Letter #61: How to calculate the ROI of your content
Expert interview on measuring the business value your content delivers.
Bonjour peeps!
Welcome to the 61st edition of my newsletter where we uncover what makes ridiculously good content every Tuesday.
I’m seeing a lot of new faces (err, names) here so I figured this should make an apt opening line.
Also, since it’s been a minute: I’m Masooma, avid reader, @inkandcopy on Twitter, and a freelance content marketer for B2B SaaS stepping out of her panda (holiday) mode.
I’ve worked with some of the best folks out there like people at Shopify, Vimeo, and Tubebuddy and named among the top 100 content marketing influencers by Semrush — super proud of that *wipes her happy tears*
Anyway, on to the meaty bit for today: measuring your content’s ROI according to Araminta Robertson of Mint Studios, the expert on the topic.
As is the alternate Tuesday usual, I asked Araminta the same three questions we ask all experts:
A mistake Araminta made when learning to calculate the ROI of content
An actionable tip to get you one step closer to measuring content ROI
And a secret tip to effectively calculate the ROI of your content marketing program
But first, the formula for measuring content ROI:
Content ROI = Sales growth - content marketing cost) / content marketing cost
So, say you got £3,000 worth of business through content, and that piece of content cost you £1,000; you’ve got an ROI of 200%. (3000 - 1000)/1000 = 200%.
“Use Google Analytics or Hubspot to track how many conversions or leads you get via your content,” Araminta shares.
“If you know how much a customer is worth to you (how much revenue they bring in every year) and your lead to close rate, then you can calculate how much business your efforts are bringing in.”
On to the questions now:
👉 Learn from Araminta’s mistake: Not setting clear stakeholder expectations about the time it takes to reap a return on content investment.
Araminta notes — and I’m sure we all agree from experience — that getting 100 or so leads per month from content to break even the investment costs is not child’s play. And it definitely doesn’t happen overnight.
“If your client or the company you work for is fine with that, then that’s fine,” says Araminta. “But if they need a positive ROI earlier on, then this simply proves that content marketing won’t bring the ROI they’re looking for when they need it.
It’s super important that expectations are clear from the beginning. If it's going to take over a year to get a positive ROI, then that's fine. But it’s important that they know — if not you’re setting yourself up for some difficult discussions midway.”
👉 Do this today: Aim to improve the quality of customers your content brings.
“There is no way to 100% accurately measure your content’s ROI, but that doesn’t mean you can’t aim to be as accurate as possible,” admits Araminta.
“Start by tracking the first and last click interaction via Google Analytics’ Model Comparison Tool. But if you can, try to set up Hubspot so you can not only track the number of conversions, but also the quality.”
Araminta quizzes, “Which would you rather have?
a) 10 leads per month each worth £500 per year?
b) 5 leads per month each worth £2,000 per year?
Obviously b). But the only way to know those numbers is if you can attribute which lead came in from which blog post.
Hubspot and other product management tools do an amazing job at that, and that’s what you ideally want to aim for: attribute the quality of customers to your content. You’ll be a lot more aligned with the business goals and management, and that translates into more budget being attributed to content in the long run.”
👉 The secret tip to measuring content ROI: Start today and keep trying.
“Most people don’t measure the ROI of content. Or try to get developers to set up the tracking, but then give up when no one does.”
“You need to keep fighting and keep trying to set up your tracking as accurately as possible. If no one’s helping you out, teach yourself Google Tag Manager and start tracking clicks. Whatever it takes, get started.”
“That way you know what’s working and what isn’t,” Araminta explains. “Most importantly, you can prove to management how valuable content is, which can be the difference between having a content budget and not having one at all.”
That’s all for today, folks.
Au revoir (yess, I’ve been watching Emily in Paris — you got that right 😁)
When the foundation is solid, what you build on it will be made for success. These details are critical. Thanks for breaking it down.