13 Content Marketing Metrics to Track Optimal Conversions
- Transfer
Do you use the right metrics to measure the success of your content marketing? Khalid Saleh describes what you should concentrate on in order to understand the economic effect of your marketing campaign.
We continue to publish useful materials that will help you in building effective marketing, as marketing is the only thing that you can’t outsource to us.
Content marketing is a real nightmare for many companies, they do not know how to manage it because they do not know how to measure it. In general, here is an article that will help solve this problem.
Respectfully, the team of fulfillment operator Yambox
( Yambox - we turn your online store into a computer game)
There is an old rule in the science of management: “If you can measure, you can increase it”
This applies to content marketing too. Without measuring the performance of your content, you won’t be able to say for sure whether your marketing efforts are actually successful or not.
In order to fully appreciate the success of content marketing, you need metrics that will help you track the conversions and the long-term economic effect received from the content.
In this article we will consider what indicators at what stage of the marketing campaign you need to track.
One of the first things you should understand about content marketing metrics is that not all metrics are equally useful at every stage of content loading.
For example, when you start a completely new promotion campaign, you actually do not have digital data to track the economic effect or test by the number of clicks. At this stage of the work, you will see much better results, focusing on generating traffic, rather than measuring conversion rates.
It is necessary to break each campaign into separate phases and track different indicators for each phase. Thus, you will end up with three phases:
Let's look at each of these phases in more detail.
When you begin to carry out another new marketing campaign, for sure, the amount of network traffic is very limited. At this point, you should focus on getting as much network traffic as possible. After you earn a certain number of people visiting your site, you can begin tracking levels of loyalty and conversion.
The most important metrics in this phase:
The number of (unique) visitors to your site is perhaps the most important metric at this stage. This information shows exactly whether or not your marketing moves are working. Obviously, the higher the number, the better.
This metric shows how many total pages people generally visit on your site. This data can be important (especially for media companies), but it can also be misleading - the site design, the source of traffic, and even the specifics of your business can have a big impact on the number of page views. Take such measurements, but do not make any important decisions based on these indicators. (Better focus on the unique visitors themselves).
High-quality SEO optimization is a by-product of any successful marketing campaign, and in order to get good optimization, you need a large number of backlinks. Tracking the number of websites linking to your site allows you to measure the effectiveness of the content. In most cases, the higher this number, the better your ranking in search engines.
Track where new visitors come to your site. Do they only find you through a search engine? Perhaps they came from some source that sent them to you, or from one of the social media platforms?
Once you have identified your main sources, you will be able to promote your content, focusing on specific groups.
Once you figure out what exactly is the main source of traffic and in accordance with this will promote the site content.
For example, you get the most traffic from Twitter, which means that your followers are interested in your content. The next step is to post content in accordance with the involvement of only Twitter users, in accordance with their interests.
This first phase usually lasts from one to three months, or until you create a content library and drive some traffic.
Once you have good traffic, it's time to regularly interact with your users and turn them into regular readers, not just visitors.
To do this, you need to track these indicators of engagement:
The bounce rate is defined as: the percentage of visitors to a particular website who leave the site after viewing a single page.
If this bounce rate decreases, it means that your readers are more and more immersed in your content. Do not expect bounce rates to decrease overnight. This is a very slow process of analyzing and disseminating content to engage the audience more actively.
You may ask: what is considered an acceptable indicator of failure?
There is no single indicator for everyone. Bounce rates vary by industry and content type. In fact, a bounce rate in the range of 26% to 40% is considered excellent for content-oriented sites, while a bounce rate between 41% and 55% is something average.
This metric speaks for itself. It compares the number of people constantly coming to your site and the number of new visitors.
The number of regular visitors is useful information, as it probably shows that your content is interesting and useful.
If users spend a lot of time on your site, it means that you have content that is interesting to them.
In addition, you can dig deeper and find out on which pages visitors spend most of their time. If your users spend a lot of time on any particular type of page, you should do more of this content.
Track what type of content from your site people share or, as they say now, "share" with them. This can be infographics, images, GIFs, long or short messages.
People share something with others willingly only when they really like something. Keep track of which type gets the most “sharing” and post more content of this kind.
Commentary represents a much greater return to the reader than “balls” or “likes”. People only comment on articles if they find them particularly useful and interesting.
Measuring the number of incoming comments is a great way to track loyalty. In addition, by inviting users to share their stories or ideas, you will develop a public discussion. And this is important if your plans include building a whole community.
Phase 2 can last from three to six months.
Now that you have regular readers who are interested in the content of your site, it's time to turn them into potential customers and buyers.
Your focus at this point should be on measuring the effectiveness of your content. Here are the metrics that will help:
When users fill out your opt-in form (a person fills out a form on your website (for example, to receive a gift) and does not uncheck the box “yes, please send me your email newsletter!”) This is a clear sign that they want to be up to date with information on your website. In the future, these are your potential customers.
Compare the number of interested users and those users who came through the opt-in form.
If you create relevant traffic and have a high level of attracting users to your site, your opt-in ratio should be close to 30%.
Clickthrough rate is the percentage of visitors to a web page that follow a hyperlink to a specific site.
These links can in any way attract attention, the main thing is that your users click on it.
For example, if you have an article on the topic “content marketing secrets” and a link that draws attention to it, you need to calculate how many times the user clicked on the link versus how many times it was shown.
This is a simple metric that tracks the total number of new leads from incoming sources.
But it’s not enough just to get new users, it is also necessary to measure their quality, that is, weed out the “bots”. Use the LeadiD tool, which automatically rejects them.
This is perhaps the most important indicator, as well as the most difficult to measure indicator.
It is easy to understand what the economic effect is. This is the total income received from the content marketing companies, compared with the total investment in the creation and distribution of content.
Two things are necessary for this calculation:
• Lifetime customer value
• Way to track client movements
If you already have a CRM (customer information management system), you can easily track the movements of your customers. This will help you find out what specific content helped you realize the sale. And knowing the lifetime value of the client, you can calculate the actual revenue from each sale.
Measuring the success of the impact of content marketing is crucial if your goal is to get more traffic and make more sales. At the same time, it is very important to measure the right indicators in the right phase.
Focus on tracking traffic exactly when you launch a new marketing campaign. Once the number of visitors has increased, start tracking the level of attraction of your content.
And finally, as soon as you get readers who regularly interact with your content, you can focus on tracking the conversion rate and calculate the economic effect of the marketing campaigns.
Respectfully, the team of fulfillment operator “Yambox”
( Yambox- turn your online store into a computer game)
We continue to publish useful materials that will help you in building effective marketing, as marketing is the only thing that you can’t outsource to us.
Content marketing is a real nightmare for many companies, they do not know how to manage it because they do not know how to measure it. In general, here is an article that will help solve this problem.
Respectfully, the team of fulfillment operator Yambox
( Yambox - we turn your online store into a computer game)
There is an old rule in the science of management: “If you can measure, you can increase it”
This applies to content marketing too. Without measuring the performance of your content, you won’t be able to say for sure whether your marketing efforts are actually successful or not.
In order to fully appreciate the success of content marketing, you need metrics that will help you track the conversions and the long-term economic effect received from the content.
In this article we will consider what indicators at what stage of the marketing campaign you need to track.
A simple diagram for measuring content performance
One of the first things you should understand about content marketing metrics is that not all metrics are equally useful at every stage of content loading.
For example, when you start a completely new promotion campaign, you actually do not have digital data to track the economic effect or test by the number of clicks. At this stage of the work, you will see much better results, focusing on generating traffic, rather than measuring conversion rates.
It is necessary to break each campaign into separate phases and track different indicators for each phase. Thus, you will end up with three phases:
- Phase 1: Traffic Generation
- Phase 2: Attraction
- Phase 3: Conversion
Let's look at each of these phases in more detail.
Phase 1: Traffic Measurement
When you begin to carry out another new marketing campaign, for sure, the amount of network traffic is very limited. At this point, you should focus on getting as much network traffic as possible. After you earn a certain number of people visiting your site, you can begin tracking levels of loyalty and conversion.
The most important metrics in this phase:
1. Unique visitors
The number of (unique) visitors to your site is perhaps the most important metric at this stage. This information shows exactly whether or not your marketing moves are working. Obviously, the higher the number, the better.
2. Number of views
This metric shows how many total pages people generally visit on your site. This data can be important (especially for media companies), but it can also be misleading - the site design, the source of traffic, and even the specifics of your business can have a big impact on the number of page views. Take such measurements, but do not make any important decisions based on these indicators. (Better focus on the unique visitors themselves).
3. Backlinks
High-quality SEO optimization is a by-product of any successful marketing campaign, and in order to get good optimization, you need a large number of backlinks. Tracking the number of websites linking to your site allows you to measure the effectiveness of the content. In most cases, the higher this number, the better your ranking in search engines.
4. Traffic source
Track where new visitors come to your site. Do they only find you through a search engine? Perhaps they came from some source that sent them to you, or from one of the social media platforms?
Once you have identified your main sources, you will be able to promote your content, focusing on specific groups.
Once you figure out what exactly is the main source of traffic and in accordance with this will promote the site content.
For example, you get the most traffic from Twitter, which means that your followers are interested in your content. The next step is to post content in accordance with the involvement of only Twitter users, in accordance with their interests.
This first phase usually lasts from one to three months, or until you create a content library and drive some traffic.
Phase 2: Measuring Immersion in Your Content
1. Bounce Rate
Once you have good traffic, it's time to regularly interact with your users and turn them into regular readers, not just visitors.
To do this, you need to track these indicators of engagement:
The bounce rate is defined as: the percentage of visitors to a particular website who leave the site after viewing a single page.
If this bounce rate decreases, it means that your readers are more and more immersed in your content. Do not expect bounce rates to decrease overnight. This is a very slow process of analyzing and disseminating content to engage the audience more actively.
You may ask: what is considered an acceptable indicator of failure?
There is no single indicator for everyone. Bounce rates vary by industry and content type. In fact, a bounce rate in the range of 26% to 40% is considered excellent for content-oriented sites, while a bounce rate between 41% and 55% is something average.
2. New visitors vs. Regular visitors
This metric speaks for itself. It compares the number of people constantly coming to your site and the number of new visitors.
The number of regular visitors is useful information, as it probably shows that your content is interesting and useful.
3. Time spent visiting the site
If users spend a lot of time on your site, it means that you have content that is interesting to them.
In addition, you can dig deeper and find out on which pages visitors spend most of their time. If your users spend a lot of time on any particular type of page, you should do more of this content.
4. Users share your content with others.
Track what type of content from your site people share or, as they say now, "share" with them. This can be infographics, images, GIFs, long or short messages.
People share something with others willingly only when they really like something. Keep track of which type gets the most “sharing” and post more content of this kind.
5. Number of comments
Commentary represents a much greater return to the reader than “balls” or “likes”. People only comment on articles if they find them particularly useful and interesting.
Measuring the number of incoming comments is a great way to track loyalty. In addition, by inviting users to share their stories or ideas, you will develop a public discussion. And this is important if your plans include building a whole community.
Phase 2 can last from three to six months.
Phase 3: Conversion Measurement
Now that you have regular readers who are interested in the content of your site, it's time to turn them into potential customers and buyers.
Your focus at this point should be on measuring the effectiveness of your content. Here are the metrics that will help:
1. Opt-in
When users fill out your opt-in form (a person fills out a form on your website (for example, to receive a gift) and does not uncheck the box “yes, please send me your email newsletter!”) This is a clear sign that they want to be up to date with information on your website. In the future, these are your potential customers.
Compare the number of interested users and those users who came through the opt-in form.
If you create relevant traffic and have a high level of attracting users to your site, your opt-in ratio should be close to 30%.
2. Clickthrough rate
Clickthrough rate is the percentage of visitors to a web page that follow a hyperlink to a specific site.
These links can in any way attract attention, the main thing is that your users click on it.
For example, if you have an article on the topic “content marketing secrets” and a link that draws attention to it, you need to calculate how many times the user clicked on the link versus how many times it was shown.
3. The number of leads (users)
This is a simple metric that tracks the total number of new leads from incoming sources.
But it’s not enough just to get new users, it is also necessary to measure their quality, that is, weed out the “bots”. Use the LeadiD tool, which automatically rejects them.
4. Economic effect (ROI)
This is perhaps the most important indicator, as well as the most difficult to measure indicator.
It is easy to understand what the economic effect is. This is the total income received from the content marketing companies, compared with the total investment in the creation and distribution of content.
Two things are necessary for this calculation:
• Lifetime customer value
• Way to track client movements
If you already have a CRM (customer information management system), you can easily track the movements of your customers. This will help you find out what specific content helped you realize the sale. And knowing the lifetime value of the client, you can calculate the actual revenue from each sale.
Conclusion
Measuring the success of the impact of content marketing is crucial if your goal is to get more traffic and make more sales. At the same time, it is very important to measure the right indicators in the right phase.
Focus on tracking traffic exactly when you launch a new marketing campaign. Once the number of visitors has increased, start tracking the level of attraction of your content.
And finally, as soon as you get readers who regularly interact with your content, you can focus on tracking the conversion rate and calculate the economic effect of the marketing campaigns.
Respectfully, the team of fulfillment operator “Yambox”
( Yambox- turn your online store into a computer game)