Making sure content marketing delivers a return on investment

Content marketing is a significant investment.

Skilled creatives demand high salaries and spend many hours creating compelling designs and copy.

How do you know your investment is going to deliver impact and value?

In this article, we discuss how you can reduce risk and increase return by objectively assessing any proposed content marketing strategy and stepping up as a business leader to be part of the key directional decision-making.

The first thing to scrutinise when you see a content marketing plan are the goals and benchmarks.

Have the team clearly articulated your broad business goals and the goals for this specific content plan?

Have they set benchmarks they plan to achieve and explained how they are going to measure their progress towards those benchmarks?

Do you feel confident that the team leader can effectively disseminate your goals and objectives to the creatives doing the work?

If you feel uneasy when you look at a plan about any of the above, stop and think.

If the whole team is not aiming at the right target (or even any target), you’re not going to see a return on investment.

Can you get this team to where you need them or do you need another team?

Next, look for an analysis of the target market, competition and current opportunity.

If you have been working with a marketing team for some time, they will be deeply knowledgeable about your ideal client or customer and understand your value to them.

If this is a new team, they should have already asked you lots of questions about your ideal customer or client, and the plan should demonstrate that they understand the target very well.

Competitor analysis is a constant.

In this fast digital age, new competitors pop up seemingly daily.

Your marketing team should demonstrate that they have assessed and understand the landscape and have considered how they will highlight your unique advantages to combat the threat.

In terms of opportunity, your team should be showing you data that explains what the best website traffic is looking for when it arrives on your website and where the best growth opportunity lies.

This is the part where marketing teams get excited.

Creatives love discussing the innovative content they will create and all the channels and clever strategies they will use to share your content.

This is also where business leaders need to keep control and make measured decisions.

Be careful not to be blinded by jargon – ask questions until you understand the detail.

A few things to consider when you are looking at the plan:

• Content on your website generally delivers the best return on investment in digital marketing. It stays there for the long term, drives Google traffic, and, very importantly, you retain ownership of your content.
• Social media content is like footprints in the sand – here today – gone tomorrow. It can chew a lot of budget for small returns. You lose control of your content.
• Video production is expensive. It can have limited longevity if the video stars in your team leave the business and products and services change.
• Photography is a key investment you will need to make from time to time. Invest in high-quality providers, ensure there is careful shoot planning and make sure you receive all the photos.
• Database marketing is very powerful to customers and prospects who already know about your business. Educational and informational content are key. Promotional content doesn’t work as a stand alone.

My advice for most business owners looking for a return on content marketing investment is to put around 70% of the content marketing investment into new website content on your own site, 10% to newsletters,  5% to social media and 15% to strategy and reporting.

There’s lots of variation in how different marketing teams create content and ensure it is optimised for Google.

Here’s our process, which has worked effectively for many hundreds of clients over many years:

• Brand document in place and disseminated through the team. Everyone knows the who, what, and why of your business, long and medium-term goals and value proposition
• Effective website in place optimised for Google and delivering leads/sales
• SEO plan in place and being executed
• Monthly or quarterly meetings with business leaders to understand the immediate business goals and discuss new products, services or directions
• Data analysis of website and other channel performance, competition and opportunity
• Content plan developed and presented based on the above
• Plan discussed, optimised, and signed off
• Content plan added to project management software, roles assigned
• Interviews booked with technical contacts as needed
• Content drafts sent to client and approved
• Content published
• Data collected and analysed to produce report

This content marketing work is completed on a rolling cycle and has delivered simply wonderful growth and return on investment for many clients over many years.