How to turn content marketing into content ROI | VentureBeat | Business | by John Koetsier
Summary
What that means for marketers is they need to provide the right kind of content for each stage of the buying decision, from videos to white papers to webinars, so that potential prospect can learn about the industry in general and the specifics of their products and services. The high volume of activity looks great on paper and is often associated with building brand awareness, but too often these numbers do not directly translate to leads that fill the sales pipeline. Analytics about web and social activity have improved the way we measure and iterate marketing campaigns so that efforts are more predictable and accountable towards filling the sales pipeline. Many content marketers have bought into an incorrect view that brands should be their own publishers and can replace outbound efforts (i.e. paid ads) with inbound-only campaigns such as social and email. Measuring by the number of visits to web sites or YouTube channels may make marketing feel good, but there’s no way to directly correlate the investment made to produce and promote content with closed sales.