Calculating content marketing’s cost per How to Calculate Content Marketing ROI

How to Calculate Content Marketing ROI

Despite a huge surge in adoption of content marketing, measuring the business impact of content is complicated.

HOW DO I CALCULATE CONTENT MARKETING ROI? Is the most common question we hear from marketers struggling to build their own business case internally. “ ”

Many are plagued by their inability to measure the eﬀectiveness of their content initiatives...

but they’re measuring too narrowly...

and vanity metrics such as “likes” and “views” aren’t enough on their own merit.

Marketers need to be able to measure things that have a quantiﬁable value that they can take to the bank.

In this guide, we’ll map out how to calculate the impact of content across the business and the recommended metrics to benchmark your content initiatives.

TABLE OF CONTENTS BUILD THE BUSINESS CASE FIND THE BUDGET MEASURE THE BUSINESS CASE BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS YOU NEVER WOULD HAVE REACHED

PART 1 BUILD THE BUSINESS CASE

All marketing spend should be tied to quantiﬁable results the sales team and executives can understand.

Knowing the costs and ROI of other marketing departments will also help benchmark your content marketing program and see how to stack up in comparison.

If you’re not sure what metrics to ask for, here are some to get you started: Conversion rate Average deal size Marketing-generated pipeline Marketing-generated opportunities Marketing-generated deals Marketing-generated revenue Average cost per lead Customer acquisition cost Marketing % of customer acquisition cost Time to payback customer acquisition cost Cost per registration (content or events) Cost per sale

PART 2 FIND THE BUDGET

Sometimes it can be diﬃcult for companies to carve out suﬃcient budget to fund new content marketing programs.

But we can ﬁnd this budget if we look in the right places.

But we can ﬁnd this budget if we look in the right places. (which is probably not here)

First, we need to have a solid understanding of your organization’s current content costs and utilization.

Every organization creates content, so start with calculating those content costs.

STEP 1 CONDUCT AN AUDIT FOR A SAMPLE OF THE CONTENT YOUR ORGANIZATION PRODUCES

CONDUCT AN AUDIT FOR A SAMPLE OF THE CONTENT YOUR ORGANIZATION PRODUCES STEP 1 APPLY THE AVERAGE COSTS IN ORDER TO GAIN A SENSE FOR THE SIZE OF THE PROBLEM STEP 2

Next, we need to understand how much of your content actually gets used.

60-70% OF CONTENT GOES COMPLETELY UNUSED ON AVERAGE,

REMEMBER, CONTENT THAT GETS CREATED, BUT NEVER USED IS WASTE. 100%

(That’s a lot of waste)

How much your organization is wasting on unused content Amount that gets used Current content production costs

A planned content marketing strategy would provide a platform to share, reuse and repurpose that unused content in order to grow brand awareness, improve brand health and drive conversions.

Next, we need to look at opportunity costs from under-performing digital assets

We know customers are tuning out advertising…

The average click-through rate of display ads is 0.1%. (DoubleClick).1% 8% Only 8% of internet users account for 85% of clicks on display ads (and some aren’t even humans!) (comScore) 50% About 50% of clicks on mobile ads are accidental (GoldSpot)

In fact, you’re more likely to be struck by lightening than click a banner ad. Source: Business Insider, 2011

Asking for a small percentage of a larger advertising budget for short-lived campaigns is a good place to start looking for budget donations.

Finally, approach budgeted teams with a partnership opportunity.

There was a team at SAP that had an enormous budget for advertising campaign landing pages. Those pages typically saw a 99.9% bounce rate, and any traﬃc that went there was paid. I asked for a small percentage of that budget with the promise of driving organic traﬃc to the site. It was a win- win for the both of us. ” “ -  Michael Brenner – Head of Strategy, NewsCred Former VP of Content and Marketing Strategy, SAP

PART 3 MEASURE THE BUSINESS CASE BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS

PART 3 WE CAN DO THIS A FEW DIFFERENT WAYS BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS MEASURE THE BUSINESS CASE

BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS BRAND AWARENESS BUSINESS CASE 1

In other words, how many of your early-stage prospects are ﬁnding their way to your company website? BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS

Search traffic your site receives from paid search advertisements versus traffic due to a high organic search ranking. BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS WHAT TO MEASURE PAID VS. ORGANIC SEARCH TRAFFIC UNBRANDED ORGANIC SEARCH TRAFFIC ORGANIC SEARCH SHARE OF VOICE Search traffic your site receives from keywords that never mention your brand name or products. The percentage of online conversations in your space that include your brand.

Search traffic your site receives from keywords that never mention your brand name or products. BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS WHAT TO MEASURE PAID VS. ORGANIC SEARCH TRAFFIC UNBRANDED ORGANIC SEARCH TRAFFIC ORGANIC SEARCH SHARE OF VOICE The percentage of online conversations in your space that include your brand. Search traffic your site receives from paid search advertisements versus traffic due to a high organic search ranking.

The percentage of online conversations in your space that include your brand. BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS WHAT TO MEASURE PAID VS. ORGANIC SEARCH TRAFFIC UNBRANDED ORGANIC SEARCH TRAFFIC ORGANIC SEARCH SHARE OF VOICE Search traffic your site receives from keywords that never mention your brand name or products. Search traffic your site receives from paid search advertisements versus traffic due to a high organic search ranking.

BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS HOW TO CALCULATE THE VALUE OF: PAID VS. ORGANIC SEARCH TRAFFIC

Content marketing allows you to gain additional reach, engagement and conversion without having to pay for it. BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS

Content marketing allows you to gain additional reach, engagement and conversion without having to pay for it. You can literally earn your audience’s attention vs. buying it. BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS

Organic search traﬃc can be calculated easily via Google Analytics. BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS 1  Go to Acquisition 2  Campaigns 3  Organic Keywords

You will then see the keywords people have used to ﬁnd your website and the number of visits and percentage of overall visits you have received from each keyword. BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS

You will then see the keywords people have used to ﬁnd your website and the number of visits and percentage of overall visits you have received from each keyword. In this example, the site has received 359,953 visits from organic search traﬃc, totaling 25% of overall traffic. BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS

Next we want to see how much paid traffic we’re receiving, which we can also find in Google Analytics’ ‘Paid Keywords.’ In this example, let’s say we spend $100,000 on paid search traffic for 1,078,779 visits. BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS

Based on those numbers and percentages, we can calculate the value of that organic traﬃc. In this example, let’s say we spend $100,000 on paid search traffic. 1,078,779 359,593 $100,000 X CROSS MULTIPLY & DIVIDE TO FIND “X” BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS

Based on those numbers and percentages, we can calculate the value of that organic traﬃc. In this example, let’s say we spend $100,000 on paid search traffic. 1,078,779 359,593 $100,000 X CROSS MULTIPLY & DIVIDE TO FIND “X” BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS ALGEBRA DOES COME IN HANDY!

Based on those numbers and percentages, we can calculate the value of that organic traﬃc. In this example, let’s say we spend $100,000 on paid search traffic. 1,078,779 359,593 $100,000 X CROSS MULTIPLY & DIVIDE TO FIND “X” BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS ALGEBRA DOES COME IN HANDY! PAID ORGANIC TRAFFIC PERCENTAGE 75% 25% TOTAL TRAFFIC 1,078,779 359,593 COST/VALUE $100,000 $33,333 ORGANIC SEARCH TRAFFIC IS WORTH $33,333

BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS HOW TO CALCULATE THE VALUE OF: UNBRANDED ORGANIC SEARCH TRAFFIC

Any visitor that searches your brand name already knows where they want to go. BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS X

Unbranded organic search traﬃc is important to calculate because we want to know about the people who didn’t know where they would end up. BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS ?

They had a question or need, asked a search engine for direction, and that interaction brought them to you. BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS X X X

“The buyer journey is nothing more than a series of questions that must be answered. - IDC - ” BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS

To calculate unbranded organic search, we need to exclude your brand or products’ name from the search. BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS

To calculate unbranded organic search, we need to exclude your brand or products’ name from the search. To do this, create an “Advanced Filter” that will exclude those branded keywords. BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS

To calculate unbranded organic search, we need to exclude your brand or products’ name from the search. To do this, create an “Advanced Filter” that will exclude those branded keywords. In this example, our brand and products contain the word “Raspberry.” BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS

Let’s say the results showed that now with excluding branded keywords, your site’s organic search traﬃc accounts for 269,694 visits, or about 19% of total organic traﬃc. BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS

Let’s say the results showed that now with excluding branded keywords, your site’s organic search traﬃc accounts for 269,694 visits, or about 19% of total organic traffic. We go back to our table to calculate the value of this traﬃc. 1,078,779 269,692 $100,000 X CROSS MULTIPLY & DIVIDE TO FIND “X” BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS

Let’s say the results showed that now with excluding branded keywords, your site’s organic search traﬃc accounts for 269,694 visits, or about 19% of total organic traffic. We go back to our table to calculate the value of this traﬃc. 1,078,779 269,692 $100,000 X CROSS MULTIPLY & DIVIDE TO FIND “X” BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS PAID ORGANIC TRAFFIC PERCENTAGE 75% 19% TOTAL TRAFFIC 1,078,779 269,692 COST/VALUE $100,000 $24,100 ORGANIC UNBRANDED SEARCH TRAFFIC IS WORTH $24,100

BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS HOW TO CALCUALTE THE VALUE OF: ORGANIC SEARCH SHARE OF VOICE

This essentially measures how much your brand or product is talked about compared to your competitors. BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS COMPETITOR 2 COMPETITOR 3 COMPETITOR 1

This essentially measures how much your brand or product is talked about compared to your competitors. BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS COMPETITOR 2 COMPETITOR 3 COMPETITOR 1 YOU

First you want to choose a group of words based around your brand’s product or service. BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS

When choosing your words, be sure to stay within a common theme. In this example, we’ll use a dance brand. Source: Moz, How to Calculate Share of Voice for Organic Search BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS Keywords: •  Dance Shoes •  Dancing Shoes •  Cheap Dance Shoes •  Aﬀordable Dance Shoes •  Ballet Shoes

In general, it’s better for your SEO strategy to focus on a speciﬁc topic. BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS

Think narrow and deep, instead of broad and shallow. BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS

Next, choose your competition. Who do you want to compare yourself against? BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS

Be sure to know what URLs you’re wanting to track of your competitors. Some may use off-branded URLs for their content marketing eﬀorts. For example, ConAgra’s content marketing is done on an oﬀ-brand site, Forkful. The site provides time-saving kitchen tips and advice for cooking with kids. BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS

Now record the rankings for each keyword you selected for yourself and your competitors. If you do rank, record in what position. (Note: You can rank more than once) KEYWORD RANKING #1 RANKING #2 RANKING #3 DANCE SHOES 1 2 3 DANCING SHOES 2 3 4 CHEAP DANCE SHOES 2 AFFORDABLE DANCE SHOES 5 BALLET SHOES BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS

Now record the rankings for each keyword you selected for yourself and your competitors. If you do rank, record in what position. (Note: You can rank more than once) KEYWORD RANKING #1 RANKING #2 RANKING #3 DANCE SHOES 1 2 3 DANCING SHOES 2 3 4 CHEAP DANCE SHOES 2 AFFORDABLE DANCE SHOES 5 BALLET SHOES When doing this, keep in mind there is no point in looking at more than the top 10… BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS

…because only 2% of users travel to the 2nd page of Google. Source: Eyetools Inc. BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS

2014 GOOGLE CLICK THROUGH RATES POSITION CTR 1 31.24 2 14.04 3 9.85 4 6.97 5 5.5 6 3.73 7 0 8 0 9 0 10 0 Source: Moz, Google Organic Click-Through Rates in 2014. Now that you have your rankings, calculate your share of voice for each keyword using the chart to the left. KEYWORD RANKING #1 RANKING #2 RANKING #3 DANCE SHOES 1 2 3 DANCING SHOES 2 3 4 CHEAP DANCE SHOES 2 AFFORDABLE DANCE SHOES 5 BALLET SHOES BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS

2014 GOOGLE CLICK THROUGH RATES POSITION CTR 1 31.24 2 14.04 3 9.85 4 6.97 5 5.5 6 3.73 7 0 8 0 9 0 10 0 Source: Moz, Google Organic Click-Through Rates in 2014. Now that you have your rankings, calculate your share of voice for each keyword using the chart to the left. KEYWORD RANKING #1 RANKING #2 RANKING #3 DANCE SHOES 31.24 14.04 9.85 DANCING SHOES 14.04 9.85 6.97 CHEAP DANCE SHOES 14.04 AFFORDABLE DANCE SHOES 5.5 BALLET SHOES BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS

If your rank more than once, simply add the click through rates to ﬁnd that keyword’s total share of voice. KEYWORD RANKING #1 RANKING #2 RANKING #3 SOV DANCE SHOES 31.24 14.04 9.85 55.13% DANCING SHOES 14.04 9.85 6.97 30.86 CHEAP DANCE SHOES 14.04 14.04% AFFORDABLE DANCE SHOES 5.5 5.5% BALLET SHOES 55.13 + 30.86 + 14.04 + 5.5 + 0 / 5 = 26.38 BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS

To ﬁnd your overall share of voice, average the share of voice for all your keywords. KEYWORD RANKING #1 RANKING #2 RANKING #3 SOV DANCE SHOES 31.24 14.04 9.85 55.13% DANCING SHOES 14.04 9.85 6.97 30.86 CHEAP DANCE SHOES 14.04 14.04% AFFORDABLE DANCE SHOES 5.5 5.5% BALLET SHOES TOTAL SHARE OF VOICE 26.38% 55.13 + 30.86 + 14.04 + 5.5 + 0 / 5 = 26.38 BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS

If there’s a gap between your market share and your share of voice, that means your competition is wooing your prospects before you! BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS

If you don’t want to go through the manual trouble, there are a few tools that will help you calculate this: QUICK SPROUT: Allows you to enter up to 3 competitor sites and get a ranking on key scores for each SEMRUSH: Oﬀers free search analysis for your site and your competitors BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS

BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS BRAND HEALTH BUSINESS CASE 2

If you’re like most brands, you probably promote yourself too much. BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS

(and we tune you out) BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS

David Beebe Vice President of Global Creative + Content Marketing, Marriott International Content marketing is like a ﬁrst date. If all you do is talk about yourself, there won’t be a second date. ” “ BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS

BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS LET PEOPLE GET TO… 1  KNOW YOUR BRAND

BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS LET PEOPLE GET TO… 1  KNOW YOUR BRAND 2  LIKE YOUR BRAND

LET PEOPLE GET TO… 1  KNOW YOUR BRAND 2  LIKE YOUR BRAND 3  TRUST YOUR BRAND ENOUGH TO BUY FROM YOU BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS

Brand health measures how your digital audience feels about you. BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS

The percentage of visitors who enter your site and then leave, rather than continuing to view other pages. BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS WHAT TO MEASURE : ENGAGEMENT TIME ON SITE BOUNCE RATE The amount of time visitors spend on your site. REPEAT VISITORS SOCIAL LIKES SUBSCRIPTIONS The number of times someone engages with your brand. Which content is resonating most with your audience. People giving your brand exclusive access to their inbox, opening the opportunity for you to market to them.

The percentage of visitors who enter your site and then leave, rather than continuing to view other pages. WHAT TO MEASURE : ENGAGEMENT TIME ON SITE BOUNCE RATE The amount of time visitors spend on your site. REPEAT VISITORS SOCIAL LIKES SUBSCRIPTIONS The number of times someone engages with your brand. Which content is resonating most with your audience. People giving your brand exclusive access to their inbox, opening the opportunity for you to market to them. BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS

What “they” say about you. WHAT TO MEASURE : AUDIENCE GROWTH PAID VS. ORGANIC SEARCH TRAFFIC SOCIAL SHARES/ FOLLOWERS SHARE OF VOICE/ OFFSITE SEO Users who have subscribed to updates on your brand’s social accounts. Search traﬃc your site receives from paid search advertisements versus traﬃc due to a high organic search ranking. BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS

BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS HOW TO CALCULATE THE VALUE OF: TIME ON SITE

NOT ALL TIME ON SITE IS EQUAL. TIMEONSITE PAGE VIEWS BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS AHIGH TIME ON SITE, LOW NUMBER OF PAGE VIEWS BHIGH TIME ON SITE, HIGH NUMBER OF PAGE VIEWS CLOW TIME ON SITE, LOW NUMBER OF PAGE VIEWS DLOW TIME ON SITE, HIGH NUMBER OF PAGE VIEWS

A. HIGH TIME ON SITE, LOW NUMBER OF PAGE VIEWS BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS THE GOOD THE BAD GOOD INDICATOR FOR POOR INDICATOR FOR May indicate a reading behavior pattern Lower number of page impressions may be negative for advertising related websites Source: Panalysis, How to Interpret Time on Site, 2015 Sites that require a lot of time to read and understand the contents of the site. (ie: A professional services company) Sites that sell advertising

B. HIGH TIME ON SITE, HIGH NUMBER OF PAGE VIEWS BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS THE GOOD THE BAD GOOD INDICATOR FOR POOR INDICATOR FOR May indicate high level of interest and involvement with your site Could indicate user frustration diﬃculties navigating your site to ﬁnd what they’re looking for Source: Panalysis, How to Interpret Time on Site, 2015 Where a high level of involvement is a key performance indicator (ie: advertising based sites selling banners based on page impressions) Where a site is for supporting visitors who should be able to readily access information or perform a task in a short period of time. (ie: Government and self service websites such as online banking)

C. LOW TIME ON SITE, LOW NUMBER OF PAGE VIEWS BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS THE GOOD THE BAD GOOD INDICATOR FOR POOR INDICATOR FOR For sites that only provide a simple response or quick answers Generally implies disinterest in the site Source: Panalysis, How to Interpret Time on Site, 2015 Sites where visitors are seeking answers (ie: directories) In this case, repeat visitor behavior is a crucial contributing factor. Most websites

D. LOW TIME ON SITE, HIGH NUMBER OF PAGE VIEWS BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS THE GOOD THE BAD GOOD INDICATOR FOR POOR INDICATOR FOR May indicate success for sites that require visitors to complete tasks quickly Could indicate that visitors are lost in the site Source: Panalysis, How to Interpret Time on Site, 2015 Sites that require high involvement in short bursts (ie: banking sites, online applications) Complex websites, such as government agencies

When determining your time on site goals, it’s important to keep in mind why someone is going to your site. BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS

BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS HOW TO CALCUALTE THE VALUE OF: REPEAT VISITORS

96% of people visiting your site aren’t actually ready to purchase from you. Source: Social Media Today, 2014 BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS

So you need to think of other ways to bring prospects back to your site so that when they are ready to purchase, they choose you. BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS

Source: Inc, 2 Web Metrics You Should be Watching All the Time, 2014 If your ultimate goal is to sell a product or service, you're much more likely to sell to visitors who come back time after time. BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS

Source: Inc, 2 Web Metrics You Should be Watching All the Time, 2014 Repeat Visitor Ratio (RVR) measures the percentage of visitors who return to your site after an initial visit during some speciﬁc time period. Let’s say you got 4,000 visitors this month and 800 were repeat visitors. 800/4,000 = 20% BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS

Source: Inc, 2 Web Metrics You Should be Watching All the Time, 2014 RVR is great way to determine whether you are successfully engaging your site visitors. New visitors are ﬁne, but repeat visitors are great since once you "have" a new reader you don't have to spend time and money attracting that reader--your content is suﬃcient. So the higher your RVR the better your website must be at engaging the average new visitor. BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS

To put a monetary value on RVR, we need to look at the average amount you’re spending in advertising to drive net new traﬃc. BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS

For our example, let’s say you’re spending $5,000 per month on advertising to drive new visitors. BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS

For our example, let’s say you’re spending $5,000 per month on advertising to drive new visitors. If 80%, or 3,200 visitors are net new, you’re spending an average of $1.56 per visitor. $5,000 / 3,200 = $1.56 BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS

For our example, let’s say you’re spending $5,000 per month on advertising to drive new visitors. If 80%, or 3,200 visitors are net new, you’re spending an average of $1.56 per visitor. $5,000 / 3,200 = $1.56 Taking that ﬁnding, we can then calculate the value of our 800 repeat visitors. BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS

For our example, let’s say you’re spending $5,000 per month on advertising to drive new visitors. If 80%, or 3,200 visitors are net new, you’re spending an average of $1.56 per visitor. $5,000 / 3,200 = $1.56 Taking that ﬁnding, we can then calculate the value of our 800 repeat visitors. 800 * $1.56 = $1,250 Therefore, our repeat visitors are valued at $1,250 per month. BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS

How do you improve your RVR? BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS

1.  Better target your marketing 2.  Provide great content 3.  Ensure site navigation is streamlined and intuitive 4.  Constantly create new content to keep the site fresh and relevant. BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS Source: Inc, 2 Web Metrics You Should be Watching All the Time, 2014 How do you improve your RVR?

Don’t forget that while you want to increase the percentage of repeat visitors, you also want to increase the total number of visitors… BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS

Don’t forget that while you want to increase the percentage of repeat visitors, you also want to increase the total number of visitors… Otherwise you’ll be preaching to the same choir. BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS

BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS HOW TO CALCULATE THE VALUE OF: SOCIAL LIKES

Social “likes” are a light indicator for whether or not your audience is resonating with your content. BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS

While many have tried, it is diﬃcult to assess real value in a like. However, it is important to track social shares over time to ensure your content is reaching baseline or increasing level of engagement. BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS

BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS HOW TO CALCULATE THE VALUE OF: SUBSCRIPTIONS

Source: AMEX Open Forum, What’s Your Email List Worth (In Actual Dollars)?, 2013 Your email list is an asset, and should be valued as such. BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS

Source: MarketingProfs, The Art and Science of Growing Your Email List, 2014 BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS FIRST THING’S FIRST:

Source: MarketingProfs, The Art and Science of Growing Your Email List, 2014 BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS POSITIVE RETURN DIMINISHING POSTIIVE RETURN MAXIMUM ALLOWABLE COST FIRST THING’S FIRST: You must know your maximum allowable cost threshold for getting a new subscriber, otherwise, you’re spending in the dark.

NEGATIVE RETURNS! Source: MarketingProfs, The Art and Science of Growing Your Email List, 2014 FIRST THING’S FIRST: You must know your maximum allowable cost threshold for getting a new subscriber, otherwise, you’re spending in the dark. or, worse yet, to the point of negative returns. BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS POSITIVE RETURN DIMINISHING POSTIIVE RETURN MAXIMUM ALLOWABLE COST

Knowing your cost to obtain a new list member is the only way to determine how much you can actually afford to invest in growing your list sign-up… Source: MarketingProfs, The Art and Science of Growing Your Email List, 2014 BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS

Knowing your cost to obtain a new list member is the only way to determine how much you can actually afford to invest in growing your list sign-up… And what your maximum allowable cost to obtain a new subscriber should be. Source: MarketingProfs, The Art and Science of Growing Your Email List, 2014 BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS

As a rule of thumb, your list sign-up cost per acquisition (CPA) should be well under your average sale amount from a new customer and within range of what you pay to obtain other valuable actions, such as webinar sign-ups, free content downloads or even direct sales. Source: MarketingProfs, The Art and Science of Growing Your Email List, 2014 BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS

Source: MarketingProfs, The Art and Science of Growing Your Email List, 2014 METHOD QUANTITY OF SUBSCRIBERS (QOS) COST PER ACQUISITION (CPA) FACEBOOK AD 200 $2.30 TWITTER 400 $1.00 PAID SEARCH 300 $2.00 WEBINAR 100 $0.10 First, calculate what it actually costs you to get a new subscriber from each list-building method. BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS

Source: MarketingProfs, The Art and Science of Growing Your Email List, 2014 Now we need to determine your maximum allowable CPA for acquiring a new list member, and continue to invest in the methods that fall at or below your CPA. First, calculate what it actually costs you to get a new subscriber from each list-building method. BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS METHOD QUANTITY OF SUBSCRIBERS (QOS) COST PER ACQUISITION (CPA) FACEBOOK AD 200 $2.30 TWITTER 400 $1.00 PAID SEARCH 300 $2.00 WEBINAR 100 $0.10

BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS Let’s say you’ve tested a few tactics and decided that your maximum allowable CPA for a new email address is $1.50. MAXIMUM ALLOWABLE COST $1.50

BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS METHOD QUANTITY OF SUBSCRIBERS (QOS) COST PER ACQUISITION (CPA) FACEBOOK AD 200 $2.30 TWITTER 400 $1.00 PAID SEARCH 300 $2.00 WEBINAR 100 $0.10 Moving forward, you’ll want to continue pursuing all methods costing $1.50 or less.

BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS METHOD QUANTITY OF SUBSCRIBERS (QOS) COST PER ACQUISITION (CPA) UNSUBSCRIBE RATE (UR) AVERAGE SALE VALUE (ASV) FACEBOOK AD 200 $2.30 30% $100 TWITTER 400 $1.00 5% $100 PAID SEARCH 300 $2.00 15% $150 WEBINAR 100 $0.10 5% $200 Over time, we need to also measure the quality of the subscribers on your list by monitoring things like average sale value and unsubscribe rate.

BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS METHOD QUANTITY OF SUBSCRIBERS (QOS) COST PER ACQUISITION (CPA) UNSUBSCRIBE RATE (UR) AVERAGE SALE VALUE (ASV) FACEBOOK AD 200 $2.30 30% $100 TWITTER 400 $1.00 5% $100 PAID SEARCH 300 $2.00 15% $150 WEBINAR 100 $0.10 5% $200 When you analyze the data, you’ll easily be able to spot the methods that produce the best quality and quantity of subscribers within your allowable CPA.

BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS METHOD QUANTITY OF SUBSCRIBERS (QOS) COST PER ACQUISITION (CPA) UNSUBSCRIBE RATE (UR) AVERAGE SALE VALUE (ASV) FACEBOOK AD 200 $2.30 30% $100 TWITTER 400 $1.00 5% $100 PAID SEARCH 300 $2.00 15% $150 WEBINAR 100 $0.10 5% $200 When you analyze the data, you’ll easily be able to spot the methods that produce the best quality and quantity of subscribers within your allowable CPA. The higher the quality of subscribers you attract, the more likely they are to convert to becoming not only customers but also your best customers-resulting in more revenue from which to raise your CPA.

BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS METHOD QUANTITY OF SUBSCRIBERS (QOS) COST PER ACQUISITION (CPA) UNSUBSCRIBE RATE (UR) AVERAGE SALE VALUE (ASV) FACEBOOK AD 200 $2.30 30% $100 TWITTER 400 $1.00 5% $100 PAID SEARCH 300 $2.00 15% $150 WEBINAR 100 $0.10 5% $200 To calculate the value per subscriber, we need ﬁnd the difference between the sale value and cost per acquisition for the subscribers. To do this, we use the formula below: VALUE PER SUBSCRIBER = ( QOS * ASV * ( 1 – UR ) – QOS * CPA ) / QOS

BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONSBRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS METHOD QUANTITY OF SUBSCRIBERS (QOS) COST PER ACQUISITION (CPA) UNSUBSCRIBE RATE (UR) AVERAGE SALE VALUE (ASV) TOTAL VALUE (TV) VALUE PER SUBSCRIBER (VPS) FACEBOOK AD 200 $2.30 30% $100 $13,540 $67.70 TWITTER 400 $1.00 5% $100 $37,600 $94 PAID SEARCH 300 $2.00 15% $150 $37,650 $125.50 WEBINAR 100 $0.10 5% $200 $18,990 $189.90 We’ll use Facebook Ads as an example: VALUE PER SUBSCRIBER = ( QOS * ASV * ( 1 – UR ) – QOS * CPA ) / QOS VALUE PER SUBSCRIBER = ( 200 * 100 * ( 1 – 0.30 ) – 200 * 2.30 ) / 200 Therefore, the value of each Facebook subscription is $67.70

BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS METHOD QUANTITY OF SUBSCRIBERS (QOS) COST PER ACQUISITION (CPA) UNSUBSCRIBE RATE (UR) AVERAGE SALE VALUE (ASV) TOTAL VALUE (TV) VALUE PER SUBSCRIBER (VPS) FACEBOOK AD 200 $2.30 30% $100 $13,540 $67.70 TWITTER 400 $1.00 5% $100 $37,600 $94 PAID SEARCH 300 $2.00 15% $150 $37,650 $125.50 WEBINAR 100 $0.10 5% $200 $18,990 $189.90 Based on these calculations, we can see that paid search and webinar methods return the most value per subscriber.

BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS Based on these calculations, we can see that paid search and webinar methods return the most value per subscriber. However, since paid search’s CPA is more expensive than our maximum allowance of $1.50, we should defer to webinar and Twitter tactics. METHOD QUANTITY OF SUBSCRIBERS (QOS) COST PER ACQUISITION (CPA) UNSUBSCRIBE RATE (UR) AVERAGE SALE VALUE (ASV) TOTAL VALUE (TV) VALUE PER SUBSCRIBER (VPS) FACEBOOK AD 200 $2.30 30% $100 $13,540 $67.70 TWITTER 400 $1.00 5% $100 $37,600 $94 PAID SEARCH 300 $2.00 15% $150 $37,650 $125.50 WEBINAR 100 $0.10 5% $200 $18,990 $189.90

BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS HOW TO CALCULATE THE VALUE OF: BOUNCE RATE

Your site’s bounce rate is a metric that indicates the percentage of people who land on one of your web pages and then leave without clicking anywhere else on your site. BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS

Source: Hubspot, How to Decrease Your Website’s Bounce Rate, 2014 BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS A high bounce rate is a reason for concern since it indicates that your website visitors aren’t looking for more content on your site, clicking on calls-to-action, or converting into contacts.

A high bounce rate is a reason for concern since it indicates that your website visitors aren’t looking for more content on your site, clicking on calls-to-action, or converting into contacts. Since attracting and converting visitors into qualiﬁed leads is the main objective for content marketing, this is an important metric to measure and improve. Source: Hubspot, How to Decrease Your Website’s Bounce Rate, 2014 BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS

How should your site stack up? Here are some good bounce rate benchmarks: Source: Hubspot, How to Decrease Your Website’s Bounce Rate, 2014 BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS CONTENT WEBSITES 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 % LEAD GENERATION 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 % BLOGS 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 % RETAIL SITES 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 % SERVICE SITES 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 % LANDING PAGES 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 % 40% - 60% 30% - 50% 20% - 40% 10% - 30% 70% - 90% 70% - 98%

Why do visitors bounce? Two reasons: 1  They didn’t ﬁnd what they were looking for 2  The page wasn’t user-friendly BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS Source: Hubspot, How to Decrease Your Website’s Bounce Rate, 2014

So what can you do to improve your site’s bounce rate? BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS

Attract the right visitors •  Choose the right keywords to match your content -- not just to attract the most number of visitors •  Maintain top rankings for branded terms •  Write attractive, useful meta descriptions for search engine users BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS ATTRACT THE RIGHT VISITORS Choose the right keywords to match your content, not just attract any visitors Create multiple landing pages with unique content and keywords for diﬀerent types of visitors Write attractive, useful meta-descriptions for search engine users Maintain top rankings for branded terms. Improve targeting of online advertising campaigns. Source: Small biz trends, 2014 + Hubspot, How to Decrease Your Website’s Bounce Rate, 2014

BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS Enhance usability •  Make your text readable through sensible organization and the use of larger fonts, bulleted lists, white space, good color contrast, and large headlines •  Use well-organized, responsive layouts that allow for quick and easy navigation on all platforms and browsers ENHANCE USABILITY 16 34 25 GOOD COLOR CONTRAST LARGE HEADLINES SENSIBLE ORGANIZATION BULLETED LISTS LARGER FONTSWHITE SPACE MAKE TEXT READABLE Source: Small biz trends, 2014 + Hubspot, How to Decrease Your Website’s Bounce Rate, 2014

BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS Source: Small biz trends, 2014 + Hubspot, How to Decrease Your Website’s Bounce Rate, 2014 Use a good layout •  Quick navigation •  Easy to ﬁnd search •  Content in sections •  Responsive layout for multiple platforms and browsers USE GOOD LAYOUT Responsive layout for multiple platforms and browsers 17.4% of views from mobile devices EASY TO FIND SEARCH QUICK NAVIGATION CONTENT IN SECTIONS

BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS Speed up page load •  Use little or no self-loading multimedia content. •  Set external links to open in new browser windows/tabs. •  Don’t let ads distract from your content: Place static ads to sides, and avoid pop-ups and self-loading multimedia ads SPEED UP PAGELOAD USE LITTLE OR NO SELF-LOADING MULTIMEDIA CONTENT. SET EXTERNAL LINKS TO OPEN IN NEW WINDOWS DON’T LET ADS DISTRACT Place static ads to sides Avoid pop-ups Avoid self-loading multimedia ads Source: Small biz trends, 2014 + Hubspot, How to Decrease Your Website’s Bounce Rate, 2014

BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS Provide good content •  Have an obvious main message •  Use clear headers and subheads •  Tailor content to intended visitors •  Use stylish copy and images •  Make your content error-free •  Include a clear call-to-action and obvious links to next steps PROVIDE GOOD CONTENT 1 Obvious main message 2 Clear heads and subheads 6 Clear call to action 3 Tailored to intended visitors 4 Stylish copy and images 5 Few errors 7 Obvious links to next steps Source: Small biz trends, 2014 + Hubspot, How to Decrease Your Website’s Bounce Rate, 2014

BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS HOW TO CALCULATE THE VALUE OF: PAID VS. ORGANIC SEARCH TRAFFIC

Content marketing allows you to gain additional reach, engagement and conversion without having to pay for it. BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS

Content marketing allows you to gain additional reach, engagement and conversion without having to pay for it. You can literally earn your audience’s attention vs. buying it. BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS

Organic search traﬃc can be calculated easily via Google Analytics. 1  Go to Acquisition 2  Campaigns 3  Organic Keywords BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS

You will then see the keywords people have used to ﬁnd your website and the number of visits and percentage of overall visits you have received from each keyword. BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS

You will then see the keywords people have used to ﬁnd your website and the number of visits and percentage of overall visits you have received from each keyword. In this example, the site has received 359,953 visits from organic search traﬃc, totaling 25% of overall traffic. BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS

Next we want to see how much paid traffic we’re receiving, which we can also find in Google Analytics’ ‘Paid Keywords.’ In this example, let’s say we spend $100,000 on paid search traffic for 1,078,779 visits. BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS

Based on those numbers and percentages, we can calculate the value of that organic traﬃc. In this example, let’s say we spend $100,000 on paid search traffic. 1,078,779 359,593 $100,000 X CROSS MULTIPLY & DIVIDE TO FIND “X” BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS

Based on those numbers and percentages, we can calculate the value of that organic traﬃc. In this example, let’s say we spend $100,000 on paid search traffic. 1,078,779 359,593 $100,000 X CROSS MULTIPLY & DIVIDE TO FIND “X” ALGEBRA DOES COME IN HANDY! BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS

Based on those numbers and percentages, we can calculate the value of that organic traﬃc. In this example, let’s say we spend $100,000 on paid search traffic. 1,078,779 359,593 $100,000 X CROSS MULTIPLY & DIVIDE TO FIND “X” ALGEBRA DOES COME IN HANDY! PAID ORGANIC TRAFFIC PERCENTAGE 75% 25% TOTAL TRAFFIC 1,078,779 359,593 COST/VALUE $100,000 $33,333 ORGANIC SEARCH TRAFFIC IS WORTH $33,333 BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS

BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS HOW TO CALCULATE THE VALUE OF: SOCIAL SHARES + FOLLOWERS

While social shares can be seen as an engagement metric, but should be quantiﬁed as a free source of distribution and reach. BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS

Let’s say you spend $1,000 on paid social distribution and reached 5,000 viewers. BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS

BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS Let’s say you spend $1,000 on paid social distribution and reached 5,000 viewers. For this campaign, each view was worth $0.20 ($1,000/5000).

BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS Let’s say you spend $1,000 on paid social distribution and reached 5,000 viewers. For this campaign, each view was worth $0.20 ($1,000/5000). Now let’s say a social post was shared organically by your followers and reached 500 viewers.

Let’s say you spend $1,000 on paid social distribution and reached 5,000 viewers. For this campaign, each view was worth $0.20 ($1,000/5000). Now let’s say a social post was shared organically by your followers and reached 500 viewers. Based on the value of each view from our paid distribution, we can also value our 500 organic views at $0.20 each, or $100 total. BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS

Brands should also track if their social follower growth positively correlates with their total number of shares. If it does, this would indicate that your organic social shares are reaching the right audience for your brand. BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS

BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS HOW TO CALCUALTE THE VALUE OF: SHARE OF VOICE/OFFSITE SEO

Google has stated that it uses more than 200 factors to rank a web page, but which are the most important? Source: Altitude Marketing, SEO Checklist Part 2: Measure and Improve Oﬀ-site SEO Factors That Drive Organic Search Traﬃc to Your Site, BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS

There is one thing virtually all SEO experts agree upon: The number and quality of links coming into your site is near the top of the list. BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS Source: Altitude Marketing, SEO Checklist Part 2: Measure and Improve Oﬀ-site SEO Factors That Drive Organic Search Traﬃc to Your Site,

So how can you measure your off-site SEO? BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS Source: Altitude Marketing, SEO Checklist Part 2: Measure and Improve Off-site SEO Factors That Drive Organic Search Traffic to Your Site,

So how can you measure your off-site SEO? •  Measure your inbound links and their value. An easy way to do this is by plugging your site URL into Open Site Explorer. (https://moz.com/researchtools/ose/) BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS Source: Altitude Marketing, SEO Checklist Part 2: Measure and Improve Off-site SEO Factors That Drive Organic Search Traffic to Your Site,

So how can you measure your off-site SEO? •  Measure your inbound links and their value. An easy way to do this is by plugging your site URL into Open Site Explorer. (https://moz.com/researchtools/ose/) •  With this tool, you can see all inbound links, see your top-linked pages, sort by linking domains, see the anchor text other sites use to link to you. BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS Source: Altitude Marketing, SEO Checklist Part 2: Measure and Improve Off-site SEO Factors That Drive Organic Search Traffic to Your Site,

So how can you measure your off-site SEO? •  Measure your inbound links and their value. An easy way to do this is by plugging your site URL into Open Site Explorer. (https://moz.com/researchtools/ose/) •  With this tool, you can see all inbound links, see your top-linked pages, sort by linking domains, see the anchor text other sites use to link to you. •  Do the same with your competitors’ sites and compare BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS Source: Altitude Marketing, SEO Checklist Part 2: Measure and Improve Off-site SEO Factors That Drive Organic Search Traffic to Your Site,

BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS Source: Altitude Marketing, SEO Checklist Part 2: Measure and Improve Oﬀ-site SEO Factors That Drive Organic Search Traﬃc to Your Site, What to do with this data?

BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS Source: Altitude Marketing, SEO Checklist Part 2: Measure and Improve Oﬀ-site SEO Factors That Drive Organic Search Traﬃc to Your Site, What to do with this data? •  Scan your highest-authority inbound links for opportunity to get other similar links

BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS Source: Altitude Marketing, SEO Checklist Part 2: Measure and Improve Oﬀ-site SEO Factors That Drive Organic Search Traﬃc to Your Site, What to do with this data? •  Scan your highest-authority inbound links for opportunity to get other similar links •  Scan your competitors’ highest-authority inbound links. Can you get those links too, or do they provide ideas for getting similar links?

BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS Source: Altitude Marketing, SEO Checklist Part 2: Measure and Improve Off-site SEO Factors That Drive Organic Search Traffic to Your Site, What to do with this data? •  Scan your highest-authority inbound links for opportunity to get other similar links •  Scan your competitors’ highest-authority inbound links. Can you get those links too, or do they provide ideas for getting similar links? •  Inbound links from non-profit (.org) and education (.edu) sites are especially powerful

BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS Source: Altitude Marketing, SEO Checklist Part 2: Measure and Improve Off-site SEO Factors That Drive Organic Search Traffic to Your Site, What to do with this data? •  Scan your highest-authority inbound links for opportunity to get other similar links •  Scan your competitors’ highest-authority inbound links. Can you get those links too, or do they provide ideas for getting similar links? •  Inbound links from non-profit (.org) and education (.edu) sites are especially powerful •  Build your inbound links gradually. Google algorithms will notice, and may penalize a quick accumulation of links

BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS CONVERSIONS YOU NEVER WOULD HAVE REACHED BUSINESS CASE 3

These are prospects who became customers because of either helpful, useful and/or entertaining content you provided them. BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS

BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS Percentage of people who take a desired action. WHAT TO MEASURE : COST PER LEAD PERCENTAGE OF LEADS SOURCED CONVERSIONS Amount your brand spends to acquire a lead. Percentage of leads sourced by content compared to other marketing programs.

BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS Percentage of people who take a desired action. WHAT TO MEASURE : COST PER LEAD PERCENTAGE OF LEADS SOURCED CONVERSIONS Amount your brand pays in advertising to acquire a lead. Percentage of leads sourced by content compared to other marketing programs.

BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS HOW TO CALCULATE THE VALUE OF: COST PER LEAD

Calculating content marketing’s cost per lead is crucial in order to benchmark your program’s eﬀectiveness against other marketing programs. BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS

Determining this is quite simple. To begin, we need to know the costs accrued to create and distribute the content. BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS

CONTENT ACTIVITY COST ROI Guide Creation $3,000 ROI Guide Sponsored Email $10,000 Strategy Guide Creation $3,000 Strategy Guide Sponsored Webinar $20,000 BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS In this example, we’ve created two pieces of content: •  For the ROI Guide, we spent $3,000 to create and invested $10,000 to distribute.

CONTENT ACTIVITY COST ROI Guide Creation $3,000 ROI Guide Sponsored Email $10,000 Strategy Guide Creation $3,000 Strategy Guide Sponsored Webinar $20,000 BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS In this example, we’ve created two pieces of content: •  For the ROI Guide, we spent $3,000 to create and invested $10,000 to distribute. •  For the Strategy Guide we also spent $3,000 to create, but spent $20,000 to distribute. •  Combining these costs, we can see that the ROI Guide cost us $13,000 and the Strategy Guide cost us $23,000.

CONTENT ACTIVITY COST TOTAL COST ROI Guide Creation $3,000 $13,000 ROI Guide Sponsored Email $10,000 Strategy Guide Creation $3,000 $23,000 Strategy Guide Sponsored Webinar $20,000 BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS In this example, we’ve created two pieces of content: •  For the ROI Guide, we spent $3,000 to create and invested $10,000 to distribute. •  For the Strategy Guide we also spent $3,000 to create, but spent $20,000 to distribute. •  Combining these costs, we can see that the ROI Guide cost us $13,000 and the Strategy Guide cost us $23,000.

BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS Now that we know how much our content cost to create and distribute, let’s see how the content did in terms of lead generation to calculate cost per qualiﬁed lead.

BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS CHANNEL COST NEW LEADS MQLs ROI Guide $13,000 550 205 Strategy Guide $23,000 700 130 Now that we know how much our content cost to create and distribute, let’s see how the content did in terms of lead generation to calculate cost per qualiﬁed lead. •  Our ROI Guide generated 550 new leads, 205 of which were qualiﬁed leads.

BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS CHANNEL COST NEW LEADS MQLs ROI Guide $13,000 550 205 Strategy Guide $23,000 700 130 Now that we know how much our content cost to create and distribute, let’s see how the content did in terms of lead generation to calculate cost per qualified lead. •  Our ROI Guide generated 550 new leads, 205 of which were qualified leads. •  To calculate cost per lead, we want to take the total cost ($13,000) divided by the total number of qualified leads (205).

BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS CHANNEL COST NEW LEADS MQLs ROI Guide $13,000 550 205 Strategy Guide $23,000 700 130 Now that we know how much our content cost to create and distribute, let’s see how the content did in terms of lead generation to calculate cost per qualified lead. •  Our ROI Guide generated 550 new leads, 205 of which were qualified leads. •  To calculate cost per lead, we want to take the total cost ($13,000) divided by the total number of qualified leads (205). •  $13,000 / 205 = $63

BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS CHANNEL COST NEW LEADS MQLs CPMQL ROI Guide $13,000 550 205 $63 Strategy Guide $23,000 700 130 $177 Now that we know how much our content cost to create and distribute, let’s see how the content did in terms of lead generation to calculate cost per qualified lead. •  Our ROI Guide generated 550 new leads, 205 of which were qualified leads. •  To calculate cost per lead, we want to take the total cost ($13,000) divided by the total number of qualified leads (205). •  $13,000 / 205 = $63 •  Therefore, our ROI Guide cost $63 per qualified lead.

BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS CHANNEL COST NEW LEADS MQLs CPMQL ROI Guide $13,000 550 205 $63 Strategy Guide $23,000 700 130 $177 To determine an accurate average total cost per lead of content marketing, we’d want to take a larger sample, but for the purpose of this guide, we’ll simplify and average these two costs.

BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS CHANNEL COST NEW LEADS MQLs CPMQL ROI Guide $13,000 550 205 $63 Strategy Guide $23,000 700 130 $177 To determine an accurate average total cost per lead of content marketing, we’d want to take a larger sample, but for the purpose of this guide, we’ll simplify and average these two costs. $63 + $177 / 2 = $120

BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS CHANNEL COST NEW LEADS MQLs CPMQL ROI Guide $13,000 550 205 $63 Strategy Guide $23,000 700 130 $177 To determine an accurate average total cost per lead of content marketing, we’d want to take a larger sample, but for the purpose of this guide, we’ll simplify and average these two costs. $63 + $177 / 2 = $120 Therefore our average total cost per lead for content marketing is $120.

BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS HOW TO CALCULATE THE VALUE OF: PERCENTAGE OF LEADS SOURCED

In order to determine the percentage of leads from content marketing, we ﬁrst need to gather total number of leads sourced from other marketing programs. BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS

BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS Looking at this gathered data, we see that content marketing accounts for 205 of the total 710 marketing qualiﬁed leads. PROGRAM MQLs Content 205 Events 300 Advertising 30 Email 100 Public Relations 75 Total 710

BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS Looking at this gathered data, we see that content marketing accounts for 205 of the total 710 marketing qualified leads. To find the percentage, we take 205/710 to find that content marketing accounts for 28.9% of total qualified leads. PROGRAM MQLs PERCENTAGE Content 205 28.9% Events 300 42.2% Advertising 30 4.2% Email 100 14.2% Public Relations 75 10.5% Total 710 100% EVENTS ADVERTISING CONTENT EMAIL PUBLIC RELATIONS

BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS HOW TO CALCULATE THE VALUE OF: CONVERSIONS

Finally, to determine the actual revenue sourced by content marketing, we need to look at conversions. BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS

BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS PROGRAM MQLs CONVERSION RATE AVERAGE SALES VALUE Content 205 50% $500 For this example, let’s say our content marketing has a conversion rate of 50% and the average sale is worth $500.

BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS PROGRAM MQLs CONVERSION RATE AVERAGE SALES VALUE Content 205 50% $500 For this example, let’s say our content marketing has a conversion rate of 50% and the average sale is worth $500. •  To ﬁnd our total conversions, we need to multiply our total qualiﬁed leads by 50%.

BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS PROGRAM MQLs CONVERSION RATE AVERAGE SALES VALUE CONVERSIONS Content 205 50% $500 102.5 For this example, let’s say our content marketing has a conversion rate of 50% and the average sale is worth $500. •  To ﬁnd our total conversions, we need to multiply our total qualiﬁed leads by 50%. •  205 * 50% = 102.5 conversions

BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS PROGRAM MQLs CONVERSION RATE AVERAGE SALES VALUE CONVERSIONS Content 205 50% $500 102.5 For this example, let’s say our content marketing has a conversion rate of 50% and the average sale is worth $500. •  To find our total conversions, we need to multiply our total qualified leads by 50%. •  205 * 50% = 102.5 conversions •  Based on that finding we assume these sales will average $500, so to find the total value we •  multiply 102.5 * $500 = $51,000

BRAND AWARENESS BRAND HEALTH CONVERSIONS PROGRAM MQLs CONVERSION RATE AVERAGE SALES VALUE CONVERSIONS TOTAL CONVERSION VALUE Content 205 50% $500 102.5 $51,000 For this example, let’s say our content marketing has a conversion rate of 50% and the average sale is worth $500. •  To find our total conversions, we need to multiply our total qualified leads by 50%. •  205 * 50% = 102.5 conversions •  Based on that finding we assume these sales will average $500, so to find the total value we •  multiply 102.5 * $500 = $51,000 •  Therefore, our total content marketing conversions are worth $51,000

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