Mind the gap.

There’s a gap that exists in content marketing and it’s causing a mess. One that many firms are making even worse.

With statistics applied from

the 2015 B2B content marketing report, let’s reveal this growing chasm.

Imagine every B2B organization in North America as 100 firms.

Just 14 of those firms DON’T use content marketing.

86% of firms DO use content marketing.

Those firms were asked how successful they were at tracking the return on investment from content marketing campaigns.

Just 18 of our 86 firms feel confident in their organizations ability to track the return of content marketing campaigns.

21%

21% 64% 15%

55 of these B2B firms feel that their ability to track ROI from content marketing is either mediocre or not at all accurate. The remaining 11

firms don’t even bother tracking ROI from content marketing.

More organizations using content marketing

Lack of success in tracking content marketing ROI

&

Disaster.

(and it gets worse…)

What did these 86 firms plan to do with their content marketing budgets in the upcoming year?

55%

47 of the 86 firms plan to increase content marketing spend over the next year.

55%

32%

28 firms are going to keep the budget where it is currently.

55%

32% 11%

2%

9 of the firms are unsure of the budgets fate, while just 2 firms are decreasing or eliminating the budget altogether.

21% 64% 15%

BUT WAIT! Remember this? 79% of firms either don’t track ROI at all or feel pretty mediocre about their organizations abilities to do so.

55%

32% 11%

2%

These same firms are upping budgets or keeping them the same. Without even knowing what they’re really getting in return.

More organizations using content marketing

Lack of success in tracking content marketing ROI

&

Throwin’ money without discretion

Huge freaking mess.

Clean-up time.

Before a firm even begins a content marketing campaign, it must identify how the results of the initiative will be reported.

There are two core reporting groups for every content

marketing campaign. The first report is to whomever is holding the purse strings. We’ll refer to that group as the “Chief Suite.”

The second group is one that is too often overlooked in

reporting processes: the content creators.

Leading

Lead Metrics

Market Share Revenue

Lagging

Chief Suite We’ll begin by looking at the key metrics the Chief Suite is interested in and where to find them.

o 

o 

o 

o 

o 

o 

o 

o 

o 

o  Lagging

Choose what represents revenue within your organization.

Is the content driving sales? Is the content saving costs?

o 

o 

o 

o 

o 

o 

o 

o 

o 

o  Leading  

Choose metrics that directly impact the lagging indicator.

Lead quality Lead quantity

Sales cycle duration Market share

o 

o 

o 

o 

o 

o 

o 

o 

o 

o 

o 

o 

o  Correlation Causation

Implementing Tracking Pixels CRM & Sales Close Rates

Site Metrics

Query Rankings

Social Metrics

Supporting

Content Creators Too often overlooked, but

oh-so critical. It is essential to provide the

content creators with results from content

marketing campaigns.

Why does the content perform the way it does?

o 

o 

o 

o 

o 

o 

o 

o 

o 

o  Supporting  

o  o  o  o  o  o  o  o  o  o 

o  o  o  o  o 

Bounce Rate

Social Engagement

Search Query Rankings

Website Traffic Consumption Habits User Paths

Use these metrics to identify:

Now what?

Leading

Lead Metrics

Market Share

Site Metrics

Query Rankings

Social Metrics

Supporting

Revenue

Lagging

Content Creators Chief Suite

Supporting indicators that drive leading indicators.

Leading indicators that prove the

lagging indicators.

Lagging indicators.

Identify & CONTINUOUSLY DOCUMENT the:

twitter @realemilylouisa