Measuring content marketing through the lens of the Sales funnel

We have heard over and over at industry conferences like Search Engine Strategies, that content marketing is probably one of the single most important aspects of marketing nowadays. At a time where social media, search and a growing stream of videos, photos and audio content intersect, it’s becoming increasingly important for brands to bring relevance and carefully select the pieces of content for their web properties and advertising. What’s even more important is the capacity to understand and measure the value of each piece of content and how each piece interacts throughout the buyer’s journey.

It’s not easy to measure the value of content since there are many factors influencing the decision process during each stage of the buying funnel. The historic AIDA model really works here to look at content marketing separately at different levels of the Sales funnel.

Awareness and Consideration phase of the Sales funnel

The role of content marketing when looking at the top of the funnel is to raise brand awareness and create positive perceptions of the brand. A very popular way to understand the effectiveness of a marketing campaign or a brand awareness program is to benchmark search queries before and after the campaign to see if there is a lift in relevant traffic, and see how the audience engages with the brand (positively, negatively or in a neutral fashion). There are many tools available to measure brand sentiment such as Radian 6

Preference and Action phase of the Sales funnel

In the middle of the funnel, one relatively easy way to measure success is to look at activation and engagement. The first interaction with a piece of content such as somebody clicking on a bunch of links in a relevant industry article would be considered Activation. Using Google Analytics, Eloqua, Marketo or other analytics tools, one can measure engagement by looking at page views and click through rates. Social media may provide additional relevant data on Activation such as likes, comments, shares, retweets, repins etc. 

The key is being able to aggregate all this data in a meaningful dashboard which helps marketers formulate a story by looking at the data holistically; products like Domo for instance, offer a good solution.

Loyalty and Advocacy phase of the Sales funnel

The bottom of the funnel is inevitably the hardest part to measure. Most get pieces of the story i.e. Actual contract value of goods sold but no visibility in actual profit margins. Not too often can one measure the direct relationship between a piece of content and its impact on revenue. It’s always hard to prove the exact correlation between a popular video which generated a lot of buzz in YouTube and a ton of leads generated to Sales. Marketing automation and tools like ExactTarget, Eloqua or Marketo help provide more insights throughout the buyer’s journey by measuring each touch point. Nurturing campaigns are an effective way of driving various pieces of content that are relevant to the reader for long term loyalty.

The analytics can be complex, but it's a necessary process to understand which piece of content to select and make data driven decisions to maximize success.

Social Media for Body Shops

Did you know that social media has become the new place for “word of mouth”? Did you know that more people are reached online than in person?

Today, there are over 1 billion people on Facebook, 500 million on Twitter, and 200 million on LinkedIn. For the most part, every single person that enters your shop is active on at least one of these networks, if not all. So why aren’t you on there with them? 

Think of it this way. Say you brought your kid’s bike into your shop to do a pinstripe job on it. You snap a picture of it, post it on Facebook, and one of your followers “likes” it. That follower happens to have 500 followers. Suddenly 500 people are seeing your pinstripe job, and now know the name of your shop. How much money did that cost you?

Conversely, say a customer comes in and doesn’t like the way you finished their car. They tweet about the bad job, and happen to have 1000 followers on Twitter. Suddenly 1000 people have heard a bad review about you. 

Makes you want to start getting out there on your own, doesn’t it?

So what are things you need to be doing out there in the social media world? You need to be on as many networks as possible, but let’s focus on Facebook for this list.

1. Set up an account for your company and make it easy to find by adding in your address, pictures, basic information, etc.
2. Actively talk to your customers. They see ads every day, and would rather hear from YOU why they should come to you, than hear it from an ad.
3. Make sure customers coming into your shop know about your Facebook page. Ask them to “like” you!
4. Create an environment where your customers feel like they know you. Be personable with them, while also giving them helpful tips about their cars.
5. Put a real face to the account. Again, be personable. If they know an actual person is behind the account, customers will be more apt to engage with the page.
6. Keep the pictures coming. People are very visual. They like to see things rather than read about them. Show them that great classic car you just helped build!
7. Post offers. Give people another reason to come back to your shop!