You know how important content marketing is to your business. Your audience is online, and you’ve got to reach out to them. You’re writing optimized posts, creating video content and doing everything you can to entice your customers.
However, this is only half of the job. To ensure you’re doing the right thing and actually reaching your target customer, you need to measure your content marketing ROI. Here’s how.
Why is your ROI important?
You’ve got to measure the ROI (or Return On Investment) of your content marketing strategy. You’re likely dedicating some of your startup’s budget into that marketing, so you need to ensure that you’re getting your money’s worth.
After all, what’s the point in paying for and implementing a content marketing strategy that isn’t reaching anyone? In its simplest terms, you need to see that the ROI of your marketing is higher than the amount of money you put into it. If this isn’t the case, then it’s time to try another strategy.
Related: Is DIY Content Marketing a Good Strategy for Your Startup?
How to calculate your ROI
Now you know why it’s so important to measure your ROI. But how do you actually do it? There are several metrics you can use to help you measure your ROI accurately:
- The cost of content: How much did it cost to create the content itself? This includes writing content, shooting video, taking photos and so on
- The cost of distribution: This is the cost of distributing the material that you created. This could include the price of Facebook ads, creating flyers, paying influencers, etc.
- The amount of revenue: This is how much the campaign generated for you. You may not always know if a sale was made as a direct result of your campaign, though. That’s why a lot of companies use UTM codes and other methods to track where sales come in from
You’ll need to decide which metrics you will use to measure your ROI. These will be different for every campaign (and every startup!), and will depend on the original goals you had.
Here are a few examples that you may use for your campaign:
- Visibility: Did your campaign make you more visible to your audience? Did you climb higher in search engine rankings, or get more social media shares? The more visible you become, the more successful your campaign was
- Sales leads: You may not make hundreds of sales initially off of your campaign, but you will generate leads. These are customers who are strongly interested in your product, and can be converted into buying customers down the line. You can measure how many leads you’ve generated by looking at numbers of clicks to your website, or newsletter signups
- Engagement: How many people are getting involved with your brand? This is where social media comes into play. Take a look at your likes, shares and subscriptions
- Sales: This is the most obvious metric you can use. How many sales have you generated off the back off your marketing campaign? It may be easier to track these purchases if you create a special offer for customers who are buying specifically through the sale you’re running
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Conclusion
To get the best ROI on your startup’s marketing campaign, you want to lower the amount you spend on it initially, without sacrificing the quality of your output.
It’s vital that you measure the ROI on your marketing campaign, so you can see whether the money you’re putting in is having an impact on your startup’s sales. Follow the steps in this guide to monitor your ROI, and keep tabs on the success of your campaigns.
