Content marketing is an important part of any marketing strategy. Look at almost any business article, and you will find suggestions to improve your website, increase engagement through social media, and provide meaningful content on your blog.

Usually, those suggestions are scratching the surface of content marketing. There is so much more you can do like sending emails, creating lead magnets, or releasing videos.

But how do you know if your efforts are paying off?

You measure it. The main way to do this is to keep track of your content marketing ROI (return on investment).

What Is Content Marketing ROI?

Content marketing ROI measures the revenue generated (usually as a percentage) by your content marketing efforts compared to what you spent on those efforts.

Content Marketing ROI =  ((Return – Investment ) / Investment ) x 100

Investment, in this case, includes all resources that go into producing content. It could be time, money, or effort.

How to Measure the ROI of Content Marketing

Although the calculation above will give you the big picture view of content marketing performance, it’s seldom possible to do so quickly. The calculation might be simple, but there are many factors that go into it. Every piece of content you create has to be included in this calculation and that can add up to a massive number of steps in the process.

The easier option — which can be tracked instantaneously — is to rely on metrics produced by content management systems (CMS), social media platforms, or Customer relationship management tools (CRM). Many of these platforms and tools already provide a set of metrics for each piece of content you release.

There are many metrics you could track, but you have to keep the goal in mind: To determine content marketing ROI. For this purpose, you only need to consider a few key metrics for each type of content since many other metrics will already be incorporated into these metrics.

Let’s look at some of the metrics you may want to consider. Keep in mind that these metrics may apply to only specific content (for example, social media posts) or be more widely used throughout all kinds of content.

1. Click-Through Rate (CTR)

   The click-through rate measures how many times people click any link on content to view other content such as clicking a link on a social media post to access a blog post or product page. The CTR gives you an indication of how many people saw your content and was enticed enough by an offer or other content to click on it.

   Calculate CTR by dividing the total number of link clicks by the total number of impressions. Multiply this number by 100 to get the metric as a percentage.

2. Conversion Rate

   The conversation rate refers to how frequently content initiates a conversation event such as a download, sale, subscription, and so on. The conversation rate also indicates how valuable content is in feeding the funnel.

   To calculate conversion rate, divide the number of conversions by the number of people who visited the content. Multiply this number by 100 to get the metric as a percentage. The easiest way to measure conversions is to use UTM parameters that track conversions more easily.

3. Subscribe Rate

   Subscribe rate refers mostly to the number of people who sign up to receive content (usually emails but it could also be for events like webinars) from your business. Customers have to find out about the possibility of subscribing first — it could be by telling people about your newsletter on social media or through a pop-up on your website, for example.

   The subscribe rate should be easily available on your chosen CRM. Review it frequently to check where most of your subscriptions come from and replicate or push that content more frequently.

   Similarly, you also need to factor in unsubscribe rates as that means your audience isn’t happy with the content you are sending them and impacts your content marketing ROI negatively.

4. Open Rate

   Open rate is another metric focused more toward email marketing and measures the number of people who open content sent to them via email. This is an important metric, because if people don’t open an email, there is no chance of the content inspiring them to take the next step such as clicking on a product to make a sale.

   Open rate is calculated by dividing the number of emails opened by the total number of emails sent. Multiply this number by 100 to get the metric as a percentage. You will be able to see this metric on your CRM.

   A note on open rates: With the release of Apple iOS 15 in 2021, Apple users now have the option of enabling mail privacy protection which prevents data tracking by email senders. This change may distort the open rate metric as there is no clear indication of how many people opened emails. To counter this problem, HubSpot introduced an adjusted open rate metric.

5. Video Views

   Video marketing is a popular way to share content with your audience. You could create short reels for social media or longer educational or entertaining views to include on your website or blog.

   The easiest way to track the content ROI of video marketing is to check the number of video views; a metric found easily on social media platforms or CRMs. Support this metric with others like the click-through rate or conversion rate.

6. Number of Downloads

   Sometimes, you may release content with the intention of making it downloadable for customers. It could be a music clip, a checklist, a guide on how to do something, or whatever other content you can dream of.

   Measure the performance of this content by checking how many people download it. Once again, you can find this metric on your CMS.

   Downloads can be used in two ways: You could simply have a link that audience members can click to download the content, or you could use downloadable items as lead magnets to gather customer information for future use. If the latter is the case, then you should also be measuring the number of leads that come from the downloaded content.

7. Revenue Per Content Piece

   Ultimately, the goal of content marketing is to increase ROI. This makes it important to measure the revenue from different pieces of content. It could be the total sales achieved through an email containing different products or products pushed in organic social media posts.

   Your CRM will do most of this calculation for you. Just remember that it doesn’t always take all your expenses (like time or salaries) into account so you may want to factor that into your analysis.

Drive Growth With Metrics

All of these metrics contribute to your content marketing ROI. Use these metrics to determine the current performance of your content marketing, and use them as a starting point for future projects.

Based on your business and marketing goals, choose a few key metrics to track over the coming weeks. Decide on what kind of performance you want to see and come up with an action plan to help you get there.

You may also want to look into the industry benchmarks for each metric to see how other businesses are performing. It’s possible that you are underperforming in some areas. Knowing about them can help you to focus your efforts better.

Increase Your Klaviyo ROI

Klaviyo is a marketing platform that automates email (and SMS) marketing. You could be new to email marketing and looking for suitable tools (Klaviyo is great!) or using Klaviyo already and want to increase your content marketing ROI that way. Whether you are part of the first group or the latter, there are several things you can do to see a substantial increase in Klaviyo ROI.

The great power of platforms like Klaviyo is their ability to automate emails. You can create email flows and campaigns and schedule emails to be sent to target customers. All of this can be done in advance so there is no reason to be losing this revenue. 

Build an Email List

Before you can send any emails, you need to build an email list, and continue to do so even when you already have many subscribers. The more subscribers you have, the more people are potentially receiving your content, and that turns into revenue over the long term.

There are several ways to get people to subscribe to your email list:

• Add a subscription pop-up to your homepage and other landing pages.
• Place a sign-up form in the header, footer, or along the side of your landing pages.
• Use subscription pop-ups or forms on your blog pages.
• Add an email sign-up button to your social media pages.
• Create competitions or giveaways requiring an email address to enter.
• Collect email addresses at in-person events and physical locations.
• Require an email address when customers make a purchase and include a newsletter opt-in box.

Send Emails to the Right Target Segments

Email marketing, just like any marketing, is only effective when you target the right audience. Doing so properly can result in increased sales or an increase in average order value, but sending emails to the wrong people only results in customer frustration and potential unsubscribes or people marking emails as spam.

Klaviyo already has many features in place to help you segment your email list effectively by using parameters. You can also set up custom parameters to reach your email marketing goals.

For instance, use the 30-day engaged segment to target everyone that opened one of your emails in the last 30 days or set parameters to target couples for Valentine’s Day.

While you are busy with list segmentation, ensure that the content you plan on sending to the audience resonates with them.

Use Email Flows

Within Klaviyo, you can create automated flows to send an email (or a series of them) using triggers and filters. Some of the most popular flows include a welcome series, browse or cart abandonment flow, and a VIP flow. 

Each flow has specific triggers and filters that, when activated, will send emails to customers in the hopes of creating conversions and sales.

For example, the welcome series could be triggered when someone subscribes to your email. This series welcomes the customer to your business and may provide them with a discount code to inspire a purchase. Subsequent emails in the series can be sent with FAQs and to remind the customer of their discount and when it will run out.

Several of these email flows are prebuilt by Klaviyo and all you need to do is customise them with your content. By setting up just a few flows, you will soon see a difference in your email revenue.

Create Email Campaigns

An email campaign refers to a specific email (or set of them) sent once-off to a targeted group of subscribers. For instance, you could send a monthly email with promotions or you might send a series of emails shortly before the start of the school year to advertise your “back to school” offerings.

Email campaigns are a great way to send customers all kinds of information. Besides promotional material, include information that adds value to customers. This could include emails with holiday wishes, “how to” guides, or even creative ideas to use some of their current products that they might not have thought of before.

When using email campaigns, you will need to define a list of recipients and build the campaign. It can be time-consuming to go through the process so it may help to create some email templates ahead of time that you can populate with relevant information as needed.

Is your email marketing revenue accounting for 30% of total revenue? It should be!

Increase Your HubSpot ROI

HubSpot is a CRM that can meet all your sales, marketing, and customer service needs. It has many features that allow you to learn more about your customers so that you can target them in suitable ways which, in return, may result in higher HubSpot ROI.

Get to Know Your Customers

Customers are the gateway to success — the more you know about them, the easier it becomes to communicate with them effectively. With HubSpot, you can get to know your customer well because the CRM captures many customer details. Customers can fill in forms with their information, and HubSpot will also help you to record all interactions with your customers.

Use this information to identify the needs of individuals (grouped together into buyer personas) and create marketing strategies that will appeal to them. Content marketing should be included in these strategies. For example, if you identify that a group of customers find video content useful, you could release a series of videos discussing topics of interest to them.

Don’t stop analysing your audience or leads once they make a conversion; continue to do so as they move through the customer lifecycle because their content needs will change.

Use the Knowledge Base Feature

All prospective and existing customers will have questions for your business, but over time, you will find that some of these questions pop up again and again. For example, customers may want to know the features of a product, how to get the most out of a service, or how much different subscriptions cost.

Customers want to find the answers to these questions and concerns without much fuss. For this reason, it’s a good idea to create a Knowledge Base within HubSpot that contains blog articles, self-service features, and frequently asked questions (FAQs). You can then use the content on your Knowledge Base and create a chatbot that can provide customers answers to questions.

All of these items relate to content and result in a better user experience for customers.

Use Service Tickets

Customers want to get answers quickly and easily. If they can’t find the information they are looking for on your website or in an FAQ section, they will search for it in another way. One of the easiest ways to meet the information needs of consumers is to add a chat or ticket feature to your website.

HubSpot already has a feature for customers to log service tickets. Your business can use this feature so that customers can send their questions easily. A customer service representative can then respond to the customer with the correct information. A seamless ticketing experience can impress customers and help with conversions.

Optimise for Search

For your content to have any impact on ROI, you need to get it in front of your target audience. HubSpot has many features to help you do this, for instance, adding articles to the knowledge base allows you to define keywords that can be indexed by search engines.

Using keywords and optimising your website can help content to be crawled and indexed by search engines so that it appears higher up in search results. The type and quality of content also plays a role in search rankings — you need to create content that is valuable enough for customers and other businesses to share because they perceive you as an authority on the topic.

Work With a HubSpot Partner

Finally, to increase HubSpot ROI, it's always a good idea to work with a HubSpot Partner (such as Warbble). We have intimate knowledge of HubSpot’s features, integrations, and add-ons, which allows them to help you use the CRM optimally. You can chat with us about your unique needs, and we will customise HubSpot accordingly.

We can provide onboarding to help you learn about the platform, training so you stay up to date on the latest developments, and monthly consulting to help you get even more out of HubSpot.

Want to get more out of HubSpot? It’s easier than you imagine!

Tips and Tricks to Increase ROI

Every piece of content has the ability to increase your content marketing ROI as long as your audience finds the information appealing and it is sent to the right people. But how do you know what content people want?

A popular marketing concept is the sales funnel. It explains how consumers move through different stages — awareness, consideration, and conversion — before they become customers. The sales funnel affects content marketing directly, so in many ways, you can also consider it a content marketing funnel.

Here are some tips to increase ROI using each stage of the funnel.

Top of the Funnel: Awareness

During this stage, customers might not be aware of your business yet but they may know that they are looking for a product or service that you offer. Our content has to cater to the needs of these customers so that they can find you on social media or a search engine. 

At this stage, you want to raise awareness of your brand and products. For example, your content marketing could include infographics, interactive tools. Videos, viral content, and entertaining campaigns.

Middle of the Funnel: Consideration

Once customers are aware of your business, you need to keep them engaged by giving them content that entertains or educates them while also increasing familiarity with your brand and offerings. The ultimate goal of this stage is to convince the audience that your business is the best one to work with or shop at.

Content that works for this part of the funnel include blog posts, webinars, case studies, e-books, how-to guides, podcasts, and video demos. The content you create here should be relevant to customer’s needs and similar to what they would search for. For example, “how to bake a cake” could be a useful topic for customers so you could have content on this topic using your store ingredients.

Bottom of the Funnel: Conversion

At the bottom of the funnel, customers have been convinced by your business and content to such an extent that they have made a purchase or done something resulting in a conversion. This is when customers become more valuable to your business and can become loyal supporters — you want to nurture customers at this stage.

Creating valuable content is essential to keep these customers engaged and returning to your business. It’s the ideal time to let customers know what is happening by sending them email newsletters, inviting them to webinars, or sending training guides so customers stay up to date.

Sometimes, customers may drift away from your business or not make purchases as frequently as before. Nurture these relationships with retargeting initiatives or content promoting the latest products.

Conclusion

Increasing your content marketing ROI should be a top priority, because when you focus on providing quality content that appeals to your audience, your customers will respond positively.

Use the sales funnel to inform your content creation process. Publish content on the best platforms or communication channels so that the right target audience will see it and to drive engagement. Utilise an email marketing platform like Klaviyo and CRM tools such as HubSpot to help automate your content marketing. Finish it all off by tracking content metrics to see what is working and what isn’t; then, adjust your strategy accordingly.

If the idea of content marketing or any part of it overwhelms you or you just need some extra help, then it’s a great time to make contact. Our team of marketing experts are always ready to help your business grow.