Jazz Jones is anxious to get moving forward with the implementation of her content marketing strategy. She is, after all, eager to begin building her coaching business. But she has just a few more steps before she’s ready to go. The next one, Step 5, is critical and all about keeping the end in mind.
Step 5: Determining how you will measure results (metrics)
At the outset of the planning process, we worked with Jones to clarify her goals and objectives. These become the benchmark against which to measure progress. If we said, for instance, that we wanted to generate 30 leads per quarter, we need to put metrics in place to determine whether we actually do this. These metrics might be both process-based and outcome-based. Here’s the difference:
- Process measures give us some early, or leading, indication that we will be able to achieve our objective. For instance, many content marketers use process measures such as number of visits to the website, number of inquiries, and number of white paper requests. These metrics can be useful, but, ultimately, what we are most interested in are outcome measures.
- Outcome measures are the real bottom-line results we achieve. In this case, our outcome measure is new coaching clients.
It’s critically important that content marketers analyze the data they gather to make changes to their strategies. Avoid the tendency, cautions Ashley Orndorff, director of marketing for Visual Impact Group, an advertising agency in York, Pa., “to get attached and stuck in box of what you have been doing. Let the data speak for itself. If you are collecting and analyzing results accurately, your audience will tell you all you need to know. A lot of your strategy will be tweaked as you go and collect data.”
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About Us
Strategic Communications, LLC, works with B2B clients to help them achieve their goals through effective content marketing and management with both internal and external audiences. We are adept at evaluating and analyzing communication efforts and working with clients to plan, create and publish high-quality, unique content, through both on- and offline media to achieve desired results. Our background in business journalism, marketing, PR/media relations and online communications makes us well-positioned to serve the needs of 21st-century marketers.
We serve clients who are looking for help creating content for a wide array of channels—from social media posts to full-length manuscripts, and everything in between. We focus primarily on service-related B2B topics and work with a number of independent consultants interested in building their thought leadership through online channels. For ongoing content management, our first step is to fully understand your goals, objectives and competitive landscape.
Then we’ll conduct a thorough analysis and assessment of your digital presence, compared to competitors, and recommend a communication strategy to achieve your goals. But, we also regularly take on individual projects – white papers, blog posts, contributed articles, etc. If you’re interested in learning more, let us know!
(Strategic Communications is certified as a Woman-Owned Business Enterprise through the Wisconsin Department of Administration.)
Recommended Reading:
21st Century Secrets to Effective PR: Tips and Best Practices for Gaining Media Exposure
Best Practices in Influencer Marketing
Tags: content marketing, content marketing strategy, marketing strategy, setting goals and objectives, Strategy, thinking strategically