The Stones were incredible last night, I don’t know what Jagger is on, but I want some of it. If the show comes to a city near you…don’t miss it. One of our readers in Australia, Di Basche wants to improve the quality of my jokes so she sent one of her own. It is included at the end. Let me know what you think!
Companies are spending 30% to 40% of their marketing budgets on producing and distributing content. Why? Content marketing costs 62% less than other forms of marketing and generates 3 times more leads for every dollar you spend.
These statistics show that content marketing delivers results. But the question is, are you getting enough results from your content marketing campaigns? You need to track and measure the key performance indicators (KPIs) for your campaign. You can use these KPIs to measure your success and optimize your campaigns for better results.
Measuring the right KPIs can help you analyze which tactics are working and which aren’t. This enables you to make more informed decisions during your campaign and make relevant changes to improve your campaign ROI.
You need to have a clear idea of what you want to achieve from your campaign. Once you set specific content marketing goals, you can match those goals with the right metrics and KPIs.
If you want to increase brand awareness you must create highly relevant and interesting content that people will love to read and share.
Content Marketing KPI #1: Article Views
The easiest KPI to measure. Simply use tools such as Google Analytics to check the views your article receives. You can also gain insights about traffic sources, average session duration, and bounce rate for each article. Create UTM links for guest posts to see how many views your content receives through social shares and other content promotion activities.
Content Marketing KPI #2: Social Shares and Engagement
Track and measure social shares and engagement to see how well your content is performing. The more social shares you get, the larger your audience base will be. Tools like BuzzSumo rank the top-performing content on any topic based on their social shares and engagement. You can identify the type of content that drives maximum social shares in your niche and leverage it to boost your brand awareness.
Content Marketing KPI #3: Number of Followers and Subscribers
These numbers are easily quantifiable. You can easily track the number of subscribers to your blog and YouTube channel. Similarly, it is easy to track the growth in your follower count over a period of time.
Content Marketing KPI #4: Audience Engagement
Genuine audience engagement such as comments and interactions on your content can help you understand how consumers feel about your brand, spark a conversation and impact readers. Helps you analyze which type of content your target audience engages the most with.
Content Marketing KPI #5: Inbound Links
Are people linking to your content and quoting it on different websites? Getting more brand mentions and links means that the industry sees you as a credible and authoritative source. This can help you reach more people and get more organic clicks, traffic, and leads. Also, it will help enhance the overall reputation of your brand.
If your goal is to generate leads, you need to track whether or not your content generates high-quality leads for your business. The below KPIs measure the effectiveness of your content;
Content Marketing KPI #6: Click-Through Rate
This can help you understand how effective your content is when it comes to lead generation. To encourage click-through to your content, include a clear call-to-action (CTA) at the end of every post. A clear and compelling CTA can help you drive leads.
Content Marketing KPI #7: Cost Per Lead
Tracking your cost per lead for multiple types of content and multiple channels can help you analyze what performs better and prioritize channels in your marketing strategy.
If your goal is to drive more sales you should track and measure these KPIs;
Content Marketing KPI #8: Conversion Rates
Optimize your content for conversions and track and monitor how many leads convert into paying customers. Tracking conversion rates shows which content drives the maximum conversions and sales. Track conversions using custom UTM links for each piece of content you publish and share.
Content Marketing KPI #9: Length of Sales Cycle
Great content decreases the average length of your sales cycle. The length of your sales cycle shows how long it takes to convert your leads and prioritize such channels to improve your campaign ROI.
Establishing content metrics is not a one-time event. Instead, it is an ongoing process since the KPIs you need to track can change depending on your business goals.
A guy walks into a shop and says “I want a dozen bees”. The salesman counts out 13 bees. The guy says “You gave me 13”. The salesman says, “One of them is a freebee”.