Marketing in companies is often neglected, because for most managers this business area is only associated with costs. The lack of a visible impact of promotional activities on financial results is always an excuse to reduce the advertising budget. Especially positioning and all modern methods of increasing brand visibility on the Internet, for which there is a lack of performance measures and reliable reporting, are on the blacklist. You can learn how to create effective content marketing and measure ROI in our article!
Understanding Content Investment
With the right strategy and a well-thought-out action plan, any business can succeed online. Find out why it is worth investing in content, which is a pillar of building not only visibility, but also brand awareness and the image of a trustworthy expert.
• The role of high-quality content
When creating a website, online store or any type of service, it should be remembered that they are primarily intended to serve web users. Therefore, the key to success, which will make Internet users willing to visit your website and stay on it for longer, is to create content that will respond to their needs and expectations. The content should therefore be fully unique, created for the needs of your website and be rich in information that will be useful to your audience. Taking care of the content and properly tailored language will make users happy to stay on it, and maybe even recommend it to their relatives or friends. The second pillar of high-quality content is to match it not only to the needs of Internet users, but also to Google algorithms. Therefore, the content should be created in accordance with the guidelines of the search engine so that it can be better evaluated by indexing robots, and as a result, it will allow you to achieve a high ranking position on your website. This will provide your website with excellent visibility, and thus also brand awareness, recognition, credibility and the image of an expert.
• Identification of target groups
However, in order to enjoy excellent results in the SERPs, you first need to properly define the target audience you want your message to reach. Identifying the so-called persona is one of the methods that will help you create content perfectly suited to the needs and expectations of your target audience, who can also be seniors, middle-aged people or teenagers. However, it is not only about age, but also gender, social status, interests, needs, values, character traits and motivations. Persona is also about potential points of contact with the brand, favorite communication channels or aspects that include decision-making and the search for solutions. All this allows you to develop an image of the recipient who may be interested in your offer. As a result, you can create content that will reach a potential customer, draw their attention and interest them. Importantly, identifying target groups, which is the key to effective content marketing, will certainly also come in handy when conducting other promotional and advertising activities – so it is a real investment that will bring success to your brand.
Measuring Content Marketing ROI
The effectiveness of content marketing can be measured using a variety of performance metrics. Marketers use several metrics to assess the effectiveness of their actions. The most common ones include reach, number of leads, time spent on the site, and user engagement. It is also worth including content analytics in your content marketing investment. The results are measured using typical analytical tools such as Google Analytics, Hotjar or Smartlook. But not only! An excellent measure of the effectiveness of the activities carried out is also ROI (return on investment), i.e. an indicator that allows you to assess whether and how the funds that have been invested in content marketing bring profit to the brand.
• Key Success Indicators
In addition to measuring reach, leads, time spent on the website, bounce rate and many other factors that give a picture of the effectiveness of content marketing activities, it is also extremely important to check how the work carried out translates into actual profit. This is what the ROI indicator is used for, which allows you to measure the profitability of content marketing. For the calculations, we need two basic data: net profit and the costs that the brand incurred for the implementation of activities related to the preparation of high-quality content, its creation and distribution. ROI is therefore the net profit divided by the costs and multiplied by 100%. As a result, you will get a percentage result that will show you whether your content marketing activities are beneficial to your brand, or whether the investment is unprofitable. However, ROI can be used not only to measure strictly financial benefits, but also other parameters such as sales measurement, increase in the number of followers, generated leads and much more – virtually all activities involving content marketing can be measured using the formula: ROI = (return on investment / cost of investment) * 100%.
• The importance of conversion tracking
Regular research conducted to verify the profitability of content marketing is extremely important from a business point of view. No entrepreneur wants to overpay and prefers to spend the saved funds on activities that will actually bring excellent results to the brand. At the same time, it is worth remembering that not only pure profit in the form of financial resources proves the success of content marketing activities. Content can also provide other, intangible benefits, such as good visibility in natural search results, high awareness or a positive brand image among recipients.