It’s generally noted in the content marketing world that, as I mentioned earlier, results can be tricky to track. In large companies, whole departments are devoted to tracking results. Most smaller companies, however, don’t have those kind of resources available, and it can be difficult to measure. If you have downloadable materials (white papers, webinars, templates, etc.) on your website you can at least track how many people provided their information and how many ultimately turned into customers through that channel. Ideally, you want to continue communicating with people after they have downloaded your free material. What else can you offer them? How else can you keep in touch? And you want to track the cost of turning them from a prospective customer into an actual customer.

So, for example, if your content marketing this year cost you $100,000 and you followed the trail of potential customer behaviours and exposures to find out that the leads generated through the content marketing initiatives alone increased your sales by $145,000, then you can calculate your ROI this way:

$145,000 – $100,000 / $100,000 = $45,000 / $100,000 = 45%

In reality, it’s often difficult to determine where a lead came from, and how many exposures they’ve actually had to your online content. That being said, the downloadable materials make it possible to track at least the leads that came through that channel, and where they went thereafter.

Most businesses that want to use their content to generate more sales will find that it takes nine months or more to get set up and into a position where measureable results are achievable. Some content marketers suggest that it’s really only after a year that results begin to show up. Other types of digital marketing can get results faster but they are not usually related to brand development, reputation management, or information cultivation. Amazon bestseller campaigns, for example, can generate hundreds of book sales in one day by employing highly complex and welI-organized strategies. They are not relying on their content to drive sales, however, and they are usually a B to C, rather than a B to B concept.

Most of Crossman Communications’ clients want a content marketing strategy in place because they realize they need to tell their story in engaging and effective ways. They want the people who visit their online properties to know what they do, and they want to develop some rapport with them so that they are motivated, as much as is possible, to embark upon a business relationship with them. This is story telling at its most technical. It’s about relationship development. The stories we tell ourselves influence the results we get, in business and in life, and the stories we tell our potential customers are likewise crucial to results. Measuring the effect of our story telling lets us know if we need to be telling better stories.

Would you like some assistance with that? Please contact our team at info@crossmancommunications.com to find out more about how we can support your content marketing efforts!