Best practices for lead generation, marketing automation and revenue generation topics.

How to Develop an Effective Marketing Automation Strategy

How to Develop an Effective Marketing Automation StrategyAn effective marketing automation strategy has the ability to quickly generate new customers and increased revenue. It gathers potential leads that are actively searching for information online, profile’s each lead’s interests, nurtures leads with helpful and relevant content, and then scores them to assess their potential for conversion. The process is efficient and automated, but a truly effective marketing automation strategy will also require a human touch.

It is All about the Customer

The first and most important focus must always be on satisfying the customer’s needs and concerns. This can be achieved by understanding the critical attributes of existing customers and then using those factors to create a lead scoring model.

What is the lead researching online?

What is their buying history?

What are their interests?

An effective marketing automation strategy is based on finding out as much information as possible on every potential lead. Clever marketers will use registration forms to block particularly valuable content, requiring leads to volunteer pertinent information prior to access. Marketing automation also uses online newsletter registries as a method for gaining greater insight into a lead’s characteristics.

Lead Profile & Ranking

Once this information is obtained, marketing automation software compares and ranks it using a profile of an ideal prospect. For an effective marketing automation strategy, the profile it is ranked against should as closely represent a typical buyer as possible. A good plan is to create the lead scoring using a collaboration of both the sales and marketing team’s experiences with current clientele.

Marketers know what landing pages and tutorials are bringing in business and the sale’s team understands what their customers need and want. Any marketing automation strategy will need both perspectives to effectively capture an accurate and complete lead profile.

Segment Leads into Groups

Using the information gathered for the profile, each lead will be segment in groups based on similar needs and wants. Marketing automation cannot effectively target every lead individually due to the massive volume of leads it generates. However, personalized campaigns make a huge difference in the eyes of the customer. Since the customer is the first priority of marketing automation, lead nurturing campaigns are created to target specific lead segments.

Content that Provides Value

The last fundamental aspect of marketing automation is creating relevant and informative lead nurturing content. The content that is being provided to lead must offer them real value. This is a business’ chance to brand themselves as experts in their field and earn the customer’s loyalty.  All lead nurturing content must be focused on building relationships and trust.

An effective marketing automation strategy begins by profiling, ranking, and segmenting each lead. Once leads are grouped together and their needs are understood, quality content can be customized to satisfy their concerns. All of this is designed to produced more qualified leads and build stronger and longer-lasting customer relationships.

B2B Marketing Analytics: Metrics to Focus On (Part 4)

B2B Marketing Analytics: Metrics to Focus On  (Part 4)In this post we continue the discussion about analyzing your B2B marketing analytics. As we mentioned in Metrics to Focus On (Part 3), your B2B marketing strategy should be analyzed for each marketing practice you employ. These days marketing automation platforms are available that provide executives with granular views of how effective their marketing activities have been. Here are a few key metrics that should be analyzed for your PPC and email marketing practices.

Pay-Per-Click

Click-through rate (CTR)

On the surface this metric is pretty obvious but, in this case, we recommend going beyond counting how many clicks resulted from each marketing asset. Focus on the resulting activity. What occurred after the link was clicked? Did your lead bounce from your landing page? Analyzing the activity after you earned the click reveals messaging effectiveness and indicates whether leads are being advanced through the marketing pipeline.

Cost per click (CPC)

Certainly, “how many sales resulted from our PPC campaign?” is an important question but there are additional metrics that can also be measured from a paid campaign. For example, one way to fully capture the ROI is to calculate how many repeat sales resulted following an initial paid click. Did a PPC buyer return to buy again? Consider returns other than financial ones from your CTR; metrics such as new email subscribers from a paid campaign may be worth analyzing as well.

Landing page

They’ve clicked your ad and viewed your landing page. What happens next? If a click-through bounces quickly from a landing page, for instance, it can be a good indicator of the ad’s messaging effectiveness. As mentioned before, measuring activity following a paid click is important. In this case, look at your landing page conversion rate as a ratio against your CTR – that can tell you whether sales are resulting from ads or your landing pages.

Email

Click-through rate

Our view for this metric is the same as for PPC assets: look beyond the number of click-throughs and examine what happened after the click. Analytics tools can evaluate email ROI so you can determine how effective your email messaging is at converting sales. Remember to look beyond financial returns. For example, measuring the number of leads that have shared an email after clicking embedded links can reveal message effectiveness and brand advocacy, and contribute to better lead profiling.

Subscribers

It is important to evaluate your subscriber base for patterns and trends. Segment email subscribers by title, industry, or budget to evaluate what lead profiles are interested in your messages and where messaging can be improved. Don’t forget that your subscriber base can provide an opportunity to expand your reach through message sharing or forwarding.

Sharing/Forwarding

Whether an email asset is shared through an embedded Twitter button or via traditional forwarding this activity, which is recognized as being social in nature, should be analyzed to evaluate message effectiveness and develop lead profiles. Which method was used to share your message? How often are recipients sharing your email messages? Examine which messages are being shared and who is sharing messages to get a feel for how effective your email campaigns are at developing brand advocates.

For more solutions that will improve your marketing ROI contact a Lead Liaison representative today – and look for more great sales and marketing ideas in our revenue generation blog.

How Marketing Automation Strengthens B2B Relationships

How Marketing Automation Strengthens B2B RelationshipsMarketing automation strengthens B2B relationships. Savvy purchasers are spending more time researching their buying decisions online and it is resulting in higher expectations of online businesses. They are now craving more personal attention from the fast-paced, highly-technical commercial business world. B2B buyers want to feel like they are valued customers again. They want the same customized service from their online vendors as they are accustom to from their local suppliers.

Offers Value before the Sale

Marketing automation strengthens B2B relationship by offering advice and guidance prior to the sale. It shows the B2B buyer that the company cares enough to offer them advice without expecting anything in return. Let’s compare this method using a traditional office furniture store. Prior to the internet, a salesperson would book an appointment with a buyer to go over their catalog and pricing. During this meeting, they would offer their advice and expertise on what type of furniture would best suit the space.

When a customer is browsing office furniture online, they may not know exactly what they need. They know what appeals to them, but unless they have some interior design experience, it will be difficult to figure out which pieces of furniture will work best in their given space. If the website for the furniture store offers the perspective customer design tips and helpful articles that explain how to choose the ideal layout, it will provide the buyer with additional value.

Offer Personalized Content that is Helpful to the Lead

In marketing automation, this is referred to as lead nurturing content. It is not meant to be a sales pitch or ad copy. Its main goal is to brand a business as an expert and develop trust with a buyer. This relevant and informative content can be further personalized based on the lead’s online behavior. The possibilities for customized content increases dramatically when a lead is profiled and scored using marketing automation.

Gain Greater Insight into Each Lead

Lead scoring provides deeper insight into buyer’s behavior and demographic characteristics. It assesses and ranks each lead compared to a typical consumer. By tracking which pages a lead visits, which tutorials a lead downloads, and how frequently a lead visits a site, marketing can determine their likelihood of conversion. When past purchasing history and demographics are added into the mix, lead scoring can provide a clearly defined profile containing all of the lead’s vital details.

Group Leads Based on Similar Needs

Once leads have been profiled and scored, they can be segmented into similar groups for a more customized approach. It will most likely be too difficult to cater to every leads concerns individually. Leads that share the same needs are grouped together and nurtured by providing information that is more relevant to their online activity and demographic profile.

Marketing automation provides a deeper insight into each lead and their unique needs. This insight can be used in countless ways to strengthen the connection between supplier and buyer. By using marketing automation to strengthen B2B relationships prior to a sale, a business can brand themselves as an expert and develop trust with future clients that will last well beyond the initial sale.

The Real ROI achieved from Marketing Automation

Real ROI from marketing automationMarketing automation is gaining in popularity among big businesses, but is it really worth the investment? What’s the real ROI from marketing automation?

Absolutely! Anytime a traditional system is changed from manual to automated, it increases efficiency and enhances its capabilities. Automation significantly reduces labor expenses while increasing the total volume of leads generated, since more can be achieved in less time. In today’s highly competitive and fast-paced marketplace, most time saving solutions are worth the investment. Let’s talk about the real ROI achieved from marketing automation.

Marketing automation uses software to automatically generate leads based on online activity. Every visitor on a site is a potential consumer and the only way to effectively track each of these visitors is by using an automated program. Every lead also leaves their own unique trail of evidence in regards to their purchasing potential. The manual labor that requires tracking and profiling every visitor’s behavior and characteristics would be astronomical, especially if the website generated a high volume of website traffic.

Being able to quickly capture leads and generate useful profiles on every lead is one of the real ways marketing automation is able to achieve ROI. Lead profiles can be used to categorize each lead into segments based on similar attributes. Rather than focus on thousands of individual leads, a company can focus on groups of related leads.

Another way to measure the true value of marketing automation comes from how these profiles can then be used to nurture and convert each lead into a sale. Marketing automation efforts should always be aligned with a personalized lead nurturing campaign. Content used to persuade each lead should be targeted to a particular concern or interest of a various lead segment.

For example, if automation software has established that a group of leads have all visited the site’s “do it yourself home renovation” page. These leads can then be targeted with helpful articles on how to successfully complete a home renovation project on your own.

Being able to tap into a lead’s needs is a priceless ROI and it is a direct result of effective marketing automation. The more a company can connect and develop trust with the lead, the more likely the lead will become a life-long customer.

Another ROI factor worth mentioning about marketing automation is its ability to produce higher quality leads. Marketers are only handing over leads that are truly interested and ready-to-buy. This pre-screening process will use the sales team’s time more efficiently. Since every lead is first profiled, nurtured, and scored before the sales team is involved, they are closer to being ready to make a decision.

Marketing automation is popular because it works. Big businesses benefit from a reduction in labor expenses, stronger lead profiles, a more personalized approach to lead nurturing, and a higher lead conversion rate. The ROI for marketing automation is certainly worth the investment.

Better Lead Management using Marketing Automation

Better Lead Management using Marketing AutomationLead management drives business. Being able to gather, nurture, and direct leads is a fundamental aspect of every company’s success. Marketing automation has streamlined this process into a highly-effective machine that produces leads with a 50% higher conversion rate than traditional marketing. It provides better lead management using automated software combined with a personalized approach to target leads efficiently and effectively. Here’s how you can achieve better lead management using marketing automation.

Driven by Lead’s Online Activity

Marketing automation sources leads based on their online behavior and demographic profile. This gives marketers the ability to tap into a lead’s buying process to determine how they research and source their purchases. It is focused on the links they click on, the pages they visit, as well as the demographic characteristics that they volunteer during online registrations.

Measures Activity Using Lead Scoring

Online activity is measured using lead scoring criteria to determine which leads have the highest potential for conversion, resulting in better lead management. It gives higher priority to leads with recent activity and it degrades leads based on periods of inactivity. Lead scoring also attaches a value to each lead based on their professional information and the behavior they have exhibited on a website.

Gives Sales Only Qualified Leads

By comparing leads to an ideal customer profile using lead scoring, marketing can determine where each lead is at in their buying process and how likely they are to convert. Only qualified sales leads with the highest scores are passed onto the sales department, so their time is never wasted on leads that have a low potential for conversion.

Offers Further Lead Nurturing for Leads that are Not Ready

Unqualified or cold leads are redirected back into the lead nurturing program until their engagement level increases. Lead nurturing offers potential consumers answer to their most frequently asked questions. It is personalized and relevant content that provides leads with free advice in an effort to build trust in a particular brand.

Creates Strong Relationship with Leads

Since leads are first profiled and then nurtured, marketing automation has the power to create a strong relationship with the lead prior to the purchasing being made. Effective lead nurturing will establish a company as being a trustworthy expert in their field. If the lead nurturing program is effective, leads will feel like they can rely on the free information provided by the business. This will also make them feel more confident in their decision to buy.

Lead management is a complex process that used to require a team of marketing professionals. It can now be efficiently managed using marketing automation software that is driven by potential lead’s online behavior and demographic profile. It generates more qualified leads and nurtures undecided leads until they are ready to make a decision. It also builds trust between lead and supplier. There is no doubt that better lead management can be achieved using marketing automation.

How to Generate More Revenue using Marketing Automation

Generate More Revenue using Marketing AutomationMarketing automation is an extremely streamlined and systematic process for generating the greatest number of potential leads using automated software. Its principle function is to generate more sales and revenue by improving the quality of every lead given to the sales department. It also naturally uses fewer resources, since traditional marketing tasks are now automated. There is no debate whether marketing automation generates more revenue than older methods of marketing and that is not the focus of this article.

Instead, this article will explain how a company can exploit the power of marketing automation to generate even more revenue. There are proven techniques to ensure a company is generating the greatest number of leads possible, as well as strategic ways to nurture these leads to increase their chances of making a purchase.

There are also simple methods for monitoring and prioritizing each lead using effective lead scoring to make sure leads with a higher chance of conversion are given the most attention. More revenue will be generated using marketing automation when all of these efforts are combined.

Generate More Leads

A lead is anyone who comes in contact with a business’ online entities. A business can increase the number of leads they generate by focusing more on their SEO efforts and expanding their online presence. They need a dynamic and intriguing website that ranks on the first page of search engine results using keywords that are relevant to their consumers.

Modern businesses also need to use social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn to engage more potential leads. The marketing department must create posts and promotions that generate interest and encourage social sharing. Leads that are obtained through relevant content and posts have a higher potential for conversion.

Convert More Leads with Better Nurturing

All nurturing should start by segmenting the leads into similar groups based on their demographic characteristics and online behavior. Lead nurturing needs to be personalized to generate more interest and more revenue. Although marketing automation is an automated process, the content it produces should not sound like it is coming from a machine.

It needs to speak directly to the reader and create a real connection. Marketers should focus on a common need or concern of a group of potential leads and then provide them with informative content that answers their questions.

Prioritize Lead with Lead Scoring

Every visitor on a site has a different level of interest. Some are anxious to buy while others are still in the initial research phase. It is important to know which ones may buy today and which leads have no intention on every making a purchase. This can be determined by monitoring and scoring their online behavior.

Marketing automation software is designed to pick up on these triggers and identify which characteristics indicate a greater chance of conversion. A solid marketing automation strategy should also incorporate online registration forms that are geared at extracting demographic information from a lead to improve the scoring model. All of this information is ranked and compared against a typical customer to determine each lead’s potential.

A business can generate more revenue using marketing automation by using SEO to increase their website traffic, creating more customized lead nurturing content, and by prioritizing leads using accurate profiling and scoring. There is an endless supply of new customers roaming the web and marketing automation is the most efficient way to secure them and turn them into revenue.

Lead Liaison Provides Another Lead Management Tool to Sales and Marketing Executives

Allen, TX (PRWEB) March 19, 2013 – Lead Liaison, a leader in marketing automation, has released another free lead management tool: the Lead Scoring Model Designer (LSMD). This time their implementation team has created a lead management asset that not only assists executives in building scoring rules for leads in their databases but also provides hypothetical testing capabilities and helps broker alignment between sales and marketing teams.

This lead scoring tool is built within a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet which allows users to adjust data. It is intended to be used by executives from sales and marketing, along with other relevant parties, when they meet to discuss lead management issues.

The Lead Scoring Model Designer employs a system of one to five stars that are used to represent the impact of each scoring parameter on a lead’s sales-readiness score. The layout organizes lead scoring parameters into three buckets that characterize demographic, behavioral, and qualification status. The 25 fields of predefined and user-entry parameters are adjustable to meet unique sales and marketing practices.

There are five facets in the Lead Scoring Model Designer that help guide sales and marketing through an alignment process which allows both teams to contribute to a lead scoring model. The first step in the alignment process is to bring both function silos to the table so the LSMD includes a meeting attendance verification mechanism. Attendance can be confirmed and the total meeting participants are calculated within the first section in the tool.

Following attendance verification, users then determine a star rating that reflects the importance of each scoring parameter. After each parameter is assigned one to five stars, users define thresholds that represent significant values for moving leads from one classification (for instance, warm lead) to another through the marketing pipeline and, eventually, into a customer relationship management (CRM) application such as the Salesforce.com Sales Cloud.

Once threshold values have been determined, users assign weights to each bucket included in the scoring matrix. Weighting from 0% to 100% can be applied to indicate the impact of each bucket towards an overall lead score. Next a point value for each star is assigned. For example, a parameter that is assigned four stars with point values of 10 contributes 40 points towards the overall lead score.

Finally, users can test the validity of the scoring model by determining if each parameter appropriately represents its contribution to the overall score. Sales and marketing executives can see the total lead score then apply the total score to each threshold in the marketing pipeline in order to evaluate if each parameter is defined accurately.

The Lead Scoring Model Designer can be used to design models for specific marketing campaigns or as a comprehensive model for lead management practices.

Download the Lead Scoring Model Designer here. It is available at no charge for existing customers and other interested parties. For more information contact Lead Liaison at 888 895 3237.

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Lead Liaison is an application development company that designs, develops, and sells cloud-based marketing and sales automation software. The company markets to small and medium-sized businesses worldwide, and focuses on creating the broadest and most user-friendly revenue generation software platform. Applications cover all phases of lead management automation including sales prospecting, lead generation, and marketing automation functions that directly influence revenue generation. It’s innovative and robust lead management platform combines unparalleled sales prospecting, lead capture, real-time lead tracking, lead qualification, lead distribution, database segmentation, lead nurturing and ROI reporting. The Software as a Service (SaaS) model delivers an effective user experience and integrated cloud computing capabilities.

Media Contacts:
Alex Brown
VP Corporate Communications
abrown(at)leadliaison(dot)com
888.89.53237 (LEADS)

Lead Liaison Helps Marketers Measure Lead Management Effectiveness

Allen, TX (PRWEB) March 5th, 2013 – Lead Liaison has released another free lead management tool, the Lead Management Grader (LMG), for business managers to rate the effectiveness of their sales and marketing activities. The company announced the release following a survey period which ended in February to help marketers measure lead management effectiveness.

The Lead Management Grader was released in response to customer requests for an easy way to gauge effectiveness of their sales and marketing practices. Lead Liaison’s product development team reviewed the lackluster and sometimes complicated tools available, and then created the Lead Management Grader to be simplistic yet comprehensive. As part of this announcement Lead Liaison is also offering a complementary review of lead management processes for qualifying businesses using the Lead Management Grader. The review will give businesses the proper “color” behind the process and give them the confidence to further assess their company’s operations.

The Lead Management Grader is a dynamic tool built with Microsoft Excel that provides 25 preconfigured scoring parameters. The parameters measure common practices within five distinct phases of lead management. Executives are able to input scoring values and adjust the relative weight for each scoring parameter.

The tool allows users to calculate the effectiveness of their lead management practices within each phase of lead management. Companies can easily and quickly grade how well their sales and marketing teams are doing in areas such as lead generationlead distribution, and lead nurturing. The tool gives companies a way to self-assess their lead management process by determining what areas need improvement and which practices are well executed.

Values can be entered for parameters like passing only qualified leads to the sales department or segmenting CRM records into targeted lists. There are 50 fields which can be adjusted to accurately reflect company-specific measures and parameter weighting. Default values for rating and weight are preconfigured but users can adjust the values to reflect their company’s unique business analysis practices.

Company executives can analyze six facets of its lead management process: sales prospecting, lead generation, lead qualification, lead distribution, lead nurturing, and campaign ROI measurement.

Measurements for each facet are configured to determine a final grade. Scoring for each facet is then displayed graphically in brilliant colors that visually depict the relative strengths and weaknesses for every practice.

Lead Management Grader can be requested from the company’s website, http://www2.leadliaison.com/lead-management-grader/. It is available at no charge for existing customers and other interested parties. For more information contact Lead Liaison at 888 895 3237.

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Lead Liaison is an application development company that designs, develops, and sells cloud-based marketing and sales automation software. The company markets to small and medium-sized businesses worldwide, and focuses on creating the broadest and most user-friendly revenue generation software platform. Applications cover all phases of lead management automation including sales prospecting, lead generation, and marketing automation functions that directly influence revenue generation. It’s innovative and robust lead management platform combines unparalleled sales prospecting, lead capture, real-time lead tracking, lead qualification, lead distribution, database segmentation, lead nurturing and ROI reporting. The Software as a Service (SaaS) model delivers an effective user experience and integrated cloud computing capabilities.

Media Contacts:
Alex Brown
VP Corporate Communications
abrown(at)leadliaison(dot)com
888.89.53237 (LEADS)
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Marketing Analytics: Turning Your Sales Funnels Into Data

Marketing Analytics Sales FunnelRegardless of the size of your business, you probably have an idea of what your sales funnel looks like. Just in case you’re green on all this, your sales funnel refers to the process a customer goes through before buying from you. This process spans the time at which they become a lead through their (sometimes long) decision-making process, right up until the moment the sale happens. In most cases, a sale doesn’t mean the buyer is out of your funnel. Once customers buy there’s always the chance they can become repeat customers – thus, once in your funnel, customers are almost always in there. Sound marketing analytics can give you some idea of what stages of your funnel a typical customer is in and for how long.

Many business owners give the side-eye to the thought of truly sitting down to look at their marketing analytics. There are a variety of reasons for this – one could be lack of ability to interpret the data. Another could be the lack of easy tools one can use to track and interpret the data, as well as integrate it into the rest of your marketing plan.

Marketing Analytics Help You Make Decisions

The truth is, if you’re not digging into your marketing analytics to help you inform future directions for your business, you’re missing a hotbed of potential for new decisions and creativity in your business. Here are some examples:

Setting up Goals: Google Analytics allows you to set up Goals in your Analytics install. Goals can be used to track the actions users take on your site. For instance, if you want to see how often users who come to a certain page will click through a sequence of pages before filling out a form, Goals can track that. If you’d like to see how many users from Facebook are taking a certain action on your site, Goals can help you. Goals are a great way to set up and take full advantage of marketing analytics based on your funnel.

  1. You can learn more about setting up Goals at: http://support.google.com/analytics/bin/answer.py?hl=en-GB&answer=1032415 or watching some helpful videos such as
  2. Melinda Samson’s Setting Up and Using Analytics Goals: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDNkXdOuhBc
  3. John Duffy’s Advanced Use of Analytics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijniFqC3PaM

Refining Your Funnel: Your sales data might actually show you that your funnel needs work. Are you overestimating the amount of time it takes for a client to decide they should use your services? Data will corroborate these kinds of hunches.

Marketing Analytics: Putting it all in the Cloud

Every organization should be watching to see how Marketing Analytics shows customers behaving on and using their site. You should be including data from your Marketing Analytics tools in your lead management system to give you detailed info about your leads. What is your typical lead conversion time? Where do the most highly converted leads come from? Are you truly getting the best ROI out of your marketing?

Lead Liaison is a system that can integrate marketing analytics and lead data to show you if your marketing decisions are helping you make the most out of your leads. It’s time to take a tour and ensure marketing analytics informs your business decisions today.

B2B Marketing Analytics: Metrics to Focus On (Part 3)

B2B Marketing Analytics Metrics to Focus onPart 3 of B2B marketing analytics. In this post we continue the discussion about analyzing your B2B marketing ROI. As we mentioned in Metrics to Focus On (Part 2), the effectiveness of your blog and SEO practices can be measured in several ways. Such is the case for your social media and content marketing practices. In fact, your overall B2B marketing strategy should be analyzed for each marketing practice employed. Establishing your social media and content marketing ROI takes more than counting click-throughs and “likes”. Here are some key metrics to analyze for your social media and content marketing practices.

Social

Connections

Measuring the sales effectiveness of your B2B social campaign should not only be focused on esoteric behavior such as “likes” or followers. While metrics about linking can be an important indicator of brand awareness or favorability, those numbers represent a shallow level of engagement. Which social channels are actually driving sales? Connecting social engagement with revenues is more effective in evaluating social media ROI. Examine the number of conversions resulting from social connections to see how effectively your social messaging is being received.

Engagement (Comment Streams)

As with blogging, articles, and other channels that provide feedback via comments, social conversations should be analyzed. The unstructured conversations that revolve around your brand provide deeper insight into your markets compared to less expository activities like website visits. Social media monitoring should include a thorough analysis of comments received from Facebook pages, Twitter feeds, and other inbound channels. Which threads are longest? What topics generate the most threads? Social engagement should be directly linked to revenue generation in order to evaluate social media ROI.

Channel Effectiveness

Not all social channels provide the same impact on your bottom line; the amount and complexity of messaging shared through SM streams varies. Although responses through different channels may be similar (likes, favorites, shares, retweets, etc.), the return from social channels is often variable because of the costs associated with SM activities. For example, a 140-character Twitter post typically will cost less than an artfully crafted image posted on Pinterest. Which channels provide a bigger bang for your buck?

Content

Channel Effectiveness

We’ve all heard that children learn in different ways. The same concept holds true for sales. The effect your messaging has on buying triggers will often vary according to the content channels used. For instance, some B2B buyers may be more sales-ready following a product video while others may be prepared to purchase following a podcast or webinar. Which assets drive website traffic, which ones generate comments, and, most importantly, which assets lead to conversions? Are product videos more effective or do webinars drive more sales? Examine which content channels lead to sales engagements.

Message Effectiveness

Within each content channel, the return from messaging should be analyzed. Which messages lead to extended engagements? Which ones drive leads to other content streams? It’s important to analyze your messages to determine what contributed to the success or failure of a campaign.

Shared Content

Once your content is viewed how often is it shared? Which content is being shared most frequently? Of course, the ultimate goal is to drive sales but content sharing levels are also an important objective of content marketing. Analyzing the frequency of shared content, as well as the duration of each exposure, can reveal how effectively your content appeals to your markets.

Our next post in this series will discuss the metrics you should analyze from your PPC and email practices.