The Blueprint to B2B Content Metrics

7/26/2019 The Blueprint to B2B Content Metrics

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The Blueprint to B2B Content Metrics

Table of Contents

Analytics versus Insights 4

The Three Pillars of Content 6Measurement

1. THE HEALTH OF CONTENT PRODUCTION 6

Measuring Content Production FAQs .............................................. 9

2. THE TOTAL REACH OF YOUR CONTENT 10

Measuring Content Reach FAQs .....................................................14

3. THE CONVERSIONS YOUR CONTENT GENERATES 17

Measuring Content Conversions FAQs ..........................................22

Time to Build Your Content Metrics 23Dashboard

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Theres an old saying in marketing andadvertising, derived from the words ofbusiness pioneer, John Wanamaker. It goeslike this:

Half the money I spend on marketing iswasted; the trouble is, I dont know whichhalf.

Theres truth in that jokeespecially when

it comes to modern marketing. As moremarketers begin to realize that content fuelstheir marketing eorts, the haziness aroundmeasuring the return on content is a growingconcern. Seventy percent of B2B enterprisesare creating more content than a year ago,with 52% planning to increase spending oncontent, according to researchfrom theContent Marketing Institute.

But measuring and proving the value of allthat content is a major hurdle. Fifty percentof B2B enterprise marketers cite the inabilityto measure content eectiveness as achallenge.

In other words, most marketers dont knowwhich half of their content is working.

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ANALYTICS VERSUS INSIGHTS

The reason so many marketers struggle to prove theimpact of content is largely because they dont know whatto measure. Dont get me wrong: you can dig up plentyof analytics. But analytics alone cant inform or aid you inoptimizing content eectiveness. Metrics need to deliverinsightsinsights that inform the health of the entirecontent lifecycle.

Why Content Insights MatterOften, in an attempt to quantify the impactof content, marketers look to vanity metricsthat dont give a full picture of contentsperformance with their target audiencesand prospectsif they have any way oftracking content at all. Seventeen percentof marketers in a Demand Metric studysaid they have nocontent eectiveness measurements in place, and 49% areusing only basic metrics such as clicks or downloads.

But content fuels marketing, and tying it to revenue is themost powerful way to show real results and to optimize formore eective content moving forward. In fact, researchconducted by the Aberdeen Groupfound that top companiesare 58% more likely to track how specic content isperforming, and more than twice as likely to have a well-dened attribution model in place for content.

But external metrics are only part of the story.

Metrics need to deliver insights

Top companies are58% more likely totrack how specifccontent is performing.

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Building and tracking eciency in content operations is acritical aspect of smart, strategic marketing eorts. $0.25 of

every dollar spent on content in the average mid-to-largeB2B rm is wasted on inecient contentoperations. Thats one-quarter of the moneyand resources dedicated to content, gone.Without technology or metrics to helpyou understand how content is produced,and where these ineciencies lie in yourprocesses and operations, it will continue togo to waste.

But, then, how is the content that doesget produced being used? Up to 70% ofB2B content goes unused because content isnt strategicallymapped to buyer interests and topics they care about, but alsobecause content cannot be found by sales. For example,whenKathleen Pierce of Illuminasurveyed her sales team, she foundthat while 80% were satised with content quality, only 20%were satised with content ndability. They couldnt access thecontent they needed to successfully selland Pierce had littleinsight into how content was performing and supporting herinternal stakeholders.

To gauge contents success across the lifecycle, to ensure itssupporting your internal stakeholders, you need access tointernal metrics as well.

If content is what fuels our marketing, then we need tomeasure the impact of that content across marketing.Content metrics should not only explain performance, theyshould deliver insights that help marketers make data-drivendecisions.

Anything less is just noise.

80% of salespeoplereported being satisfedwith content quality, butonly 20% were satisfedwith content fndability

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THE THREE PILLARS OF

CONTENT MEASUREMENTSo, what metrics should be applied to marketing content?Here are the three basic pillars you need to track to builda valuable, holistic dashboard for performance across thecontent lifecycle.

1. THE HEALTH OF CONTENT PRODUCTIONThis is the most ignored area in content

measurement, so we put it rst. Contenthas become the product of marketing, so itsimportant to improve your process for gettingit to market. The only way to do this is bytracking your content production cycles.

There are four areas marketers need tomeasure to understand how content owsthrough the production pipeline (and remove

any clogs that pop up).They are (1) average length of production,(2) on-time delivery rates, (3) bottlenecks inworkows, and (4) content coverage gaps.

Average Length of Production

To get your content to market eciently, you need to knowhow long it takes to execute a production cycle. A key metrichere is the average number of days it takes to move content

from the idea phase to publication. B2B marketers need totrack this across all contentdown to individual assetsiftheyre going to accurately gauge the health of productionprocesses.

Measuring Health ofContent Production

1. Average Length ofProduction

2. On-Time Delivery Rates

3. Bottlenecks inWorkows

4. Content Coverage Gaps

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This cant be limited to the time it takes designers and writersto complete their tasks; you need to measure how quickly

content moves through revisions, reviews, and approvals.Ticketing systems are great, but to accurately benchmarkand implement timelines for content creation, you need tocapture the entire ow of production.

On-Time Delivery Rates

Marketers have become accustomed topushed deadlinesits almost a given. Theproblem is that marketers usually dont have

systems in place to quantify the late contentproblem. Missed deadlines mean missedopportunities, so B2B organizations need totrack and improve their on-time delivery rates by capturinghow often they miss deadlines by asset type, contributor, andmore.

Bottlenecks in Workows

Since workows guide content creation, marketers need to

pinpoint which tasks slow down production. These could bebig steps like submitting or designing content, or smaller, yetcritical, steps such as approvals or copyedits. To measurethis, compare the average time it takes to complete a specictask in a workow against how often that task is completedlate. Armed with this data, marketers can tackle bottlenecks,many of which are easy to x but typically hidden.

Content Coverage Gaps

In B2B marketing, mapping content to specic buyerpersonas and sales stages is critical; its the only way toconsistently develop targeted, relevant, and timely content.By aligning content in production to the buyers journey (aswell as other key objectives like regions, business units, etc.),

Missed deadlines meanmissed opportunities

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Averagenumber ofdays to complete

workow task

Measured by daysand percentage of timedelivered late

Reported per asset

Numberof assets inproduction bypersona and salesstage

marketers can locate gaps in coverage and address themstrategically. Otherwise, marketers will continue to rely on

guesswork to ll important gaps, rather than actual data.

Average of contentdelivered late / past

deadline

Reported perasset type

Average numberof days to producecontent

Reported perasset type

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Measuring Content Production FAQs

How long does it take us to produce our most common assets?

List assets: ___________________________________________________________________

Number of days in production for each asset: _______________________________

How often do we miss deadlines for our most common assets?

List assets: ___________________________________________________________________

Percentage delivered late by asset: __________________________________________

Which tasks are slowing us down?

List assets: ___________________________________________________________________

List steps in workow by asset: ______________________________________________

Average number of days to complete task: __________________________________

Percentage of late task completion by task: _________________________________

Do we have enough content in production to cover each personas journey

through our pipeline?

List personas: ________________________________________________________________

List pipeline stages: __________________________________________________________

Content in production by persona and pipeline stage: _______________________

_______________________________________________________________________________

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2. THE TOTAL REACH OF CONTENTJust about every marketer measures reach and engagementin some way. Page views, clicks, sharesmost professionalsare familiar with these metrics. But most B2B organizationsare missing (1) the ability to track engagement across contenttypes and channels in a single place and (2) metrics on theircontents internal reach.

When it comes to reach, these are the twocritical areas to capture in your contentmeasurement dashboard.

Internal Reach

Marketing content isnt solely for buyers atthe top of the funnelat least, it shouldnt be. Youre alsoproducing content to be used by teams internally, enablingsales teams and equipping customer-facing support teams.That internal usage needs to be tracked, reported on, andoptimized against.

In a fully functioning marketing organization, internal teams(such as various divisions of marketing, sales, support, etc.)serve as distribution channels for content. Theyre not onlyable to share assets through broadcast channels like social,but through direct one-on-one communication channels suchas email, oering relevant content to buyers based on theirspecic roles, sales stages, or interests.

In order to facilitate this kind of internal consumption,distribution, and tracking, marketers need to complete two

steps.

Measuring TotalReach of Content

Internal Reach External Reach

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First, marketing teams must organizecontent in a central, accessible, and intuitive

repository from which various teams canaccess and distribute content. When contentis organized by critical marketing objectivessuch as personas, sales stages, campaigns,and regions, marketers can easily nd assets and repurposethem, and stakeholders outside of marketing can quicklyidentify and distribute the most relevant content.

Secondly, marketers need to track the internal reach of theircontent to ensure its meeting the needs of the organization.This step in content measurement is often skipped or plainlyignored. As a result, many marketers cant determine whichassets provide value to internal teams as they facilitatedierent stages of the customer lifecycle. For instance,marketing teamsparticularly in eld and product marketinggroupsproduce content meant to be consumed andutilized by the sales team. But few actually know which assetsare gaining internal traction. Only 27%of B2B marketerstrack content utilization metrics, resulting in lots of wastedeort; as much as 70%of B2B marketing content isnt usedby sales teams.

Creating a closed feedback loop from internal reachto external reach requires marketers to measure andbenchmark the following criteria:

1. How much marketing content is being consumed anddigested by internal teams?

2. Are these teams using that content to facilitate and driveengagement with buyers?

3. What kind of engagement are we getting from buyers as aresult of internal shares of our content?

Only 27% of B2Bmarketers track content

utilization metrics

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This kind of closed loop should be reported in yourdashboard. Only when the marketing team can see contentmetrics and understand how content is digested and sharedby internal stakeholders, can they pull the right levers toincrease activation. These metrics are a crucial, yet oftenoverlooked, element of a content measurement dashboard.

External Reach

Reach is a dicult metric to dene becausethe ways marketers track it (impressions,engagement, etc.) often vary from channelto channel and system to system. Whatsimportant to calculate is how content creates anengagement (a click, a view, a share, a download, an emailopen, etc.) across the channels and tools used to reachbuyers.

Reach metrics become insights when they go beyond simplycounting engagement levels and instead inform which leversyou can pull to drive further growth. The diagram on the nextpage describes areas of measurement for external reach.

Up to 70% of B2Bmarketing content

goes unused

InternalConsumption

InternalShares

ReferralsEarned

# Month over Month internal views ofassets # MoM internal downloads of assets

# MoM internal shares of assets via emailor social

# MoM referral trac from internal shares

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Cross-

ChannelReach

Engagementby Category

TopEngagedAssets

# Engagements per month by type of engagement (i.e.views, downloads, opens, etc.)

Trac by channel category (i.e. Direct, Paid, Organic, etc.) Referral percentage by channel source

# Engagements by content type (i.e. blog post, video, email,etc.) # Engagements by buyer persona # Engagements by sales stages

10 most engaged assets per quarter 10 most shared assets per quarter

A useful B2B dashboard will track your cross-channelreach, including engagement metrics such as: email opensand downloads, which channels are driving the mostengagement, how uctuations in channel performance

impact total engagement across each channel, and whichassets create the most engagement over a specic periodof time. Again, most marketers are tracking some, if not all,of these metrics, but in disparate spreadsheets. To providea full picture of eectiveness, they need to be in a singledashboard.

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Measuring Content Reach FAQs

How often are internal teams (marketing, sales, support, etc.)viewing and/or downloading our content?

Number of internal views of all content for the past three months:

Month 1: ____________________

Month 2: ____________________

Month 3: ____________________

Number of internal downloads of all assets for the past three months:Month 1: ____________________

Month 2: ____________________

Month 3: ____________________

How often are internal teams sharing our contentand what engagement is that driving back?

Number of internal shares of assets for the past three months:

Month 1: ____________________

Month 2: ____________________

Month 3: ____________________

Referral trac driven by internal shares of content for the past threemonths:

Month 1: ____________________Month 2: ____________________

Month 3: ____________________

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Which channels are driving the most engagement with our content?

Page views from website/blog: ________________________________________________Downloads from landing pages: _______________________________________________

Email opens: __________________________________________________________________

Views on video: _______________________________________________________________

Other: _________________________________________________________________________

Which channels are delivering overall engagement for our content?

List channels in use: ___________________________________________________________

Total trac by channel (per month): __________________________________________

Percentage of trac by channel (per month):_________________________________

Total trac across channels (per month):_____________________________________

Which content types drive the most engagement?

List content types in use: ______________________________________________________

Engagements by content type (per month): ___________________________________

Which buyer personas and sales stages are the most engaged?

List buyer personas: ___________________________________________________________

Engagements per persona (per month): _______________________________________

List sales stages: ______________________________________________________________

Engagements per sales stage (per month): ____________________________________

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What are the ten most engaged with and shared assets each month?

Most engaged assets per monthComplete the following information for each of the top ten assets

Title: __________________________________________

Author: _______________________________________

Content Type: ________________________________

Number of engagements: ____________________

Most shared assets per month

Complete the following information for each of the top ten assets

Title: __________________________________________

Author: _______________________________________

Content Type: ________________________________

Number of shares: ___________________________

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3. THE CONVERSIONS YOUR CONTENT

GENERATESSimilar to internal reach metrics, measuring how contentperforms within your pipeline is a frequently missed aspectof reporting. Lacking these metrics puts signicant stresson the marketing team when determiningthe value of content eorts. Content servesall aspects of the sales and marketing funnel,helping move buyers through each stage ofthe sales cycle. But without conversion metrics,

marketers are in the dark when determiningthe true inuence of content within thesestages, and cant optimize future production based onperformance.

Marketers can address this gap head on by reporting thecontent scoreof assets, campaigns, and content categories.A content score simply uses an attribution model for thecontent that generates leads, opportunities, and revenue ateach stage of the pipeline. For instance, if your pipeline is

made up of three stages (marketing-qualied leads, sales-accepted leads, and closed deals), you would track the assetsthat generate the most conversions for each of these stages.

The most common way to determine a content score for anyasset, campaign, or category of content (such as a specictopics or themes, interviews, instructional assets, lists, etc.)is to evaluate each buyers movement through a stage of thepipeline and the content consumed during that stage, then

divide the conversion by the number of assets, campaigns,or categories touched. You can also apply a rst touch / lasttouch attribution model to each asset within that journey,giving greater weight to content that brought the buyer intoor through that stage of the pipeline.

Content serves allaspects of the sales

and marketing funnel

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To explain how this works, lets look at an example of scoringindividual assets that a buyer touches while moving from a

lead to a marketing qualied lead (MQL).

In this example, the lead touches six assets: a whitepaper, anemail, two blog posts, a video, and a webinar, in that exactorder. So the buyers journey from lead to MQL looks like this:

Example of a B2B Buyers Content Journey:Lead to MQL

First Touch: Whitepaper

Second Touch: Email

Third Touch: Blog Post

Fourth Touch: Blog Post

Fifth Touch: Video

Sixth Touch: Webinar

Stage: Lead

Stage: MQLThose six assets served to convert one MQL,

so given equal weight, each asset would earna content score of /.

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But when I am using a rst touch / last touch attributionmodel, providing greater weight for the content assets that

(1) Introduced and (2) converted the buyer at this stage of thepipeline, 30% is attributed to each of the assets touched atthe beginning and end of the MQL stage, with the remaining40% spread evenly across the four content assets consumedbetween the rst and last touch. The content scores for theassets in this example would be calculated like this:

Scoring the Content Journey with First Touch /Last Touch Weighted Attribution: Lead to MQL

Whitepaper Content Score = 0.3

Email Content Score = 0.1

Blog Post Content Score = 0.1

Blog Post Content Score = 0.1

Video Content Score = 0.1

Webinar Content Score = 0.3

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For the purposes of reporting, this operation should beperformed across all buyers at each stage based on their

individual content journeys, and then sorted by individualasset, campaign (where multiple assets are rolled up undera single theme or initiative), and category (which can spanseveral content types and appear in multiple campaigns).You can also use this model to calculate and assign revenuecontribution when buyers move through the nal stageof the sales pipeline. Performed across each stage, andaveraged across all buyers journeys at each stage, thereporting model looks like the one below.

Scoring the Content Journey through the Deal Cycle:MQL to Closed Deal

Stages ofPipeline

Volume in Stage Metrics to Capture

MQLs Content Score by Asset Content Score by Campaign (multiple assets and content types) Content Score by Category (multiple content types and campaigns)

Content Score by Asset Content Score by Campaign (multiple assets and content types) Content Score by Category (multiple content types and campaigns)

Content Score by Asset Content Score by Campaign (multiple assets and content types) Content Score by Category (multiple content types and campaigns)

Revenue by asset Revenue by campaign (multiple assets and content types) Revenue by category (multiple content types and campaigns)

SALs

Closed

Deals

600

200

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As content programs advance within the organization,so must the reporting. By measuring only top-of-funnel

performance, the content itself will not be seen as valuablebeyond driving trac and new names into the database.Content scoring ensures you can prove the value of contentin driving conversions at each stage of the pipeline. Italso enables marketing teams to determine which assets,campaigns, and categories of content have the most impactthroughout the pipeline. In many cases, successful contentat one stage may not drive results at another. The contentdigested at the beginning of buyers journeys may not be the

same as the content that resonates near the end.

Content scoring allows your teams to discover and optimizefuture production based on these patterns. For advancedmarketers, content score is a crucial step in reportingthe impact of content on driving conversions, and shouldbe featured prominently in the content measurementdashboard.

Content scoring ensures you canprove the value of content in drivingconversions at each stage of pipeline

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Measuring Content Conversion FAQs

What stages make up my sales and marketing pipeline?

List each stage: ________________________________________________________________

Which assets are driving the most conversions at each stage?

Name top ten assets based on conversions generated for each stage(per quarter): __________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________

Which campaigns are driving the most conversions at each stage?

Name top ten campaigns (contain multiple assets) based on conversionsgenerated for each stage: _____________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________

Which categories of content are resonating with buyers at each stage?

List categories of content your organization actively produces:________________________________________________________________________________

List each category based on conversions generated for each stage:________________________________________________________________________________

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Time to Build Your Content

Metrics DashboardFor B2B marketers, content development isnt just designedfor top-of-funnel activity. It fuels every touchpoint in thebuyers journey.

A B2B marketing dashboard needs to look at the healthof content production cycles, the internal and externalengagement sparked by content, and how content movesbuyers through the pipeline.

Content is growing up within B2B enterprises. Your reportingneeds to evolve along with it.

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Need insights?

Get the metrics that matter withKapost.

Kapost empowers B2B marketers with a completedashboard for evaluating and optimizingperformance across the content lifecycle.

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The Blueprint to B2B Content Metrics

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