Global content marketing expert Rebecca Lieb is this week’s guest on Brand Newsroom, as the team discusses the performance of content marketing. ROI, Rebecca says, is about way more than just sales.

A strategic advisor, research analyst, keynote speaker, author and columnist, Rebecca specialises in digital marketing and media — with a concentration in content strategy, content marketing and converged media.

It’s a fascinating chat. Have a listen here:

Here are some key take-outs:

•  Research shows 70 per cent of organisations operate without a content strategy, making it impossible to measure their content’s performance because there are no benchmarks

“But when companies do measure performance, they do seem to be really rather ridiculously narrow and performance is based on sales — how many units or widgets or items did we sell as a result of content marketing? Sales are essential to the lifeblood of any company but there are so many other things content marketing can achieve that aren’t necessarily linked to sales. — Rebecca Lieb 

• Volume metrics including likes and shares are “pretty darn meaningless”
• There are financial results that aren’t linked to sales. For example, providing advice on your company website to answer your most common enquiries could save you thousands of dollars in call centre costs

“Every time we introduce the idea of content marketing to a group that doesn’t know about it, the first question they always ask is ‘what is the ROI on this?’… but they never ask that question about any other kind of marketing… things like brand awareness, customer loyalty programs, customer service.” — Sarah

• Think about what your costs are and how content can help to address those costs
• Test and optimise your messaging to make sure it resonates with consumers before investing advertising dollars

“Content can address every single aspect of the funnel, from consideration and awareness all the way to cross and upselling. Content can also be an indication of brand health — it can measure attitudes, conversations and behaviour towards your brand.” — Rebecca Lieb

Here are the links you might need

• In March 2015 Altimeter released a “best practices” report called Content Marketing Performance: A Framework to Measure Real Business Impact. It was co-authored by Rebecca and is well worth downloading.
• Here’s Rebecca’s blog, which is filled with great tips and valuable research.

Have you heard the one about…

Earlier this year James, Sarah and Nic took a close look at ROI.

And here’s a great discussion with another content guru, Joe Pulizzi of the Content Marketing Institute, on how to market your content.

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For more information about the show, visit the Brand Newsroom website, where you can join the Brand Newsroom Community and receive exclusive content and opportunities to meet James, Nic and Sarah.