A survey states that only 21% of content marketers successfully measure their content marketing in terms of ROI. This stat might be a big wake-up call. 

Meanwhile, the survey also found 70% of businesses investing in “More” or “Significantly More” content than the previous year. Companies persist in sending out more and more content, though they aren’t really aware whether the content is well received or not.

If you’re unable to estimate the ROI efficiently, how can you justify the extra investment? And how will you make improvements and get more ROI if you don’t understand what’s working and what isn’t?

5 Ways to Measure Content Marketing Success

Here are the five smart metrics you can use to measure content marketing success:

1 – Email Open Rate

Why measure email open rate? Because usually, the email open rate is directly proportional to the asset title open rate. When using content syndication to promote assets, both the subject line and the asset headline matter.

A promising email subject line is a key factor, but not the only element of successful content marketing. Even if you’ve written a great article or blog, it means nothing if nobody sees or reads it. We know we’ve written a good subject line/title when it compels the audience to open up the email. Similarly, a good headline or title provides value to your content. The headline of a written piece, like the email subject line, is the door to conversion success.

Writing an amazing subject line and headline and getting the target audience to open is like archery. No matter how hard you shoot, it doesn’t count if it doesn’t hit the target. Similarly, no matter how fantastic the content, the audience will never read the content if the title isn’t compelling. Content syndication depends on relevant, compelling subject lines and headlines. 

2 – Social Shares

There’s no point in getting someone to open an email and click through to the blog post if they don’t find any knowledge or value in the content. There’s nothing worse to travellers in the digital world than being let down when content is disappointing and doesn’t uphold the headline’s promise. An appealing headline, however, can only do so much; it’s up to the content to follow through on the promise. Successful content receives more exposure through sharing.

It’s essential to measure whether our content follows through or not, but it’s sometimes difficult to track. How will you measure whether you’re providing value to your audience? How can you judge whether content educates the audience on topics they care about? 

There’s no one way, but definitely monitor how many times your content is being shared on social media. If the audience likes the content, they may consider it valuable enough to share it in their networks. This indicates that content has followed through on the promise of the headline.

3 – Exit Rates and Content Marketing

To continue the engagement and build a relationship, we want the audience to keep engaging on our website. The site exit rate is a good measure of the depth of content we are offering and how well it meets buyer needs and experience preferences.

Hence, marketers use the exit rate to measure content relevance and user engagement. They’re going to go somewhere next, might as well be to more of your content. When you write high-quality, relevant content, always include a call-to-action (CTA) leading to other content or other similar resources on your website. The more serious they are, the more the reader will be looking for more. To keep someone from exiting, offer an ebook or product page, most of the time something deeper down the funnel.

Here’s another thing about keeping viewers on your site. Use the right information for your business, not just some “shiny object.” Creating valuable content that your audience loves is fantastic, but it only matters if it’s relevant to your company’s goals. For example, we could write great content on trends in the cosmetic industry that people find valuable and share on social media, but it has absolutely nothing to do with B2B marketing attribution. Nothing on our site is related to cosmetics, so there would be nothing else to read, navigate and engage with. After reading the blog post, they would have no other choice, but to leave.

4 – Lead Conversion Rate

The process of content marketing is a series of continuous steps, converting engagement with blogs and other content offerings into quality leads. When high-quality blog posts are also relevant, brands can continue to build the relationship with more in-depth content. This requires a process of converting anonymous readers into leads, then converting them into buyers.

When prospects turn into leads, the successful conversion steps show that content has been informative and relevant to business needs. The information was perceived as valuable enough to give their contact information in exchange for more in-depth content. As B2B marketers, the most helpful way to build relationships is by gathering ever more data about the target audience, so more good content can be created. 

5 – Pipeline and Revenue-Driven Content Marketing

The ultimate way to measure content marketing success is by the impact to the bottom line. We need to understand whether our blogs, articles, ebooks, whitepapers, etc., are pushing revenue. 

The first four metrics discussed here measure content marketing activity mainly at top and middle stages of the funnel. As pipeline marketers, we believe content should be impactful along the entire funnel, including the bottom level – the final mile. We can accurately measure this using marketing attribution that connects marketing data to sales data. We can generate millions of leads through blogs and posts. This all will be meaningless if there are no client conversions. The major purpose of content and all aspects of marketing is to drive business value. 

More Content Marketing Resources

If you’re among the content marketers who aren’t able to measure your efforts successfully, now you have some options. Or you’re looking for more impactful and efficient ways to measure, these are 5 metrics you can start using. 

For more about marketing metrics, analytics and content syndication, see these articles:
7 Content Syndication Best Practices for 2021