The time has come to focus on expanding the use of measurement in content marketing and in improving methods and metrics, a new study from Curata asserts.
In its 2016 Content Marketing Staff and Tactics Study, Curata surveyed over 1,000 marketers and identified 29 percent who implement best practices in developing content, building marketing teams and using technology. Those content marketing leaders excel at performance measurement, among other practices, the research reveals.
Of all marketers surveyed, 38 percent assessed themselves as extremely or very effective at measuring the impact of content marketing at the top of the sales funnel, while 56 percent of content marketing leaders said they are extremely or very effective at measurement at that stage. Leaders are also better at measuring content marketing performance for the middle and bottom of the sales funnel; however both groups are less effective in those areas.
Most organizations now recognize that content marketing is highly effective. Three-fourths of companies are increasing content marketing investments in 2016 and 43 percent are increasing staff levels. As content marketing matures, organizations are becoming more aware of the need to more rigorously measure its impact deeper into the sales pipeline.
A New Phase of Maturity
“We’re in a new phase of content marketing maturity,” the white paper states. “No longer are content marketing teams solely focused on trying to create a ‘home-run’ piece of content that garners thousands of shares and page views.”
Curata recommends that companies:
- Align content marketing and marketing operations teams.
- Identify areas where they can better leverage resources with technology, such as curation and analytics.
- Invest in a content marketing platform that integrates with the current marketing and sales technology stack.
Similar Results Found
A new study from technology firm CEB shows similar results. Marketers devote 45 percent of their budgets to some aspect of content marketing, and 84% of marketers plan to spend more on content marketing in the next five years, it says. However, despite the growing investment and focus on content marketing, only 45% of marketers are confident those investments are paying off. Most continue to struggle with building an effective content marketing strategy and have questions about planning, execution, technology and measurement.
The white paper cites three main challenges for B2B marketers: Buyers are overwhelmed with options, which paralyzes decision making and extends buying cycles and leads to purchase regret.
Customers are more informed than ever through online information and use of third-party consultants. As a result, they tend to defer purchase decisions until later in the buying cycle.
Suppliers work with larger more diverse buying teams. Typical B2B buying groups include 5.4 stakeholders on average. That makes reaching a purchase consensus more difficult.
The secret is to address both organizational goals and customers’ buying reality. The study recommends that overall content efforts carefully and consistently target a few specific, high-priority organizational goals. Content that drives needed customer buying behavior calls for aligning content strategy with emerging customer buying patterns.
Many experts recommend that marketers employ social media monitoring and measurement to find issues that most interest their audiences, uncover competitors’ strategies and measure and improve their own content marketing efforts. Monitoring social media networks is among the best ways to conduct market research and gauge customer satisfaction. For example, a search of highly specific keywords on the most popular social media networks can immediately produce research on what a hundred million or more people think about a specific topic. Organizations can learn what consumers like and dislike about their products and how people feel about competitors’ products.
Most social media monitoring and measurement services offer sentiment analysis that can readily assess and depict customer attitudes toward any given product or issue. Human sentiment analysis offers more accurate assessments than software-based analysis of content marketing posts in social media.
Bottom Line: Measuring the impact of content marketing is one of the best practices that sophisticated marketers follow, researchers conclude. As companies increase their content marketing efforts and strategies mature, the next step is to improve measurement across all levels of the sales funnel.
William J. Comcowich founded and served as CEO of CyberAlert LLC, the predecessor of Glean.info. He is currently serving as Interim CEO and member of the Board of Directors. Glean.info provides customized media monitoring, media measurement and analytics solutions across all types of traditional and social media.
