being the leading expert in your field is paying off. Content is being published regularly and of high quality, thanks to the content manager. As a result, people who were previously unaware of the company are now finding it. Search engines are noticing, too.
If your content is ranking well, it will improve your SEO success, making you more visible on search engine results pages. When you produce content quickly, it produces results more quickly.
