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Content marketing is one of the most challenging marketing strategies when it comes to calculating investment returns. Why? Why? Since most advertisers use content marketing for high-end objectives such as brand recognition, but not specifically for conversion.
According to the Content Marketing Institute report, ~41% of content marketers rank their ability to measure ROI as being from average to below average.
How do you make the ROI better when it’s too hard to measure?
The solution is simply to make your content marketing campaigns more successful in achieving your marketing objectives. The strategies mentioned in this article cost minimal investment in terms of capital and yield substantial results, thus improving the return on investment.
Do you want to learn five valuable tips to boost your return on investment in content marketing?
Keep reading to find out about it.
Conduct Research To Help Your Plan
The first step in having a high ROI from B2B content marketing is to have a good plan in place. To do this, you need to be rigorous in your analysis and back up your data and knowledge plan.
Here are a few items you need to understand better before you finalize your content marketing plan.
Your Target Audience
Understand and identify your target audience to produce pieces of content that are of interest to your audience. The traditional target audience for B2B companies includes senior business decision-makers.
But even within this section, you need to know exactly what kind of company your potential customers could be. The next step is to consider the level of people you need to reach in order to generate sales.
When you’ve got target customers in mind, do your research and find out what kind of content they’re engaging with. Check their work on professional networks like LinkedIn to see what the competition is doing.
You may also collect information about your current audience by analyzing traffic on your website and social media profiles. While most social media sites have their own built-in analytical tools, you can use Google Analytics for your website.
Understand the Sales Funnel
According to the CMI study previously mentioned, the majority of successful marketers build content focused on a purchaser’s journey through their sales funnel. The more clearly you understand your sales enclosure, the more successful you will be in engaging your future customers with the right content at the right time.
This is because experiences at different levels have different material requirements. In the initial phase, the aim of your content will be simply to attract relevant customers, but in the later stages, you need content that will inspire anyone to buy.
The most important items you need to be aware of are the duration of the sales cycle, the phases of the sales enclosure, and the material specifications at each point. Although you’re going to need a sales funnel review to grasp the first two, we will help you with the third one.
To get started, here’s a list of content styles that are ideally suited to the stage of the funnel.
Knowing Patterns in Content
In addition to the previous stage, you should also understand what kind of content you have for your audience. To find out: Evaluate the website and social media usage activity and interaction metrics:
What pages / posts are the most engaging and converting?
Where are you going to lose your leads?
What type of content is most likely to receive views, shares , comments, etc.?
Metrics like page time and bounce rates are helpful in gaging this. For social media posts, your interaction rate will tell you a lot about what your audience likes.
In addition, before you finalize your plan, you should also set reasonable and time-bound objectives and set KPIs to assess your success against those objectives.
Choose the Best Content Marketing Platforms
One of the most critical tips for B2B content marketing is to select the best content delivery network.
Some channels like LinkedIn perform better than others for B2B companies because they have a more knowledgeable audience base. Understand what each platform is ideally suited to and choose the one that best suits your B2B content marketing.
Social networking and corporate websites/blogs are the two most frequently used B2B content delivery platforms.
Here are a few main channels that you can choose from:
Blogs
This should be the main content marketing tool, as high-quality postings on current industry trends are one of the best ways to reach an expert audience. Your blog content should be aimed at and appreciated by your audience.
For example , check out this blog from FreshBooks, a cloud accounting company. Their target audience includes small business owners, and their posts provide valuable and insightful content to assist them.
In addition to posting useful content, you also need to position calls for action in strategic locations to get conversions from your blog and increase your ROI.
LinkedIn is the content marketing network of choice for B2B marketers since it is where professionals interact with other professionals and businesses.
It is particularly useful for sharing thought-leading comments, engaging in discussions in related communities, and promoting your most recent blog posts. You may also take advantage of video content such as interviews, panel discussions and other informative videos that are important to your audience.
For example, Mailchimp uses live videos to provide business owners with valuable tips on how to be successful. Their subjects are up-to – date and appropriate, and their videos are accurate and provide practical advice.
Also, don’t forget to add a CTA or link to your website, just like the one in the example below.
Other Social Media Sites
Although LinkedIn is more common among B2B content marketers, the efficacy of other platforms can not be underestimated.
For example , Instagram is great for sharing visual content in the form of stories, IGTV videos , and articles. Twitter should be your favorite forum for posting fast, regular business updates or sharing views on current events. Facebook groups and pages are a good opportunity to create an online community for your customers to connect.
Figure out which channels suit your needs and include them in your marketing content strategy.
E-mails
Email is a cost-effective and direct way to connect with your current and future customers. You can use it both to support B2B leads and to maintain your current customers.
Newsletters, for example, are a good way to engage your audience while promoting your blog posts at the same time. You can also share deals and offers and launch new products / features to drive sales through email marketing.
Here’s a sample newsletter from the leading social media programming site, Buffer. They used it to launch a new tool that they were selling. This knowledge is valuable for current and future customers and allows users to try new features.
Guest Posting
In addition to posting content on your own website and on social media, you will also benefit from guest posts on other big industry websites. This helps you to attract a wider audience that may or may not be visiting your website. It also helps you to establish yourself as an industry expert, particularly if you post on reputable websites that your potential clients trust.
Create a list of some of the most reputable sites in your niche and reach out to them for guest posting opportunities. Pick up trending trends and have comprehensive plans to make sure your posts are picked.
Final Thoughts
These were some of the most important content marketing strategies that you need to apply to your campaigns. If you have a good view of your target audience and have chosen the right channels, half of your work is already finished.
