10 Ideas to Improve your Content Marketing ROI

Content marketing is not a quick-win game, especially for startups. Implementation of a content marketing strategy is a slow method but is often effective in the long term. Despite content marketing being a creative activity, it needs to be measured and backed up with data. It must contribute to the business goals.

In every marketing campaign launched, you are determined in getting positive results. To generate the best out of a marketing campaign, you need the right strategies to improve your returns on investment (ROI).

Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach that focuses on giving valuable, and relevant content to retain or attract customers and hence drive more sales. Although there are other elements to measure the performance of your content marketing, ROI helps you know whether you are relevant or not. In simple terms, ROI is the percentage of revenue you gain from your content efforts in comparison to the expenses applied.

So, if the income obtained is higher than the cost put in, then the Content marketing ROI is profitable. Tracking your ROI can help you know what works best or where to improve.

 

Content Marketing ROI in B2C vs B2B

Content marketing for a B2C is different from that in a B2B company. B2C stands for Business to Consumer while B2B stands for Business to Business.

 

One of the main differences between the two is that in B2C the end user and decision maker is one person, while in B2B, the end user and final decision maker is a different person. So, content marketing in B2C persuades one person but in B2B convinces the decision maker to buy your products and proves the benefits to the end user.

 

Also, B2C is community-based giving the content marketer more freedom, on the other hand, B2B relies on sales enablement since the sales cycle is long. The success of B2C content promotion is more likely to occur than in B2B since they use different channels for marketing. In whatever company you are in, the goal is to improve the Return on Investment.

Here are some ideas to consider to improve your content marketing ROI:

 

1.  Have a Plan

Prior to starting a marketing campaign, have a content calendar. Whether, a content creator or an entrepreneur working with a small team, you need to maximize your time and resources. A content calendar is a suitable way to navigate through all your marketing efforts. This tool enables you to remain proactive in your business. No matter the size of the company or how huge the marketing campaign is, you need to think about what you are creating and publishing to drive more traffic to your site.

The objective of a content calendar is to help arrange your marketing efforts by giving direction to your team and ensuring the whole process is efficient. A content calendar helps you visualize your strategy and plan on time and resource usage. It helps you in the initial phase of brainstorming, which helps in producing consistent content. Instead of worrying about missing important dates, create and follow a content calendar. While the marketing is progressing, you can use the content calendar to track your direction hence maximize on content effectiveness.

 

Avoid the question, “what should I post next? “. 63 % of businesses are faced with this question, which mostly ends up producing low-quality content. That’s why successful brands start with a strategic plan.

 

2.  Define Your Core Metrics

What makes a piece of content a success?

How can you measure success?

 

Successful content marketing is not based on feelings but on authentic metrics and data. The core metrics for a marketing campaign are leads, traffic, onsite engagement, social media engagement, and sales. It would be obvious that for selling you use the sales metric. Measuring performance enables you to analyze your strengths and weaknesses.

 

Reaching the target audience for your sales will increase your ROI. Determining where your most converted traffic is coming from will lead to understanding your potential customers and generating more sales.

 

Instead of trying to track all the content marketing metrics, it is easier to choose a few metrics depending on your goals. To know the effectiveness of your marketing messages, measure the conversion rate, Bounce rate, and unique visitors after every campaign. If the conversion rate is high, you likely had a successful campaign. From this, you get to know how to further improve your ROI meaning that you can redefine your marketing tactics to continue reaching more target customers.

3.  Have Quality, Evergreen Content

Great content attracts an audience and an audience generates leads. Investing your time and effort in content that does not perform well is like throwing your resources in the trash. You should ensure that your budget gives you high-quality content that is relevant to what you do.

 

Evergreen content has information that remains useful, true, and relevant for a long period of time. High-quality and evergreen information will draw traffic for months or even years.

 

According to Google search quality guidelines, quality content has the following features:

• Answers the frequently asked questions from your audience
• Gives an explanation of what may be confusing to the audience
• Provide tips “how to” explanations

 

Not all topics are relevant to your business. You must come up with content that gives value to your potential customer. Most of the popular topics have already been covered, hence it is important to spin your content in a unique way. Evergreen content is contagious!

4.  Make use of Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

In today’s content marketing, SEO and ROI go hand in hand. SEO is one of the popular ways to maintain online growth. You might be curious to know how SEO improves ROI, but there are indicators that prove SEO to be an effective method compared to other methods. Among the indicators are, that it is long-lasting and keeps improving over time, it is also low cost and your first investment will be worth it even after a long time.

 

Google has given the statistics of approximately 5.7 billion searches per day and has taken 90% of the total search market. With these numbers, then its is valuable to try and be part of that traffic. Furthermore, the average click-through rate for the top positions in google is 19.3% and drops to almost half for the second position. Therefore, search engine optimization is important for a business that wants to be part of the traffic on google. Being pushed down by your competitors can cause slow growth in your business.

 

Unlike in paid advertising where you pay to get traffic, SEO organically generates leads.  The major goal of SEO is increasing traffic., which in turn helps in getting conversions.

 

5.  Use Different Marketing Channels

Test different marketing channels to see which one works best for you. As a marketer, there are various options available to reach the potential customer. But with all of them from billboards to social media campaigns to event sponsorship, it can be difficult to know which ones are worth your marketing dollars.

Which marketing channels produce the highest ROI?

The channels that produce the highest Roi are paid, search, and email. The strategies used are SEO, email marketing, and pay-per-click advertising. There is no one channel that fits the marketing plan. What drives customers for a certain company is different for another. The best approach is to know the best marketing channel for your target audience as well as for your product. Then test quickly to know what works and maximize on that channel.

 

6.  Be Consistent

After you start putting your content to the public, you need to remain consistent. The more consistent you give useful and relevant information the better the returns on investment you get.  Google algorithm as well as your audience notice your consistency.

Logically, even the brand that is more trusted publishes content often. The fact remains, that the more ranking content you have, the more traffic gained. The more traffic, the more the possibility of conversions.  Always remember that the secret to boosting your content marketing ROI is regularly publishing high-quality content.

7.  Optimize the Design of your Website

While giving high-quality content is key, don’t forget to enhance the look of your website. Your website is your brand headquarter where your readers and google meet your content. Readers should be able to easily access your content and engage with it.

 

If your website takes much time to load or has too many ads, the reader may be pissed off and fail to read your amazing content. Good user experience is considered by google in determining your ranking position.

To optimize your website;

• Let the page navigation remain clear, logical, and easy to find.
• Reduce the annoying distractions like too many ads. Only use them when they are relevant to the user.
• Work on the site loading speed.

 

Don’t forget to choose an appealing theme for your website. Readers feel cool when the page setup is classic and well arranged.

8.  Identify your Audience.

Getting a positive ROI from your content marketing cannot be done without understanding your target audience. Spend time before making any content to know what the audience wants from your content. Examining your audience involves a deep understanding of their concerns, hobbies, ambitions, and everything in between.

Identify the key personas and prioritize content making per the targets and revenue potentials. Without understanding your key personas, you can only guess the subject matter which may cause some difference with the audience. The steps to follow while identifying your audience are;

• Picture the ideal customer
• Know their objectives and obstacles they face
• Identify where their role intersects with your content.
• Consider their communication preference (social media, emails, or daily/ weekly posts)
• Determine the questions the customer may have and create content that answers the questions

 

Remember, the target is to reach the potential customers who will increase traffic, generate sales and increase the Return on Investment.

9.  Use Call- To -Action Buttons

A call-to- Action is a marketing term that calls for the next step expected of the reader by the marketer. A CTA can link the reader directly to sales. It creates a sense of urgency and increases conversion rates.

An example of a call to action is commenting on a social media post or a call to sign up for a free trial. Templates or checklists can be included in a call to action. A great CTA can help you in capturing leads to maximize returns. It is basically an element that grabs the attention of the reader and pushes them to become a customer.

Sounds important? Well, it is! Without a CTA, the potential customer is left unsure of what is next through the product buying process. It is now clear that to obtain a positive ROI, various components are put into practice.

10.  Use visuals.

In today’s content making, visuals have become a concern to the consumer. Visuals are a great way to spice up the whole content. The client is more likely to spend more time online and the visual images hold their interest more than text alone would have done.

Most internet users love watching videos, scrolling through images, and reading short articles. Hence, visuals, videos, or images are the quickest and most effective methods to deliver a message. Adding videos, images or infographics gives the user something to engage with.

Visuals help ensure that the user can easily recall your brand. It is an essential part of the conversion potential since people are unlikely to buy from a brand they have never had before. Research proves that a human being retains visual information longer than a plain test. They also improve understanding and increase the motivation to take action.

In conclusion, no single approach will help you gain more ROI from your content. No one part of your content strategy will do all the work. It should be like an interconnected machine. Each part is needed to bring its own weight for the whole strategy to work. If you focus on one strategy, you will end up losing big.