The percentage discount from the mobile phone. Content marketing ROI

Measuring ROI for Content Marketing

Posted on August 20, 2018 by Hitchner

You’ve heard a lot about the importance of content marketing. You know that it’s critical to the success of your marketing plan and that it can help move your customers through the sales funnel, often with little to no active support from your sales team. You may even know that today’s customers develop relationships with the brands they support based on high-level content marketing.

Many CMOs and CEOs, however, get stuck on one key point: how are they supposed to measure the success of their content marketing efforts? 52% of B2B marketers find measuring content marketing ROI to be one of the most difficult facets of their job. Measuring ROI is a complicated process, but with a few simple steps, you can improve your understanding of what your content marketing efforts are accomplishing for your business, putting you in a better position to focus on the strategies that will create the highest return on your investment.

How Far Does Your Reach Expand?

Don’t let the naysayers fool you. Keywords are just as important as they ever were.

–Ramona Sukhraj

While the face of content search is changing quickly, keywords–including long-tail keywords–remain highly important to your industry. Not only are those the words and phrases your customers will use to find you, they’re the key pieces of content that will determine how many customers you’re able to reach. Those same search terms can also help you better understand exactly how much of the market you’re able to reach. Examine the important keywords in your industry. How many of those keywords do you have a high search rank for? As your content marketing improves, you’ll also improve your ability to rank for those important keywords.

Tracking the Value in Sales

Content revenue – content cost = content ROI.

–Jayson DeMers

When you create a new content marketing strategy or plan, one of the fastest ways to determine your ROI is to take a look at the sales that it generates. Obviously, this isn’t a great strategy for a company that specializes in a wide range of small items, which can quickly generate more headaches than practical numbers when you’re looking at the return on your investment! On the other hand, if your company sells high-ticket items, it’s fairly easy to take a look at how your latest campaign is contributing to your sales. The simple equation offered by DeMers above–content revenue minus content cost–will give you a quick look at the overall return on your investment. How many sales were you able to bring in due to your latest campaign? What were they worth? Once you subtract the cost of that content, you’ll have a solid look at what return was generated on that investment.

Social Media

Social media deserves its own category. It is practically another world, after all.

–Emily Culclasure

Your social media marketing efforts are a critical part of your content marketing success–but how are you supposed to determine whether or not they’re actually accomplishing your overall goals? Are your posts, contests, and interactions with your customers really accomplishing anything, or are they simply another time-consuming task for your marketing team? If you want to check your social media marketing success, make sure you’re measuring these key elements.

Your follower growth: How many followers did you have in the early days of your social media account? Check those followers again, especially after a big social media campaign. Are your numbers increasing? Fast growth can be a sign of a highly successful campaign. On the other hand, if your follower numbers are dropping, chances are, you’re no longer providing the types of content that your customers want to see. Make sure you’re getting followers who are genuinely interested in your business: you might, for example, see a strong jump in followers as you’re conducting a contest that requires liking your business in order to participate, but many of those followers will jump ship once the contest is over. Keep in mind that followers who don’t like, share, or comment on your content won’t view the content you’re posting for long–and false likes, or likes that come from overseas accounts, can ultimately harm your social credibility.

Post-interaction: When you create a new post, how much do your followers interact with it? Are they diving in, commenting, liking, and sharing your content? If your social media followers are content to leave your posts alone, you likely aren’t creating the types of content they want to see. On the other hand, if you’re seeing lots of shares, you’re expanding your reach substantially: every share puts your content in front of users that you might not be able to reach on your own.

The Worth of Organic Traffic

Content marketing is a lot like working out. You’re not going to see a payoff in a week, but if you commit to doing it regularly over time, you’ll see amazing results.

–Scott Severson

There are plenty of ways to measure the site traffic you receive from, for example, a single new blog or video post. If you’re looking to simply better understand the return on your overall investment, however, Scott Severson posits a method that will allow you to more easily put an actual number to what your content has earned: measure your organic traffic over what you would have paid for the same traffic via a paid ad. Severson’s method involves several key steps:

Check the organic traffic for your post and determine how many visits it’s brought to your site over a specific time frame
Run a Google AdWords Keyword Planner estimate to determine the approximate cost of a PPC campaign over that same time frame
Multiply your organic visits by the amount of that estimate.

While this isn’t a perfect view of what your content is worth, it’s a solid number to start with. Severson is careful to note that the value of your content isn’t just about site traffic. It’s also about increased time on your website, better lead nurturing, and more. However, if you want a quick number that you can throw out for how much your content is worth, this is one great strategy for finding it.

Checking AdWords ROI

One problem many marketers face is the chicken-or-the-egg dilemma of content marketing: You know you need a strong content marketing strategy, but you can’t get the budget to support the strategy until you’ve proven it works — the ROI.

–Ben Beck

Google AdWords is a solid way to increase the reach of your campaign. It will help raise your search engine presence and ensure that you’re on that important first page of Google’s results, even if it’s just for the customers that your campaign is able to reach. It’s also one of the strategies that’s hardest to get many companies to fund since it’s difficult to offer a projection for what that ad will accomplish. Often, it’s necessary to take a leap of faith in order to get a better look at what Google Adwords will be able to accomplish for you. Once you’ve run that first campaign, calculate:

The cost of the campaign. This is an easy, up-front number.

The traffic generated by the campaign. How many clicks did the campaign bring to your website?

The worth of those clicks. How many of those clicks went on to become customers? What was the worth of their purchases? While this won’t tell you the lifetime value of your new customers, it will give you a good look at the immediate results of your campaign.

The worth of your clicks and the traffic generated by your campaign, minus the cost of the campaign, will give you the immediate return on your investment for the AdWords campaign as a whole. In many cases, that amount can be substantially higher than you thought it would be, making AdWords a highly worthwhile investment–especially for businesses that are struggling to raise their search engine rankings and increase their organic reach.

Measuring the return on your investment for content marketing is a complicated process–and in many cases, it’s impossible to fully understand the worth of those campaigns. You might not, for example, be able to see the long-term value of customers who have been brought into your company through your content marketing efforts or to estimate the full value of things like the time your sales team will save in customer interactions by making that information readily available to your customers instead. You can, however, use these equations to better understand the worth of your content marketing efforts, making it easier to assign the budget that those efforts truly deserve.

Need more help with your marketing efforts? Ready to take your social media or content strategy to the next level? Contact me today to learn more about how I can help generate higher returns on your content marketing investments.

Kenneth Hitchner is a communications strategist who protects and promotes brands. He is currently the director of public relations and social media at Creative Marketing Alliance and CMA Association Management. In prior assignments, he served as the spokesman for NJ Transit, the deputy press secretary for a Governor of New Jersey and the chief content officer for a nonprofit the put downsized, college-educated professionals back into the workplace during the Great Recession of 2008.

Businessman and businesswoman discuss their PR campaign and marketing strategy.

7 Ways to Bolster Your PR Results

Posted on May 21, 2018 by Hitchner

A successful PR campaign does not evolve on its own.

You need to develop a proactive mindset and a strategic plan that will help you earn the media coverage that will propel your organization to the next level of success. By focusing on developing relationships with customers, influencers, and suppliers, you can establish a solid foundation for a productive PR campaign. Below are seven ways to bolster your PR results.

1) Become a regular exhibitor at industry trade shows

Trade shows provide excellent forums for networking and showcasing your new products. If you are new to the trade show arena, make sure that you use discretion and maximize your resources. Here are a few tips to help you generate PR from your trade show participation:

Select your trade shows carefully. Avoid shows in their infancy in favor of established shows with a large number of attendees. Also, consider the location where the show will be held. Larger cities with easy airport access are typically better venues for trade shows.
Choose your booth location wisely. Booth location is often the key to a successful trade show. Corner booths and locations near the front expo entrance are good choices while locations at the back of the expo hall are less ideal. Exhibitors who register early typically have better access to the most desirable booth locations.
Invest in an eye-catching booth display. Creating a captivating, inviting ambiance will help drive traffic to your booth. And an inviting booth begins with an eye-catching display. Make sure that your display is clearly visible from afar and make sure that your booth is neat and free of clutter.
Explore speaking or sponsorship opportunities. Most trade shows offer exhibitors the opportunity to advertise in the exhibitor manual, sponsor a trade show event, or serve as a speaker on an exhibition topic. While exhibitors can usually expect to pay for these opportunities, they are a great means of fostering PR results.

2) Enlist the support of influencers

“…Collaborations with social media stars and celebrities can help to build your credibility among consumers, but that’s not the only benefit. Influencer marketing also gives you the ability to enhance your public relations efforts by filling engagement and trust building “holes” that traditional media can’t always deliver.”

– Rebekah Iliff, Chief strategy officer, AirPR

Influencers are outstanding brand ambassadors. Consumers are more apt to trust people than businesses, highlighting the key role that influencers now play in advertising and PR. As contrived marketing messages increasingly fail to engage audiences, social media influencers will continue to grow in popularity.

3) Focus on building key relationships

Relationships often serve as the building blocks of fruitful PR campaigns. Maintaining relationships with the individuals who helped your company succeed as well as those who can take your company to the next level of success is essential. In general, you should focus on establishing and maintaining relationships with four categories of people:

Customers: Happy customers are outstanding brand ambassadors, especially those who are active on social media. You can build strong relationships with customers by delivering products and services on time and by offering an unparalleled level of responsiveness.
Suppliers and vendors: Paying your vendors on time and treating them in a pleasant, respectful manner are two ways to earn rave reviews from suppliers and vendors. Also, make sure that your purchase orders are clear and organized, and try to provide an accurate forecast of upcoming needs.
Employees: Satisfied employees are more likely to provide favorable online reviews of your company as an employer. You can keep your employees engaged and satisfied by establishing a positive work culture and recognizing them for their accomplishments.
Business partners: Strive to work well with your business partners to ensure that you do not become one of the 70 percent of business partnerships that fail. You can improve your relationship with your business partners by communicating openly and honestly.

4) Zero in on millennials

“Millennials have incredible passion and a strong desire to make the world a better place…They want to create meaningful experiences with brand managers. Companies such as Toms, Starbucks and Chipotle have managed to attract and retain their attention. Those brand managers aren’t just speaking to people; they’re speaking with them.”

– Deirdre Breakenridge, CEO of Pure Performance Communications

With millennials possessing $44 billion in annual spending power, connecting with millennials is essential to bolstering your PR results. In contrast to baby boomers and Generation X, millennials are more experience-driven consumers. Reaching millennials, therefore, requires a different approach that involves the following elements:

Increase your focus on creativity when branding your products and campaigns
Offer free events, activities, and trials to enable millennials to experience your products
Make sure that your website and social media sites are responsive and easy to navigate
Encourage millennials in your workforce to weigh in on your marketing campaigns

5) Engage with your audience

Engaging with your audience gives people a reason to return to your website, blog and social media pages. You build customer retention while elevating your PR results. Here are a few specific ways to engage with your audience:

Respond to blog post comments from your audience: Responding to audience comments regarding your blog posts enhances the quality of your blog and also helps you build your brand’s presence. Most importantly, it shows your audience that you value their feedback and are interested in engaging with them.
Use social media to showcase your customers and their accomplishments: Recognizing your customers’ recent awards and achievements will delight your clients and help you create a positive company culture. Additionally, you solidify your relationship with key clients while also showing prospective customers that you are a trusted resource for the products and services you provide.
Share content that will be useful to your audience: There is little doubt that sharing content is an effective PR strategy to employ. However, with millions of videos and blog posts published every month, you need to employ content intelligence to ensure that you systematically sort through the clutter and choose the most compelling content.
Introduce digital storytelling: If you are not already using digital storytelling to augment your PR strategy, then it is time to start. Storytelling’s use of narrative and local flavor to engage with customers makes it a powerful PR tool. The keys to success when introducing storytelling are to start small and make sure you link your storytelling to your company’s goals and missions.

6) Become a master of responsiveness

“Among respondents to The Social Habit who have ever attempted to contact a brand, product, or company through social media for customer support, 32% expect a response within 30 minutes.”

– Reinaldo S. Prado, LinkedIn

Studies show that more than 75 percent of people who submit an online inquiry expect an email response or a social media reply in less than six hours. With a growing number of consumers opting to engage with companies through social media or live chat, it is essential for you to take measures to increase your level of responsiveness. Here are a few specific ways to become more responsive:

Always respond to social media inquiries, even if you must use a pre-generated response.
If you advertise your live chat, make sure you have staff available at all hours to respond to inquiries.
Strive to respond to social media inquiries and online quote requests within an hour.
Make sure you have an official response prepared in case a customer posts a major concern.
Consider hiring an intern to monitor your social media and chat inquiries to ensure timely responses.

7) Make it easy for your audience to contribute feedback

“…You might want to create one hashtag for a dedicated campaign where consumers can share images of themselves with your product, and then create another hashtag that’s evergreen, where buyers can share their reviews and experiences with your product or service.”

– Jose Angelo Gallegos, Social Media Today

Providing convenient ways for audience members to provide feedback reiterates your dedication to listening to their needs. Additionally, customer feedback can be instrumental in helping you improve your business. The key to obtaining customer feedback is to make it easy and convenient for people to convey their comments. Some fast and convenient ways to encourage customers to provide feedback include the following:

Feature brief popup surveys on your website.
Distribute short comment cards and text surveys at promotional. events.
Enable customers to comment on your blog posts.
Simply ask customers for their feedback during trade shows and professional meetings.

What is the single best step you can take to bolster your PR results?

As outlined above, there are many measures you can take to enhance your PR status. However, the single best step you can take to maximize your PR results is to enlist the support of an accomplished marketing expert. A professional marketing specialist can help you develop a strategic campaign that will drive audience engagement, strengthen key relationships, and win over millennials. Most importantly, you will expand your market presence and build brand loyalty.