The Ultimate Guide to
Content Marketing Metrics
Jay Baer
Convince & Convert
@jaybaer • #cmworld
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@jaybaer
“We Can’t Measure” Really Means:
• We don’t know what to measure
• We don’t have access to the data
• We don’t know how to tie the data together
• We don’t have the time to measure
• We don’t know what the data means
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If You’re Not Measuring Content
Marketing, It’s Your Fault.
But Don’t Panic.
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Are You a Publisher?
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You Are In the Action Business,
Not the Eyeballs Business.
Plan and Measure Accordingly.
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Step One: Know Why You’re
Making Content
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Yee-Haw!!
Step One: Know What Actions Finally Got Us
You
Some of That
Want and Need CONTENT!!
“Making Content” Is Not the Goal
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Are You Measuring the Right Things?
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Content Helps Achieve Business
Objectives, Not Content Objectives
Business Objectives
Marketing Objectives
Marketing Strategy
Content Objectives
Content Strategy
Content
Tactics
Content
Metrics
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Step Two: Map Content to Buyer’s
Journey, and Metrics to Content Type
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The Right Content for the Right Person,
at the Right Time
• What’s the conference about?
• When is it?
• Where is it?
• What’s the agenda?
• How much does it cost?
• Is there a section on metrics?
• Is Jay Baer doing it?
• Is Rick Springfield going to be there?
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The Right Content for the Right Person,
at the Right Time
http://ar.gy/1bHO
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Step Three: Know What’s
Mathematically Viable
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Ways to Measure Brand Awareness
• New visits to Website (proxy)
• Increase in positive and neutral social mentions
(proxy)
• Visits from search (proxy)
• Pre and post surveys of target audiences,
randomly sampled and variable controlled
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Ways to Measure Direct Sales
• E-commerce tracking
• Leads that turn into new customers (requires
CRM)
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Step Four: Select the Right Metrics
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4 Categories of Content Metrics
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Consumption Metrics
Question answered: “How many people
viewed, downloaded, listened to this piece
of content”
Goals addressed:
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Field Guide to Consumption Metrics
• Page views
• Google Analytics or similar
• Video views
• YouTube Insights or similar
• Document views
• Slideshare or Scribd data
• Downloads (ungated)
• CRM system (Eloqua, Hubspot, Marketo, Infusionsoft)
• Google Analytics or similar
• Social Chatter
• Mention.net, Radian6, Sysomos, Viral Heat
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Never Exit the Metrics Train at the
Consumption Depot
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Are You a Publisher?
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Knowing a Piece of Content Generated
3,000 Page Views Should Prompt These
Questions:
• Do people consuming that content engage in
other, more desirable behaviors on the site?
• Do they do so at a ratio different from site
visitors overall?
• Do people consuming that content return to
the site?
• Do they do so at a ratio different from site
visitors overall?
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@jaybaer
To Boost Consumption,
Free Your Content
• “Forms are the enemy of spread” – Joe
Chernov, Eloqua
• “Of all the places your content could reside,
your site has the least amount of traffic.” – Me
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Be a Digital Dandelion
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Sharing Metrics
Question answered: “How resonant is this
content, and how often is it shared with
others?”
Goals addressed:
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Field Guide to Sharing Metrics
• Likes and Shares and Tweets and +1s and Pins
• Sharing tools, or Google Analytics or similar
• Forwards
• Email provider, or Google Analytics or similar
• Inbound links
• OpenSiteExplorer, RavenTools, MajesticSEO
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Sharing Metrics are Overvalued
Because They’re Public
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To Boost Sharing, Make Sharing Easy
• Easy to use sharing buttons on all content
• Configure correctly
• Embeddable infographics
• Social proof
• Content WORTH sharing
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If Your Mom Won’t Share Your Content,
It’s Not Good Enough
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Lead Generation Metrics
Question answered: “How often do
content consumptions turn into leads?”
Goals addressed:
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Field Guide to Lead Gen Metrics
• Gated content that produces leads itself
• CRM system (Eloqua, Hubspot, Marketo, Infusionsoft)
• Tracking URLs
• Email subscriptions and similar
• Email provider, or CRM system
• Blog subscriptions and similar
• Feedblitz, or CRM system
• Blog comments
• Comments platform (Disqus, Livefyre) or blog system
• Conversion rate (consumption to lead)
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Indirect Lead Generation
• Not all content is lead producing directly
• But, all content can contribute to lead generation
behavior
• Set up goals in Google Analytics or similar
• For key behaviors that are not revenue-producing
per se (email signup) assign a dollar value
• Set custom reports to show goals for each content
piece
• Also look at new Page Value data
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Tying Social to Content
• Some Social Platforms (Argyle Social, Expion,
Hubspot) can tie social media posts to content
landing pages, and track through to lead
generation value.
• Systems that can do this MUST have their own
URL shortener.
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Content is Fire. Social Media is Gasoline.
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Sales Metrics
Question answered: “Did we actually
make any money on this content?”
Goals addressed:
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Field Guide to Sales Metrics
• Online sales
• E-commerce system
• Offline sales
• CRM system
• Unique, trackable URLs via CRM, social media
system and/or Google Analytics or similar
• Manual reporting and anecdotes
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If You’re Going to Track Leads and Sales
You Have to Do Something Trackable
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Don’t Forget Customer Retention
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Your Most Important Content Audience
are Your Current Customers
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Content ROI is Calculated at the
Component Level First
Investment
40 hours/month to produce blog
X hourly rate per each blog
participant ($40)
X overhead factor (50%)
+ amortized design fees ($1k/month)
+ monthly hosting fees ($100/month)
+ miscellaneous ($100/month)
= true monthly blogging costs
$3,600
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Content ROI is Calculated at the
Component Level First
Return
25 leads per month
X lead conversion rate (20%)
X average lifetime customer value
($3,000)
X average profit margin (30%)
= true monthly blogging return
$4,500
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ROI = Return Minus Investment,
Divided by Investment
$4,500 - $3,600 = 900
Divided by 3,600 = .25
ROI is 25%
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Sometimes You Can’t Close the Loop
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Correlation Approach
• Track EVERYTHING
• Over a long period of time
• Note whenever ANYTHING changes
• PR coverage, website change, new radio campaign
• Also track multiple revenue data points
• Total leads
• Average purchase
• Churn
• Total revenue
• Look for patterns that indicate content is working
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@jaybaer
Your Job is to Prove Something Wrong,
not Prove Something Right
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The Goal Isn’t to be Good at Content.
The Goal is to be Good at Business,
Because of Content.
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Jay Baer
Convince & Convert
www.ConvinceAndConvert.com
Today’s Slides:
Jaybaer.com/CMWorld
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