If you’re ready to take your ecommerce store or online presence to new levels, content marketing is a good place to look. Despite the time commitment, content marketing may prove more valuable than other expensive advertising and marketing. Kraft discovered its content marketing efforts drove 4x better ROI than traditional advertising. But before you dive into your own content marketing strategy, you need to know if it’s worth it.
Start by figuring out how to actually calculate your content marketing ROI. Here’s how SEMRush breaks it down for you:
Now that you know the formula behind content marketing ROI, the next question is how do you measure it? Start by determining what your Key Point Indicators (KPIs) are for your business. KPIs are unique to different companies, depending on what their goals are. Once you decide whether your KPIs are website traffic, sales, leads, newsletter sign-ups, or all of the above, you can structure your content marketing around those goals.
Content marketing is flexible and can be customized to meet the needs of your business. Your strategy can include blog posts, white papers, social media posts, YouTube videos, podcasts, and much more. As you develop and deploy your content, here are ways to measure your content marketing ROI.
Analyze Lead Quality
Business owners know that not all leads are created equally. Study your Google, Shopify, or ecommerce analytics to determine the type of leads your content is attracting. If a case study on your cleaning company only brings in residential leads when you want to target commercial properties, you need to change your focus and strategy. Make it clear what audience you’re targeting and speak directly to your key demographic.
Watch Your Sales
Not all businesses are designed around lead generation. Ecommerce stores are more focused on the immediate sales resulting from clicking through a gift guide or product tutorial. Figuring out what types of content convert the best gives more insight into what’s working and what’s not.
Although you may spend more time, in the beginning, figuring out what type of content to create that converts, you’ll save resources in the long run. Once you’ve determined your content marketing ROI related to sales, you can scale what’s working and retire what’s not.
Measure Engagement
Measuring content marketing ROI in social media can prove more challenging but reveals valuable insights into your strategy. One place to start is by measuring the engagement on all of your posts. Whether people are commenting or sharing what you’re posting, that measurement is valuable to your content marketing strategy. Tools like HootSuite, Planoly, and Buffer all offer engagement insights and help refine your efforts.
Focus on SEO Results
One of the most powerful impacts of content marketing done right is SEO. A focused approach to keyword optimization and backend nurturing helps your Google ranking and the ability to get seen online. Your Google analytics tool and resources like SEMRush or Keysearch help track which keywords are ranking and what to focus on. Of course, analyzing the growth of your website traffic, which search terms are most effective, and which pieces of content are the most popular all tie into your SEO results and how to measure your content marketing ROI.
Consider Your Bounce Rate
Your website’s bounce race gives deep insights into where your audience is landing on your website and how long they’re staying there. Understanding what performs best is an easy way to scale the most impactful content possible. Keep in mind Google also prioritizes websites with low bounce rates, as it shows your audience finds your content valuable. If you have high website traffic and a high bounce rate, it’s an indicator to Google that you’re not providing value or meeting your audience’s expectations.
Next Steps
Are you ready to tackle your content marketing ROI and watch your business grow? Talk to the team at Digital Nomad Designs about improving your content, SEO, UX, and UI to attract and retain a more targeted audience. Book a free call here to discuss your project.
