Content marketing needs a better way than ROI, and attribution. Learn why velocity should be your greatest business metric, and why reach still is something you need to track.

1. How to evaluate past the click
@msweezey
Learning how to prove value

2. @msweezey
Mathew Sweezey:
Author & Evangelist
Salesforce.com
-Marketing Automation for Dummies
-Byline for ClickZ.com
-B2B marketing Evangelist
-Co-Founder Eventide Brewing

3. Proving Value Past The
Click
-Why do we even do content marketing?
-Why Marketing is the first department to get fired
-New Breed of Reporting
-Tactically how to do it
@msweezey

4. Understanding why we create content is
where we have to begin to fully understand
how to show value.
@msweezey

5. 5000 impressions
How many ad impressions your exposed to
on a daily basis in 2014. This was 350 in
1975.
@msweezey

6. 10 seconds
You have 10 seconds to show value once
someone has engaged.
@msweezey

7. @msweezey
WHY?
Because there is no better way to engage.

8. Free:
Creating is free
Publishing is free
Distribution is free
@msweezey

9. Accessible:
More people have access to a cell phone
than have access to clean drinking water, or
electricity.
@msweezey

10. Ubiquitous:
Every time you log on to Facebook there are
1500 stories waiting for you
@msweezey

11. How do
brands see
content?
@msweezey

12. @msweezey
onepagers
webinars
SEO
Backlinks
Whitepapers
video
ebooks
Short form
AMA
infographics

13. How do
consumers see
content?
@msweezey
e

14. @msweezey

15. @msweezey
“Consumers want
honest and authentic
experiences”
-Joseph Pine III

16. 71% of B2B buyers have
been disappointed by content
@msweezey
-Pardot research 2014

17. 25% of those B2B buyers
who have been disappointed
by your content will never
read content from you again
@msweezey
-Pardot research 2014

18. 1/Escape
People wanting to escape will lean on self discover and
social channels. They are looking to escape their work,
life, job, and take a short break. No barring on sales
readiness.
@msweezey

19. @msweezey

20. 2/Learn
People wanting to learn are looking on ways to do their
job better. This can also take place during an escape.
May be an early sign of sales readiness if they move to
research.
@msweezey

21. @msweezey

22. 3/Research
People wanting to research will dedicate time to search,
learn, and solve. They are looking for content to help them
solve for a problem. Shows sales readiness
@msweezey

23. @msweezey

24. @msweezey
Daily content consumption. Usually is Learn, and
Escape. Happens across all media channels.
How we engage with Research content.

25. Methods to report on
content marketing
@msweezey

26. Metrics to create better
content:
• Baselines
• Reach
• Engagement
• Obtainment of Goal
@msweezey

27. Baselines
Your content marketing should be measured to your
previous efforts. You need to set baselines, and keep up
with your improvements. What worked, and why.
@msweezey

28. Evergreen
Evergreen content should be measured on a timeframe.
So if you have a video on “XYZ” you should measure it
every 30 days to see how it compared to the previous.
This will tell you if you need to update, change, or
promote it.
@msweezey

29. 1/Reach
@msweezey

30. @msweezey

31. Reach
Is a metric to help you evaluate your
strategy. But it should not be a metric you
use to evaluate the effectiveness of content
marketing, but rather the execution or
strategy of your distribution.
@msweezey

32. 2/Engagement
@msweezey

33. Engagement
Is a metric to help you evaluate your
strategy. But it should not be a metric you
use to evaluate the effectiveness of content
marketing, but rather the image, topic, and
copy.
@msweezey

34. @msweezey
How many opens did it get = Subject line
How many clicks did it get = Copy and CTA
How many shares, likes, comments = Topic
How many page views did it get = Image and CTA
How many likes, shares, new fans = Image and CTA
How many likes, shares, new fans = Copy and Image
How long did someone watch it = Story

35. 3/Goal
@msweezey

36. Goal
How many people actually did what you
wanted them to do. Was this a lead gen
piece, did you drive leads? Was this an
engagement piece, did people engage? This
is a measure of your story line, execution of
content, and CTA.
@msweezey

37. @msweezey
Daily content consumption. Usually is Learn,
and Escape. Happens across all media
channels.
How we engage with Research content.

38. STRATEGY CREATIVE CTA
Reach
Low impact report,
and will not tell you
the effectiveness of
your content, but if
your distribution
strategy was correct.
@msweezey
Engagement
Medium level report
to show you if your
image and call to
action were correct.
Engagement is what
you want. Fans,
Likes, Shares,
Comments….
% of Goal
What percent took a
next step. This can
either be to continue
the experience, or
this could be a
conversion. This tells
you was your
experience correct or
not.

39. Phone Calls
The only real way to find out if your content had the effect
you really wanted. They only way to test branding.
Ask: Is it what you were expecting, was it helpful, how
can it be better.
@msweezey

40. Business
Value
@msweezey

41. 1/ROI
@msweezey

42. ROI
Is not a basic of report. There is no direct
cost to creating content, and no direct tie to
it’s return, so tying it to pipeline is guess
work at best. The idea is sound, the current
methodology is not.
@msweezey

43. 2/Attribution
@msweezey

44. Attribution
In theory sounds great, in practice is not.
Not a business metric, puts you in a sliver
bullet mindset, deemphasizes holistic
marketing, does not provide actionable
metrics, and assumes way to much.
@msweezey

45. 3/Velocity
A better way to show the return on your investment
@msweezey

46. @msweezey
Velocity
How fast does
someone move
thought your funnel.
• TVM is a business metric
• Accounts for holistic efforts
• Predicts future outomes

47. 4/Efficiency
Showing real business value by creating more quality
leads on the same amount of work.
@msweezey

48. @msweezey
Efficiency
How many leads go in
the top of each stage,
and how many come out
the bottom.
• 1.6% is best in class
• Identifies holes in content
strategy

49. Barriers to this
approach:
@msweezey

50. 1/Your boss
• Work to gain buy in on new reporting
methods
• Show possible ways to track Velocity
• Show it’s ability to predict future outcomes
• Show
@msweezey

51. 2/Your Content
• Make sure your content is tied to the stages
in the buying cycle.
• Set up phone interviews with your
customers to better understand creating
future content.
• Know the keywords they search for in each
stage.
@msweezey

52. @msweezey
Daily content consumption. Usually is Learn,
and Escape. Happens across all media
channels.
How we engage with Research content.

53. 3/Your Tools
• You need to have all of your content
tracked, and data collected
• Marketing automation will be the backbone
• CRM is a must for aligning sales data back
to your efforts
@msweezey

54. Conclusions
Content marketing isn’t just about creating
content. It is a highly tactical marketing
method which requires a very astute
understanding of your buyer, buy in from your
business as to how you will prove its’ value,
and a new set of tools to execute on it
effectively.
@msweezey

55. Thank you!
Now lets get to questions
@msweezey