It's important to have established content goals and a plan of attack in order for your clients to see the benefits.
When clients demand to know how the online marketing strategy you have designed for their business will be measured to determine success, even savvy online content marketers might cringe. As an agency, you can't work blindly through a content campaign without first setting up accurate indicators of success. Focus up front on the KPIs -- Key Performance Indicators -- because they are important to the growth of your client's business. These six steps will help you measure content marketing success in your online endeavors for your clients, in addition to helping your own business prosper.
1. Identify Goals From Your Business Plan
Before you start designing an online marketing campaign for a client, you need to define why you're collecting the metrics. Specific goals should gel with the requirements of the business plan. Are your clients hoping to focus more on their online business, seeking to boost their conversion rate so they can sell more products online? If so, that means boosting their online presence through content so consumers can find their brand.
2. Calculate Desired Metrics
Each of your metrics should be tied to a specific goal. You won't be able to measure all metrics, but by identifying in advance what is more important with your client, you can sort the useful data from the unnecessary. For example, if you wish to increase customer engagement with your brand, ultimately lowering the bounce rate of the website, then that aspect of the site needs to be measured.
See also: How to Measure The ROI of Your Blog Content
3. Determine Your Content Creation Source
In order to run a successful content campaign for your clients, you need top-notch content. Make sure you have a reliable source to create your client's content - that might be a team of in-house writers, a content writing service or both. Be very transparent with your client about who is creating their content and don't be afraid to show off their work with previous clients.
4. Communicate Your Plan
By keeping your clients updated on your marketing efforts, you increase their confidence in you. Provide detailed reports outlining specific goals you discussed as they pertain to each social media market. Be sure to keep everyone in the loop as the marketing campaign evolves. Store the information in a secure location, as this plan will be used to compare metrics later.
See also: 5 Content Writing Tests to Find The Right Candidate
5. Measure Your Results
Set a date for calculating the results of your content marketing efforts and share your results with your clients. Don't waste their time with minuscule data; keep it pertinent to their marketing plan goals. Be sure to prepare your reports and spreadsheets so they're easily understood by non-marketing types - don't forget to refer to the original marketing plan.
6. Analyze Your Results
Use your metrics to aid future decision-making for the business. This data will give you the information you need to make decisions about their website. For example, if the bounce rate from Facebook to the website is too high, you may need to optimize your landing page. If you're tweeting impression rate is too low, you may need to write more engaging tweets.
Measurement is crucial to the success of your clients' online marketing campaign. Online marketing efforts should focus on data-driven metrics, resulting in meeting the goals of a successful business plan.