The Content Is Out, but Where’s the ROI?
October 23, 2014
There’s no doubt that business-to-consumer (B2C) marketers are using content marketing. In an August 2014 study by the Content Marketing Institute (CMI) and MarketingProfs, 77% of B2C marketers in North America reported doing so. And responses indicated that marketers were getting more effective at the tactic: 37% said their organizations were effective at content marketing, up from 34% last year and 32% three years ago.
What metrics are most common for evaluating content marketing success? Website traffic remained the most popular metric for assessing content efforts, cited by 62% of B2C marketers. Fully 54% of respondents looked at sales, and conversion rates arrived on the scene. Actual time spent on the website and qualitative feedback from clients fell in importance.
Still, B2C marketers surveyed were struggling to measure content marketing efforts. Just 23% said they were successful at determining return on investment (ROI). In comparison, 32% of respondents were unsuccessful, and more than one-fifth weren’t even trying to track ROI. Similarly, measuring content effectiveness was the top content marketing challenge, cited by 51% of respondents.
Results from April 2014 polling by Forrester Consulting are in line with this. Among US digital marketing decision-makers studied, 52% cited challenges measuring ROI as a hurdle to content marketing—the second-highest response.
Courtesy of eMarketer
