Content Marketing Today

The Best Way to Measure Your Content Marketing Success

It’s all about the return on objective, not the return on investment

We are long past the days when most companies accepted marketing as a vague concept and a mysterious practice that could not really be measured. Today, most marketers and their bosses want to prove that the dollars spent achieve a measurable return.

Typically they are trying to prove a precise ROI or return on their investment dollars.  Unfortunately, that is usually difficult because processes are not now–and perhaps never will be–in-place to connect dollars spent to increased sales.  One reason for failure is that specific, achievable objectives are not established at the beginning of the marketing program.

That’s where ROO comes in.  ROO means return on objective.  This is a more realistic way to measure the success of marketing program, but it does require that marketers establish specific objectives from the get go.  Here is why ROO is better than ROI at measuring what you get from your marketing.

Return on Objective is the tool to use

Return on Objective (ROO) was popularized while we were at Penton Media, Inc., in 2003 by Penton Group Publisher Bill Baumann. Bill, like the rest of us, grew tired of advertisers constantly barking about less than adequate ROI measures when it was impossible for us to measure sales lift—at least not without access to the advertisers’ CRM databases for tracking purposes.

It was at that point we put our measurement energy into ROO, which was something that we could define in conjunction with our clients, and use to keep both sides accountable. Before signing any final agreement, we would ask the question: “One year from today, how will you know whether or not the project was successful?” In most cases, we already knew the answer, but it was important to hear what the client said. The answer to that question was ultimately what we planned to measure…that was the Return on Objective.

The measurement of sales lift, impact, retention, etc., are key measurements to any ROO program. The “Measurement Picture” comes into play when sales data is missing or challenging. Sometimes ROO can be determined with one statistic, while other times four or five are needed to show an impact on the organization’s business goals.

ROO measurements come in all shapes and sizes, and usually include multiple items to give you the complete answer to your question. The important aspect to remember is, it’s not measurement for the sake of measurement. The tools and tactics below are used to directly answer what the project’s objective is. If you keep that in mind, you’ll get your ROO.

Here are a few measurement initiatives to get you started:

· Tracking sales lift of those who receive the content program vs. those who do not.

· Tracking conversions for online content products or print subscriptions and measuring new or increased sales.

· Online readership studies to determine the impact of the content project, as well as the acquisition of customer informational needs and trends.

· Measuring engagement (time spent) through online research or by using analytic measures on eNewsletter or web portal products.

· Pre-/post-awareness study to measure the impact of the program. If possible, separate out a control group that does not receive your content initiative. Without that, it’s challenging to tell if the project made the impact, or if it was something else in your marketing arsenal.

There are also a number of new online measurement tools that can give you some insight into how your content is performing, both with search engines and with customers themselves. Here are a few that you might want to check out:

Traffic Comparison Sites

· Alexa.com

· Compete.com

· Quantcast.com

· Trafficestimate.com

Blog Impact

· Technorati.com

· Icerocket.com

· Feedburner.com (blog RSS feeds)

Finally, here are some additional tactics to consider when integrating the “Measurement Picture” into your content marketing:

· Distinct 800 number on print and online initiatives

· Using individual URLs among different content projects

· Every print or web page should have some type of call-to-action

· Use print and online versioning tools to send more precise content to customers and prospects based on their individual needs, and measure the impact difference

Summing up: making sure you get a return on your ROO

The key comes down to this: You have to plan for measurement. It is almost impossible to measure the content vehicle after you’ve already begun. An organization that invests in content without investing in the measuring of that content doesn’t truly believe in the content initiative.

Don’t forget these questions: 

• What is the true purpose of the content marketing effort?
• What are the underlying marketing objectives?
• What do you really want to tell your customers?
• Once you have their attention, what do you want them to do? What is the desired behavior?
• What vehicle best meets the needs of your customers?
• In order to meet your customers’ informational needs, how should you integrate your content marketing efforts with other media?