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Updated May 16, 2022<\/em><\/p>\n Have you ever heard a sales leader or business exec disparage content marketing or wonder about its business value?<\/p>\n They believe the myth that content marketing is some nebulous, feel-good, unmeasured thing that gets told too often. Several industry experts mentioned it when we asked about the most irritating content marketing misbeliefs last year:<\/span><\/p>\n #ContentMarketing myth: It\u2019s all pretty pictures and words, says @virtualpenny via @KMoutsos @CMIContent @inmotionhosting. <\/a><\/span>Click To Tweet<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n The business purpose of content marketing is written into its definition<\/a>:<\/p>\n Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience \u2013 and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n So, why does this myth persist?<\/p>\n The talking heads of the content marketing industry shoulder some of the blame. Dale Bertrand<\/a>, president of Fire&Spark, shared: \u201c<\/strong>The content marketing industry does a poor job of communicating the full value of high-quality content \u2026 As an industry, we need to do a better job communicating that high-quality content should drive SEO, sales enablement, conversion, email marketing, advertising, affiliate programs, and more.\u201d<\/p>\n The #ContentMarketing industry does a poor job communicating the full value of high-quality content, says @dbertrand via @KMoutsos @CMIContent @inmotionhosting. <\/a><\/span>Click To Tweet<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n We content marketers can blame ourselves if we\u2019re not setting (and hitting) goals business leaders care about.<\/p>\n We asked marketers which goals they achieved using content marketing over the past year for our B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends \u2013 Insights for 2022<\/a>. The one goal nearly everyone claims to have achieved? Brand awareness (88%). Among B2C marketers<\/a>, brand awareness was also the top response (80%).<\/p>\n We see similar results year after year.<\/p>\n Brand awareness is a worthy endeavor. But you may struggle to explain how it ties into an outcome business leaders care about. That lack of a common understanding or language often divides marketers from other business leaders.<\/p>\n Marketers might consider increasing awareness as a return on the content marketing investment. But most business leaders equate the term \u201creturn\u201d with one thing<\/a> \u2013 revenue.<\/p>\n Simply saying, \u201cOur content marketing increases brand awareness\u201d isn\u2019t going to cut it when it comes to securing, keeping, or increasing the budget.<\/p>\n Justifying #ContentMarketing by saying it increases brand awareness won\u2019t help you secure, keep, or increase its budget, says @KMoutsos via @CMIContent @inmotionhosting. <\/a><\/span>Click To Tweet<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n Your website hosting decisions can make a big impact on speed, performance, and manageability \u2013 and the experience that you deliver to your content consumers. Before you choose a hosting solution, watch this chat with Harry Jackson of InMotion Hosting, where he outlines the three main options and explains the pros and cons of each. <\/span>Watch now!<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n Instead of setting brand awareness<\/a> as THE goal, think of it as one step toward a business goal.<\/p>\n And what\u2019s the business goal of content marketing? To drive profitable action.<\/p>\n Boom. Goal defined. My job here is done.<\/p>\n Except \u2026 you probably have questions. What counts as a profitable action? Let\u2019s explore.<\/p>\n To be useful (and measurable), content marketing goals must be specific \u2013 and match a meaningful business goal your company is working toward. CMI founder Joe Pulizzi likes to say businesses care about three things:<\/p>\n Choose goals that support one of those three things, and you should have no problem communicating how content marketing contributes to the business goals.<\/p>\n Here are several business-related possibilities to consider when setting your content marketing goals:<\/p>\n Building a subscribed audience<\/a> is the basis of content marketing. These are people who provide their contact information and agree to receive communication from you. That also gives you permission to subtly market to them while providing value outside your company\u2019s products or services. In fact, CMI Chief Strategy Advisor Robert Rose says the business asset created by content marketing isn\u2019t content; it\u2019s the audience.<\/p>\n When it makes sense:<\/strong> Set a subscriber goal when your business wants to penetrate a new market, compete with a high-profile market leader, or begin the content marketing journey.<\/p>\n Profitable actions to track:<\/strong> Measure progress by the number of subscribers to an owned channel (email newsletter, blog alerts, magazine, podcast, etc.) or the subscriber conversion rate compared with the general audience conversion rate.<\/p>\n Go deeper into the subscribed audience as a goal:<\/p>\n Great content can encourage consumers to become prospects by signing up for a demo, registering for an event, or requesting access to a resource center. (In some organizations, a lead could be defined as a contact.) Unlike subscribers, leads provide more than an email address. They trade more information about themselves because they see value in the content offer<\/a>.<\/p>\n Caveat:<\/strong> Some leads aren\u2019t really leads. These contacts might have wanted the piece of content, but they may not want to hear from your brand again or aren\u2019t interested in your product or service now. Consider converting these not-really leads into opt-in subscribers who may become more valuable over time.<\/p>\n When it makes sense:<\/strong> Focus on lead-related goals if your business sees content marketing as a tool for the sales team \u2013 to help find or qualify new prospects or nurture leads through the funnel.<\/p>\n Profitable actions to track:<\/strong> Measure content\u2019s impact with form and landing page conversion rates<\/a>, downloads, and percentage of marketing- and sales-qualified leads.<\/p>\n To go deeper on tracking lead generation, check out:<\/p>\n Supporting sales with content typically involves creating pieces that offer proof points to help customers decide to choose (or justify choosing) your product or service. Think testimonials and case studies that show how similar customers have solved their problems.<\/p>\n When it makes sense:<\/strong> Focus your content here when your company needs to grow sales or open up new revenue streams.<\/p>\n Profitable actions to track:<\/strong> Measure your sales support through lead-to-customer conversion rates, effect on time to close new customers, and revenue generated.<\/p>\n Go deeper on aligning content with sales:<\/p>\n Though many treat content marketing as a top-of-the-funnel play, content can work to reinforce the customer\u2019s decision after the sale. How-to and activation content can help make sure the customer gets value from the purchase \u2013 and is likely to buy again.<\/p>\n When it makes sense:<\/strong> Focus on customer support and loyalty content<\/a> when reducing support-related costs (i.e., high volumes of support calls) is a priority, when the business struggles to secure repeat business, or when upselling product options and add-ons are a priority.<\/p>\n Profitable actions to track:<\/strong> Measure the impact by the percentage of existing customers who consume content, the reduction in the number of support calls, the number of repeat customers, revenue from upselling, customer-retention rate, and changes in churn rate.<\/p>\n Most of us know the SMART (specific, measurable, actionable\/achievable, realistic, and time-bound) framework for goal setting. Authors of an article<\/a> from MIT Sloan argue it omits important elements \u2013 frequent discussions and transparency \u2013 that can help eliminate quarter or year-end surprises.<\/p>\n The article suggests FAST<\/a> as a better acronym and framework:<\/p>\n The frameworks are seemingly complementary and could easily be a blended mix (SMART-FAST, FARMS-STAT?) for your content marketing goal-achieving plan.<\/p>\n Whichever framework you choose, do your content marketing program a favor: Set ambitious goals tied to a business outcome<\/em>. Then talk about those goals in ways that make your business leaders care.<\/p>\n As usual, Joe nails what\u2019s at stake<\/a>:<\/p>\n Most content marketing programs don\u2019t stop because of a lack of results. They don\u2019t stop because they aren\u2019t working \u2026 They stop because the people with the purse strings \u2013 the ones who control the budget \u2013 don\u2019t understand content marketing, why you are doing it, and what impact it could and should make on the organization.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n What goals are you working toward? How are you making sure the purse-string holders understand what content marketing is contributing to the business? I\u2019d love to hear your thoughts in the comments.<\/p>\n Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski\/Content Marketing Institute<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n
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Awareness isn\u2019t everything<\/h2>\n
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<\/p>\nHANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT:<\/strong> How To Explain Content Marketing ROI to Win (or Keep) Buy-In<\/a><\/div>\n
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<\/a><\/b><\/h4>\nTop Options for Hosting (and Optimizing!) Your Content<\/span><\/h3>\n
\nHow to align content marketing and business goals<\/h2>\n
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Subscribers<\/h3>\n
Leads<\/h3>\n
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Customer support and loyalty<\/h3>\n
Don\u2019t hide your goals under a barrel (or in a PowerPoint slide)<\/h2>\n
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HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: Content Marketing Basics: How To Start (or Jumpstart) Your Content Practice<\/a><\/strong><\/div>\nThere\u2019s still time to set growing your content marketing skills as a professional goal for 2022. Then join us at ContentTECH Summit<\/a> in San Diego and Content Marketing World<\/a> in Cleveland.<\/em><\/div>\n