Content marketing is distinctly different than marketing content. Until the majority of B2B marketers recognize this, their so-called content marketing efforts will continue to fall short of objectives, says Frank Strong, founder of Sword and the Script Media, an Atlanta-based public relations agency.
“Content marketing is about building an audience – that is yours forever – instead of renting one for fleeting moments and campaigns,” Strong states in a recent blog post. “To build an audience you have to build trust. To build trust you have to deliver useful, relevant and valuable content consistently over time. This means in order to build an audience you have to show up, at the same place, at the same time, consistently, over the long run and with quality content.
The accumulation of trust that occurs over the long term when a company provides useful information consistently is incredibly valuable, yet many business leaders continue to have trouble connecting how that trust translates into business, Strong says.
“One company I once worked for learned that people that engaged our content were 50 percent more likely to make a purchase. Another company I worked for was able to prove that a blog it produced influenced about one-third of enterprise software deals with an average selling price in excess of $1 million.”
These types of results don’t happen overnight, Strong cautions. He recommends marketers measure directional metrics along four key categories:
- Visibility – Can people find your content? How many unique visitors are you getting?
- Community strength – Measured in returning visitors, RSS subscriptions and email subscriptions
- Quality – The more time people spend on your content, the more likely they are to turn into customers
- Marketing impact – If you gate content (white papers and webinars), track registrations and downloads. Team members should also document anecdotes they hear (i.e., a customer who compliments a blog post).
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