The Only 5 Content Marketing Metrics that Matter

“What gets measured gets done.”

This adage steers every hand writing a to-do list in every profession.

In other words, we prioritize our daily lives based on what we’ll ultimately be measured on by our boss, our client, or ourselves. But what if what we’re being measured on is unclear, misguided, or just plain worthless?

Well, it probably means that our daily efforts will lack clarity, be misguided, and maybe – in some unfortunate scenarios – just be plain worthless.

So when your organization is attempting to quantify success in content marketing, don’t get distracted by arbitrary index scores. Don’t worship the gods of false success and feel-good metrics.

Instead, focus on answering these questions:

How many people did we reach?

Figure out how many unique pairs of eyeballs saw your stuff. Extra points if they’re in your target audience. Be aware that viral content can sometimes falsely inflate your sense of success if you only pay attention to how many people saw it, which is why you want to ask:

How many of them engaged with us?

Determine if your message was a flash-in-the-pan or if it had resonance. It’s easy to get excited about 10,000 pageviews from StumbleUpon in a day, but if you didn’t get any subscribers (or Tweets or likes or comments for that matter) was it really successful? Are people channel-surfing your content or are they getting in to it?

How did their perception of us change?

Find out if your content advanced the needle for your brand. Do people think better of our organization now that they’ve seen our content? Can they even recall that it was our organization who delivered the content to them?

How many of them ended up spending with us?

This is the easiest way to justify the value of content marketing to the boardroom, but probably the most difficult to actually achieve. Did our content start someone on a path that lead them to eventually make a purchase? Great. Now all we have to wonder is:

How efficient was it?

Did we spend diamonds to get silver?

These five questions can set the framework for your thinking. There are tons of individual measurements you can make that help to answers these questions, but make sure you’re asking them in the first place.

[Image: chris runoff]

http://blog.eloqua.com Joe Chernov

Hi Andrew,

Great post, and I am completely with you regarding content serving as a liaison between your brand and your buyer.

But what about Google? None of your five questions speaks specifically to the value of content to search. I’d argue a 6th question is needed: How did the content impact PageRank?

I’d also suggest a 7th question, one that speaks to the economies of content marketing: How many more pieces of content can we derive from this asset?

That said, your list provides an excellent framework and gets folks off to a very solid start in content marketing.

Yours,
Joe Chernov
VP of Content Marketing
Eloqua
@jchernov
- http://www.twitter.com/hanelly Andrew Hanelly
  
  Hey Joe – Thanks for dropping by! I think you raise some very good points.
  
  I should have expanded “How did their perception of us change?” to include not only how perception changed to humans, but also how perception changed to search engines (and probably social media).
  
  Are we seen as a higher quality website (PageRank, as you mentioned)? Are we seen as more influential in social? Your point is a good one: that perception isn’t just for people anymore, it’s for the ‘bots, too.
  
  And for the economies of content: I think that’s a smart way to look at it. How much mileage can we get out of this piece? I suppose if I had to fit it into my original 5 metrics, I should have expanded the “How efficient was it?” question a bit more: When you create the content in the first place, how multipurpose can it be? If you invest resources in the creation of content that can be served in multiple way you have a lower upfront cost and more of a long-term benefit, thus making the initiative more efficient.
  
  If we had to compromise though, I think where I was wrong was in saying “the ONLY 5″ metrics that matter, instead of “here are some” that matter.
  
  I guess it wouldn’t be as good of a headline though
  
  Thanks again for dropping by and adding depth to the framework. You brought up great points.
  
  Andrew
http://blog.eloqua.com Joe Chernov

Fair points all the way around. And as far as headlines are concerned, you are right: we live in the era of false precision! “7 Metrics That Matter A Lot, But There Are Probably Others Too” ain’t gonna get many clicks. Good post, Andrew. Great stuff.
- http://www.twitter.com/hanelly Andrew Hanelly
  
  “The Era of False Precision” I love it! Like you said in the first comment, this (hopefully) will just serve as a starting point for people, and once they get into a discussion at their own organization they iron it out in a way that makes sense for them. Thanks again for dropping by!
http://live-your-love.com/ Brankica

This is interesting and is pretty timely for me. I have been thinking about reach lately, because I can see the traffic increase over time but more and more people are lurkers that don’t comment while those who comment are regular readers. I will have to figure out how to get the lurkers to come out so I can reach them too.
- http://www.twitter.com/hanelly Andrew Hanelly
  
  First of all, thank you for coming out and commenting. I appreciate it!
  
  It is a tough challenge to face because many people will just not comment … at all. For instance, I know a bunch of people who visit Reddit.com on a daily basis and are huge fans of the site but don’t even have accounts and never comment (or vote). I suppose commenting isn’t for everyone.
  
  That said, I think there are ways to coax people into interacting on your blog, mostly by letting them know it’s wanted, it’s welcomed and it’s worth it. I wrote about it once here (http://engage.tmgcustommedia.com/2011/06/awkward-silence-in-comment-section/) but by no means is it exhaustive. Maybe you could add an idea or two in the comments
http://authopublisher.com Ivin

Hello Andrew.

It’s really important to see what kind of response you are getting. Otherwise you are just shouting into a cave.
- http://www.twitter.com/hanelly Andrew Hanelly
  
  Amen, Ivin. Thanks for dropping by.
Rebecca Denison

First of all, I have to say thank goodness that you didn’t stop with impressions! I hate how so many communications metrics end up focused on reach or impressions. Who cares? If I’m trying to sell to my mother, and one million teenage boys watched a video about my product…so what??

I don’t know where it might fit it, but you might want to include possible cost savings. If you use content marketing to decrease costs for customer service (maybe the most information you provide, the fewer calls they receive) for example, that is something you absolutely want to track.

Basically metrics must follow your goals. Efficiency and revenue are two good metrics to keep in mind all the time, but otherwise what you measure should follow what you hope to accomplish in the first place.
- http://www.twitter.com/hanelly Andrew Hanelly
  
  Absolutely agree, Rebecca. Thanks for dropping by.
  
  Figure out your goal and then focus your metrics around accomplishing that goal in the most efficient manner possible. I like where your head’s at on that one.
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http://www.themarketcouncil.com Madeline Johnson

Great post. Curious to see if anyone else thinks it’s important to also include –
non-marketing variables, such as- economics, retail traffic, pricing, seasonality, sales force staffing levels. Sharing our post today – http://wp.me/p1zh4W-mt
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