In this day and age, users are literally drowning in content. Newsfeeds are filled to the brim with new blog posts, the web is littered with infographics and there are more photo sharing platforms than people know what to do with. That creates a problem for digital marketers, because cash-strapped company bosses aren’t going to want to invest in content production unless they can be guaranteed a return.
With the help of metric-based performance indicators, you can make them that guarantee. A whole host of analytics platforms can now tell you how users consume content, how that content generates leads and, most importantly, how those leads turn into sales.
To help you get started, here are three of the easiest metrics to gauge your success:
Measure consumption
Consumption metrics are by far the easiest way to demonstrate the value of your content marketing efforts. With the help of tools such as Google Analytics, marketers can prove when, where and how users are consuming the content they’ve produced.
Measure shares
Nowadays, the Internet revolves around social media. Facebook alone boasts over 1.5 billion users – so in order to succeed, all businesses should be present on social media. That being said, some marketers may find it difficult to explain the value of this presence to bosses, when to the untrained eye, it looks like members of staff are simply playing on Twitter all day. In-built metrics systems are an easy way to prove social media generates tangible sales leads.
Measure Sales
At the end of the day, your company’s entire marketing strategy revolves on generating sales. In order to prove your content is actively working to produce these sales, it’s worth taking a look at your company’s sales close rates. So long as your business website has an effective customer relationship management system installed, you will be able to develop a map of how users are interacting with your company’s digital presence. In turn, you’ll be able to figure out whether your content is actually influencing direct sales.