This document provides formulas and strategies for measuring the return on investment (ROI) of content marketing. It begins by outlining formulas for calculating the ROI from increased organic search traffic, unbranded search traffic, and early-stage buyers reached through content. It then discusses reallocating budgets from low-performing marketing programs to fund content. Next, it offers strategies for doing content marketing without a budget, such as re-purposing existing materials. Finally, it closes by presenting formulas for measuring the ROI from content marketing in terms of reach and awareness, brand engagement, conversions, and customer retention.

1. MARKETING INSIDER GROUP
10 Formulas To
Measure Content
Marketing ROI
ForTomorrow’s Marketer InToday’sWorld #MKTGNation
Michael Brenner
CEO, Marketing Insider Group
@BrennerMichael

2. @BrennerMichael
Life is short
Your business “life” is evenshorter
Do stuff that matters
and makes an impact!

3. Nearly half a million page views
Maybe my best piece of content.
Cost $1,000 and a couple of hours to make

4. What’s the ROI of Content Marketing
CALCULATION OR DEFENSE MECHANISM

5. SHOW ME THE MONEY!

6. Content Marketing programs are assets
with real value that grows over time.
Need proof?

7. Compounding Effect of Content Publishing
Anonymized NewsCred client data of a Fortune 200 company, 2015
0
150
300
450
600
0
125000
250000
375000
500000
625000
Sept 18 Oct 18 Nov 18 Dec 18 Jan 19 Feb 19 Mar 19 Apr 19 May 19 Jun 19
#ARTICLES
PAGEVIEWS
Articles Viewed Articles Published Pageviews

8. WARNING!
MATH AHEAD

9. Marketing Has A Marketing Problem
Ask most people, what is marketing?
They will think of ads and promotion.
Marketing should a strategic asset for your company!

10. Content marketing trends

11. Unwanted Interruptions are everywhere.

12. Auto-play video ads are the most evil
creation in the history of marketing

13. I don’t want to take a survey!!!

14. I don’t want to hit “continue” 3 times!!!

16. The First Banner Ad (1994)
44% Click thru

17. Now banners average 0.1% CTR

18. You are more likely to …
Than have someone click on your banner ad

19. 60-70% of marketing content
goes completely unused.
*Sirius Decisions

20. Behind every
piece of bad
content is an
executive who
asked for it.

21. The Art of Pushing Back
Why does this matter?
What is the business impact?
How will it be measured?

22. We need to stop interrupting what
people are interested in and start creating
what they are interested in.

23. WHAT
CUSTOMERS
WANT
CONTENT
MARKETING
WHAT
BRANDS
PUBLISH
EMPATHY
Content Marketing Requires Empathy
I AM
GREAT
CHARITYBUSINESS INSTINCT

24. @BrennerMichael

25. The Promise of Content Marketing
TO EARN YOUR AUDIENCE …
… VERSUS JUST BUYING IT

26. WARNING: Maturity Audiences Only!
“The Buyer Journey is nothing more than a
series of questions that must be answered.”
- IDC
PUBLISH CONTENT TO
PRIMARY CHANNEL
DISTRIBUTE CONTENT
TO EARNED MEDIA
DISTRIBUTE CONTENT
TO PAID MEDIA
MEASURE ROI OF
CONTENT MARKETING
OPTIMIZE AND
TARGET
DISTRIBUTION
OPTIMIZE FOR
SUBSCRIPTIONS
& OFFERS
DOCUMENTED CONTENT
MARKETING STRATEGY

27. Part 1
Build the Business Case

28. @BrennerMichael
How do you sell
empathy to an
executive that
doesn’t have any?

30. Build the Business Case
= $
REACH EARLY
STAGE BUYERS
ENGAGE NEW BUYERS
WITH YOUR BRAND
CONVERSIONS YOU WOULD
HAVE NEVER REACHED

31. 2012: SAP launches major new product
MARKETING BUDGETS
MARKETING CONTRIBUTION

33. Late-Stage
Content
66%
Early-Stage
Content
6%
Middle-Stage
Content
28%

34. CLUSTER BRAND?
TOTAL MONTHLY SEARCHES
(EST.)
Analytics Brand 458
30,000 X
Analytics Non-Brand 1,520,761
Cloud Brand 398
10,000 X
Cloud Non-Brand 578,460
Big Data Brand 28,884
218 X
Big Data Non-Brand 470,967
Mobility Brand 12,488
28 X
Mobility Non-Brand 345,598
CRM/Sales Brand 156,028
40 X
CRM/Sales Non-Brand 6,313,329
Accounting. Finance Brand 30,497
24 X
Accounting. Finance Non-Brand 720,493
TOTAL Brand 1,688,883
130 X
TOTAL Non-Brand 130,616,715
Tried To Push Back With Data

35. How many early-stage buyers?

36. The Math Didn’t Help

37. The Power of Fear

38. IMAGINE: We show up first in Google

39. IMAGINE: We own the category
www.makeup.com -- (owned by L’Oreal)

40. IMAGINE: We own the target audience
www.CMO.com -- owned by Adobe

41. IMAGINE: Marketing that attracts buyers
AMEX OPEN Forum is the largest source of new leads for AMEX’s Small Business Division

42. Engagement?
99% Bounce Rate
How Much COST?
$XXX,XXX
Search Traffic?
0, None, Nada, Zip
Social Shares?
Also ZERO
Conversions?
“This is an awareness
campaign”
BUT: We had no budget

43. SAP Digitalist Magazine
To help executives understand how technology drives business innovation.
Engagement?
70%
How Much COST?
Half the ad budget
Search Traffic?
50%
Social Shares?
10%
Conversions?
~1,000 in year 1

44. Reach and Engagement We Would Have Never Seen
0
7,500
15,000
22,500
30,000
37,500
TRAFFIC FROM ORGANIC, SOCIAL, & REFERRALS
Organic Social SAP Owned Referrals

45. REACH,
ENGAGEMENT AND
CONVERSIONS WE
WOULD HAVE NEVER
SEEN

46. 66% 28%
6%
Late-Stage
Content
66%
Early-Stage
Content
6%
Middle-Stage
Content
28%
Look at Content by Buyer Stage

47. WHAT IS CONTENT
MARKETING?
(10-3000 X)
HOW DO I
SUCCEED WITH
CONTENT MARKETING?
(2-10 X)
WHAT TOOLS
CAN HELP ME WITH
CONTENT MARKETING?
(1)
EARLY - STAGE SEARCHES
MIDDLE - STAGE
BRAND SEARCHES
SEARCH/SOCIALVOLUME
How Much Early-Stage Search Traffic Is Out There?

48. How Much Early-Stage Search Traffic Comes to Your Website?

49. Part 2
Find the Budget

50. * Source: Sirius Decisions
** Source: Econsultancy
60 - 70% of Content Goes Completely Unused*
$100 Billion Opportunity*
Content
Used
30%
Content
Not
Used
70%
= $

51. What Do You Spend On Paid Search Because You Don’t Rank
Organically?
= $

52. The average click-through rate of display ads is 0.1%
(DoubleClick)
Only 8% of internet users account for 85% of clicks on
display ads (and some aren’t even humans!)
(comScore)
About 50% of clicks on mobile ads are accidental
(GoldSpot)
Reallocate Budget From Low Performing Marketing Programs
(Advertising?)
.1%
8%
50%

53. Run CRM ROI Report. Rank Low to High
= $

54. Advertising Can Fund Content Marketing
Saved / invested in content marketing platform
$100,000 / $100,000
Reach, Engagement and LEADS SAP would have never seen
1,000,000 Organic Visitors
10,000 Subscribers
1,000 Leads

55. How to do Content
Marketing Without
a Budget

56. How to do Content
Marketing Without
a Budget

57. How to do Content
Marketing Without
a Budget

58. Re-Purpose
• Executive PowerPoints
• Whitepapers
• Customer Service and Sales FAQs
• Your emails = answers
How To Do Content Marketing Without A Budget?

59. OPP (OPC)
• Act as a journalists at events
• Cover competitor and industry research
• Ask 2nd-tier influencers to share their work
How To Do Content Marketing Without A Budget?

60. 60

61. Create Stuff Easy
•Create a list of top influencers
• best conferences
• best quotes
• best stats in your industry
•Simply answer customer questions
• What is…
• Why important...
• How to achieve success with ...
How To Do Content Marketing Without A Budget?

62. Part 3
Measure Results

63. Content Marketing ROI - Reach / Awareness
The Value of Organic Search =
(Paid Search Budget X Organic Search Traffic) / Paid Search Traffic
The Value of Unbranded Search Traffic =
(Paid Search Budget X Unbranded Search Traffic) / Paid Search Traffic

64. Lyly Lepinay –
Group Digital Content
Marketing Manager,
Capgemini

65. For example…
In 2014, Capgemini launched its
digital hub, Content Loop, powered by
NewsCred. The site is targeted to IT
and business decision makers, and is
powered with branded and licensed
articles from leading publishers such
as Forbes and VentureBeat.

66. 11 licensed content news sources
220 articles published every month
5x cost savings from using NewsCred
Capgemini built a content marketing machine

67. CapGemini Content-Loop.com
• LinkedIn Sponsored updates
• Drives to branded Content Hub
• Offers to deeper content
• Recommendations to connect with experts
Results:
~1M visitors / year
+ 3K new LinkedIn followers per week
1,800,000 articles shared in past 6 months, 69%
via LinkedIn
+ High Quality Leads
+ Sales / ROI

68. Content Marketing ROI - Brand Engagement
The Value of Subscribers=
($$$ from Email) / # Subscribers

73. ENGAGEREACH CONVERT
PAID VS. ORGANIC SEARCH TRAFFIC
UNBRANDED SEARCH TRAFFIC
ORGANIC SEARCH SHARE OF VOICE
The Power of Subscriptions
SUBSCRIPTIONS
RETAIN
TIME ON SITE
BOUNCE RATE
SOCIAL SHARES
LEADS
SUBSCRIBERS
OTHER CONVERSIONS
RETENTION RATE
UPSELLS

74. Subscribers are 9x more likely to convert than non-subscribers
B2B buyers engage with 20 pieces of content on average, and
90% comes via their inbox
Subscribers Are The Key

75. Content Marketing ROI - Conversion
The Value of Content Marketing Leads =
Content Marketing Leads
X
Content Marketing Conversion Rate
X
Avg. Sale Price

76. Content Marketing ROI - Retention
The Value of Retention =
• Content Customers / Subscribers LTV vs. LTV Customers Who Don’t Read /
Subscribe
• Content Customer Retention Rate vs. Non-Content Customers
• Revenue per Content Customer vs. Non-Content Customers
Subscribers spend 2x more (LTV) and become
3x more loyal customers (Retention)

77. Lifetime Value:
Content consumers
spend more and are
more loyal customers.
Shane Jordan
Digital Marketing Manager
Blue Cross BlueShield of Alabama

78. My Free Gift to you: http://bit.ly/content-formula

79. Michael Brenner
CEO, Marketing Insider Group
@BrennerMichael
Thank you!