Content marketing is a powerful way to reach your target audience, build relationships, and drive sales. But creating content for your organization can be a bit daunting, as you must understand how to create engaging content and determine what types of content to invest into. So, how do you know if your content marketing efforts are actually working? That’s where ROI comes in. ROI, or return on investment, is a measure of how much money you’re making from your content marketing campaigns. By tracking your ROI, you can see which content marketing strategies are working and which ones need to be adjusted.
Establishing Content Marketing Goals
Like any marketing strategy, before you drill down on the “how”, you must first identify the “who” and the “what”. Begin by identifying your target audience. Who are you trying to reach with your content marketing? What are their needs and wants? Once you know who your target audience is, you can start to develop content that will appeal to them. Once you have identified your “who”, set your “what”; and by that, I mean set your specific goals. What do you want to achieve with your content marketing? Do you want to increase website traffic, generate leads, or drive sales? Having specific goals will help you measure the success of your content marketing campaigns.
Once you’ve established your “what”, focus on how you know you’ve actually attained your goal. You can achieve this my utilizing metrics to help you track your progress and set benchmarks. Not all metrics are created equal. Some metrics are more important than others, depending on your goals. For example, if your goal is to increase website traffic, then you would want to track metrics like page views and organic search traffic. Once you know which metrics you’re tracking, you need to set benchmarks. Benchmarks are a way of measuring your progress over time. For example, you might set a benchmark of increasing website traffic by 10% in the next quarter. It’s important to track your results so that you can see how your content marketing campaigns are performing. This will help you make necessary adjustments to your strategy.
Calculating the ROI
In a nutshell, content marketing ROI is a percentage showing how much revenue you gained from content marketing in comparison to what you spent. There are a few different ways to calculate ROI for your content marketing campaigns: The most basic way to calculate ROI simply measures the difference between the revenue generated by content marketing and the cost of creating and distributing content, or:
ROI = (Revenue – Cost) / Cost
For example, if you spend $500 on creating content and acquire leads worth $2,000, your ROI is 300%. Certain advanced ROI calculations also take into account other factors such as the number of leads generated, the number of website visitors, and the amount of brand awareness created. It is important to note that there is no one-size-fits-all formula for calculating ROI for content marketing. The best way to calculate ROI will vary depending on your specific goals and objectives.
When calculating ROI, it is important to use a consistent measurement period. This will help you to track the progress of your content marketing efforts over time and to compare results from different periods. It’s also important to remember that it takes time to see results from content marketing. Don’t expect to see a big ROI overnight; be patient and track your results over time to see how your content marketing efforts are paying off.
Creating Content to Drive Results
Remember the goals you set earlier for your content? Good! Keep them in mind as you move forward, and remember to keep updating your strategy based on consumer response and feedback. In order to drive further results, you should now stop and ask some more crucial questions to choose the right channels for your content: Where will your target audience be most likely to see your content? Will they be on social media, reading industry blogs, or searching for information on Google? Once you know where your audience is, you can distribute your content on the right channels.
It is also vital to create high-quality content relevant to your consumers. Your content should be informative, engaging, and well-written. It should also be relevant to the interests of your target audience. If your content is not high-quality or relevant, people will not be interested in reading it. Once you have created your content, you need to promote it effectively so that people will see it. You can promote your content through social media, email marketing, or paid advertising.
Another important thing to understand is the buyer journey. Customers will often want to engage with your content before deciding or finalizing a purchase. As such, there are several “touch point” that a consumer goes through during this process. In the awareness stage, consumers are faced with a problem, for which they seek a solution. In this stage, they will try to gather as much information as possible, so ensuring that your content is “light” is key. A more information-focused content rather than sales-focused content can help gain more leads, and make consumers more familiar with you.
This is important as you move on to the consideration stage, where consumers will balance you and your competitors. Educating the buyer with in-depth content will make you stand out in contrast to your competition. These tactics will finally pay off in the decision stage, where consumers will lean most towards the one who persuaded them the best. In this stage, provide the consumers with more details and reinforce your credibility with incentives such as overviews, demonstrations, and free-trials.
Reporting Campaign Performance
Keeping a track of your content on a deeper level is very helpful for your strategy, so investing in the right tools is crucial. There are a number of tools available to help you track your campaign performance. Some popular tools include Google Analytics, HubSpot, and SEMrush. These tools can help you track website traffic, social media engagement, and other metrics. Once you’ve chosen the right tools, you need to create regular reports to track your campaign performance. These reports should include your goals, metrics, and any insights you’ve gathered. You should share these reports with your team and stakeholders so that everyone is on the same page. You should focus on keeping your reports concise and easy to understand. The use of visuals to help illustrate data can come in very handy; as they say, a picture speaks a thousand words! Once you’ve created your reports, you need to analyze your results. This will help you identify what’s working and what’s not. You can then use this information to make changes to your content marketing strategy.
Conclusion
It’s quite obvious by now that there’s no “one size fits all” for a content marketing strategy. Every strategy has a different goal, which needs a different approach, and a different metric to track it. Using an ROI metric is a helpful method in determining whether a campaign is worth it or not. While you can never entirely predict whether a campaign will work or not, approaching with an open mind and being ready to adjust your strategy to find what works the best can go a long way.
Red Bull Gives You Wiiings!
Red Bull, a well-known energy drink brand, has successfully used content marketing to engage with their target audience and drive business results. They have a consistent focus on extreme sports, adventure, and high-energy lifestyles, which aligns with their brand image. In response to the emerging content marketing boom, Red Bull created the Red Bull Media House, a content production company that produces a wide range of content, including videos, articles, and social media campaigns. They distribute this content through their own channels, such as their website and YouTube channel, as well as through partnerships with other media outlets. By investing in content marketing, Red Bull has achieved significant ROI in multiple ways:
- Brand awareness and engagement: Red Bull’s content marketing initiatives have helped them establish a strong presence in the minds of their target audience. They create captivating videos showcasing extreme sports events, stunts, and athletes, which are widely shared and generate millions of views. This content not only increases brand awareness but also engages their audience, fostering a sense of community and loyalty.
- Sponsorship opportunities: Red Bull’s content marketing efforts have attracted attention from athletes, artists, and event organizers. This has opened up lucrative sponsorship opportunities for the brand, enabling them to align their products with high-profile events and influential figures. By associating their brand with these activities, Red Bull strengthens its position in the market and expands its reach to new audiences.
- Sales and revenue: While it’s challenging to attribute direct sales to content marketing, Red Bull’s consistent content production and engagement with their audience contribute to their overall sales growth. By creating a strong brand image and building a loyal following, Red Bull has been able to expand its product line beyond energy drinks to include clothing, accessories, and even sports equipment. This diversification has boosted their revenue streams.
- Customer loyalty and advocacy: Red Bull’s content marketing strategy emphasizes storytelling and connecting with their target audience on a deeper level. By consistently delivering engaging and entertaining content, they have built a community of loyal customers who actively support and promote the brand. These loyal customers often become brand advocates, sharing their experiences and encouraging others to try Red Bull products.
As content marketers, using Red Bull’s approach to market can be inspiring to try new things and finding what works best. But remember, as always, patience is key!
Digital Strat Guru 
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