Get Executives To Buy Into Your Content Strategy
Through blogs, social media, video and other forms of content, your company will be able to reach new people who are looking for your products or services. You can help your audience understand their problems and solutions while showing them how your company and its offerings are the best choice. Content marketing can facilitate the decision to choose your company and move forward to make a purchase. It can also help you retain the customers you gain and turn them into loyal followers and promoters of your brand.
Maybe you’re a marketing professional who is convinced of the value of content marketing and ready to use it. You’ve probably even relied on it for other brands. Yet it’s not always easy to get executives on board with this marketing strategy, right? The key to getting the executive buy-in is to focus on content marketing KPIs, or key performance indicators. These give you measurable ways to show executives whether content marketing efforts are working.
How Marketers Can Focus on KPIs
How can you get executives to green light a content marketing plan? Think about when a bank is considering whether to give a business loan. One of the items the bank wants to see is a strong business plan.
Think along similar lines when you’re presenting the idea of content marketing to your executives. You’ll want to show them a clear plan that shows you’re serious about this type of marketing and that you will handle it in a professional and measured way.
You’re not just following your whims and wasting the company’s money. You have a plan. You’ll convince them by creating a plan with content marketing KPIs and objectives. These KPIs will allow you to measure the results you’re getting from content marketing and to see where you need improvement.
Present a list of content marketing objectives, such as gaining new leads and improving conversions to go along with the KPIs. This list of objectives can help you show executives some of the benefits of content marketing. Then, explain to the executives how your KPIs will show whether you are achieving your objectives or not.
Show that you have a way to:
- Track the company’s investment.
- Present the ROI of content marketing efforts.
- Measure KPI growth.
It doesn’t hurt to have some info to back up your yearning for a content marketing strategy. Show your executives numbers from other companies’ results and research on the industry. You can share benchmark data and case studies from other companies, especially competitors.
Create a list of data that backs up the benefits of content marketing, including that people list interesting content as a top-three reason to become a brand’s social media follower and that the likelihood of purchasing increases for more than half of consumers when a brand offers custom media.
Also, predict the ROI of this marketing method for your particular company by using benchmark data and the monthly traffic data for your business website. You can use a formula for gaining your company’s potential ROI of content marketing.
Creating a presentation with this kind of information should help you at least get your proposal considered. You’ll do even better if you give detailed information on the kinds of KPIs you plan to track.
Which Content Marketing KPIs Should You Focus On?
It’s important to choose KPIs that are measurable and can show whether your content marketing is working. Some of the top content marketing KPIs include:
Unique website visitors: A major value to track is how many visitors your content is attracting. You can further break this down by each type of content you create. You’ll be able to see how many leads you’re gaining from your content marketing efforts.
Time spent on each page: It’s helpful to know whether the people visiting your pages are staying there. This can show you whether your content is truly engaging visitors or not.
Keyword rankings: Look at which of the keywords you use to optimize your content are working well and which aren’t. You can adjust your strategy to the ones that work and to which keywords your target audience is typing into search engines.
You can also track KPIs that fit the specific types of content you are creating. Adapt your analysis to ones that fit your particular efforts, such as:
Engagement on social media: For social media, you’ll want to track KPIs that show how your audience is engaging with your content. Check the number of likes, comments, clicks, and shares.
Image via Flickr by daniel_iversen
Email click-through rate: This KPI shows that people on your email marketing list opened your email and then took the next step to click on the link you provided. This rate shows that people are interested in what your company has to offer.
Visits by channel: Look at the total traffic you’re getting from your different marketing channels. This can show you where your content is doing best to see where to devote your efforts going forward and maybe where to improve for channels you think should be performing better.
Some additional KPIs may not need to be checked regularly but are still important. For instance, check which devices your target audience is using to consume your content. This can alert you to a large portion who are using mobile devices and need your content to be more mobile responsive.
Of course, you can adjust your list of KPIs to fit your business goals, and it might be smart to let the executives tell you the KPIs that would be important to them.
Executives are likely to feel more comfortable about trying content marketing if you show that you have a clear plan to track content marketing KPIs. If your executives are still on the fence, consider giving the option to try content marketing for a specific amount of time and then pulling the plug if the KPIs are not showing improvement. Just keep in mind that it might take time for your content marketing efforts to pay off.
CopyPress writer
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