Despite the widespread popularity of content marketing, research shows that most marketers aren’t confident in their ability to measure its effectiveness. For example, in a 2014 survey by Contently, only 9.4% of marketers said they are very confident in their ability to measure the business impact of content marketing.
In an earlier post, I noted that measuring the performance of content has recently become a hot topic, and I pointed to measurement frameworks suggested by Jay Baer, Curata, and Contently. I agree with many of the specific metrics that these frameworks include, but I also contend that most companies should not focus primarily on measuring the performance of content marketing per se. Here’s why.
Content marketing is a marketing method that emphasizes the use of informative or entertaining, and primarily non-promotional, content as the “fuel” for marketing communications programs. These programs are designed to achieve a variety of marketing objectives that have remained largely unchanged for many years. Therefore, the essence of what we now call content marketing is simply about using a distinctive kind of content to accomplish long-standing marketing goals.
In most B2B companies, a comprehensive marketing effort will include four core types of marketing communications programs:
- Reputation building programs that are designed to build brand awareness and bolster brand preference
- Demand generation programs that are designed to acquire new sales leads and nurture those leads until they are ready to engage with a sales rep
- Sales enablement programs that are designed to support the efforts of the sales force
- Customer retention programs that are designed to sustain and enhance relationships with existing customers