The Goal of a Content Marketing Strategy

The ultimate objective of a content marketing strategy is to boost revenue. However, revenue is a complicated and dependent metric. Various elements, such as marketing, sales, support, and the quality of offerings, affect it.

Hence, in this chapter, we will first understand how content marketing and revenue are connected. This will help us uncover the subsequent factors and independent metrics that impact revenue through content.

Finally, we will dissect how each of those factors and independent metrics can be optimized, through tools, process, and personnel, to achieve the ultimate objective of your content marketing strategy.

How content marketing impacts revenue

There are three kinds of buyers: 

1. Problem unaware: Suffer from the consequences of the pain point, but can’t quite put a finger on it. For example, an accountant spends hours manually entering data into a spreadsheet.

2. Problem aware: These folks have identified their issue, but don’t know what the solution might be. For example, an accountant recognizes the inefficiency emanating from manual data entry.

3. Solution aware: They know what will solve their problem, either roughly or wholly. For instance, an accountant desires a software solution that automatically enters data into the spreadsheet at the click of a button.

Every buyer begins at the first step. Their wisdom and the complexity of the problem determine how quickly they get to step three. In some instances, they intuitively figure it out, and in others, they ask a colleague who may have faced a similar problem.

Fortunately, in the modern age, they go to the internet, and that’s where your content marketing strategy can work its magic.

Revenue-focused content explains how a pain point might manifest itself in terms of tangible metrics, illustrates the root cause of the issue, and suggests the best possible solution to an audience.

Simply put, content marketing nudges your potential buyer toward making a purchase decision.

If you want to get nerdy about it, the technical marketing terminology is AIDA. Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action. 

In the attention phase, you talk about a pain point they are familiar with to hook them in. Then, you spike interest by empathizing with their circumstance and validating their challenges. After that, you evoke desire by highlighting how your offerings will solve their problem.

Finally, they take action and complete the purchase.

Each phase is facilitated through content, either synchronously (sales calls) or asynchronously (blogs and newsletters).

Now, to complete the loop, content marketing drives revenue by providing selective information to your potential customers that earns their trust and eventually persuades them to buy from you.

And this is where it gets tricky.

Attribution is a bitch

It’s damn near impossible to determine how much a single content asset has contributed toward converting a prospect into a paying customer. Because the purchase journey is never straightforward.

Customers read articles, check out landing pages, read testimonials, go to forums, and look for user-generated content (UGC), such as social media posts, before making a final decision.

Moreover, in the interim, they might ask a friend or a colleague for guidance. Or, a constraint might pop up, and the process begins again. 

Amid this chaos, it is literally damn near impossible to attribute how each asset published by your content marketing strategy is boosting your bottom line.

However, as a whole, you can easily recognize whether your campaigns are giving you results in a tangible and intangible way.

Content performance metrics

There are two types of metrics: qualitative and quantitative. The latter one is easily measurable due to its tangible nature, so let’s start with that.

Quantitative content performance metrics and how to improve them

You can classify them into five core categories:

1. Traffic and Reach

   1. Page views, unique visitors, impressions

   2. Referral sources (organic, paid, social, direct)

2. Engagement

   1. Click-through rate (CTR)

   2. Average time on page/website (session duration)

   3. Bounce rate

   4. Social shares, likes, comments (count-based)

3. Conversion Metrics

   1. Lead generation (form completions, sign-ups, downloads)\

   2. Sales/conversion rate

   3. Cost per conversion (CPC, CPA, ROAS)

4. SEO Performance

   1. Keyword rankings

   2. Organic search traffic

   3. Backlinks gained

5. Retention

   1. Returning visitors

   2. Newsletter open/click rates

   3. Customer lifetime value (CLV)

On an operational level, you should primarily focus on 1, 2b, 2d, 3a, 4, and 5b. The rest are dependent on these ones and are usually tracked by allied departments, such as sales and customer success.

To improve the essential quantitative content performance metrics, you simply need to create content around your potential customers’ needs within your brand’s framework. 

Your content marketing strategy should prioritize talking about highlighting the significance of the pain points faced by your audience, their implications, and remedies. When discussing those, it’s pivotal to organically mention the brand’s offerings without being salesy.

I’ve dived into all of that in the latter chapters of this book.

Qualitative content performance metrics and how to improve them

These are the ones you can gauge based on your observation, knowledge, and experience:

1. Audience Perception

   1. Sentiment analysis of comments, reviews, and mentions

   2. Tone and emotional resonance (positive, negative, neutral reactions)

   3. Memorability of the content

2. Content Quality

   1. Readability, clarity, and accuracy

   2. Relevance to audience needs

   3. Brand voice consistency

3. Message Effectiveness

   1. Does the content convey the intended message?

   2. Does it support brand authority and credibility?

   3. Did the reader take the desired next step?

One of the most challenging elements of optimizing the aforementioned metrics is that there is no specific scale or direction. For instance, some brands get amazing results by adopting an informal and casual tone, while others earn their audience’s trust through astute professionalism.

Additionally, there are several aspects, such as readability, knowledge retention, and persuasiveness, which develop with time. This is where partnering with the right content marketing team or professional becomes critical.

So, how do you improve them?

Practice. I know that this is not the answer you or anyone wants to hear, but there are certain things that you need to grind for. Moreover, these qualitative aspects are fundamental to boost the quantitative metrics, both in the short and long run.

Start learning about marketing, psychology, platforms, and human behavior. At the same time, write articles every goddamn day like your life depends on it.

Tracking incremental progress in content marketing

Let’s say you are a new company that is building its marketing workflows. Initially, it will be a straightforward, generic workflow that simply produces feeler content, which gets a ‘feel’ of your niche.

After running the processes for a few cycles, you can look at the following indicators:

1. Process efficiency: How quickly and effectively your team can go from a “let’s do this” to “done and dusted?” Of course, the content performance matters. There is no point in producing slop in bulk.

2. Personal understanding: You (or your team) need to continually learn more about your domain, niche, audiences, marketing, and competitors. These elements contribute to quality content. 

3. Each asset’s impact: There will be a few pieces that will perform much better than you’ve anticipated. They will take you by surprise. Find what elements resonated and do more of that. At the same time, don’t get too cocky because even the hit pieces aren’t perfect.

4. Consistency: This has to be mentioned due to its significance. I know so much about content creation and marketing (and I say it in a non-arrogant way) because I’ve put in more work than most equi-experienced professionals.

Conclusion: It’s a long-term game

So, boosting revenue with content marketing.

The biggest challenge, especially in this day and age, is assembling the right team of content writers who understand SEO and digital marketing. After that, it boils down to work ethic.

Furthermore, the ultimate goal of any content marketing strategy is brand building. It should create a unique identity for your brand, whether as an individual or a business. That’s what drives revenue for time immemorial because you stand out from the competition.

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Next Chapter: Content Marketing Challenges for Lean and Agile Teams

Previous Chapter: Content Marketing: 5 Things to Ignore

Index (with Prologue): Content Marketing 101: For Lean and Agile Teams