One of the greatest struggles that a content marketer will encounter is proving the value of their content.
While we typically look at direct ROI as a means of assessing value, that is often an incomplete and sometimes unfair appraisal. Because content can function in many different ways and provide value that goes beyond direct conversions, businesses should also look at cost savings when evaluating worth. And one of the easiest ways to do that is to assess how content is affecting your search marketing budget.
Use Content To Replace The Need For Paid Ads
As a director of content marketing, one of my main goals is to drive new user traffic to our site, and the primary way we accomplish this is through SEO. We consistently create content that ranks well for high-volume keyword phrases. Our readers are value-driven shoppers looking for a good price on common retail items, so we have created a healthy portfolio of articles that bring in a constant stream of retail-ready traffic.
One way to assess the value of this traffic is to see how much revenue is generated directly from those visitors. But if you're only looking at that, you're missing the big picture. It's important to remember that these rankings and the resulting traffic are organic; we didn't pay Google for the right to appear at the top of the page.
If we hadn't been successful in creating content that ranks for these keywords, our alternative would be to buy search ads that are paid for on a cost-per-click basis. The more competitive the keywords are, the more costly the endeavor would be.
So how can you evaluate those cost savings? First, identify your content's most valuable keywords. There will surely be many top ranking phrases in your portfolio, but focus specifically on the keywords that best align with your brand, as well as those that bring in the highest volume of traffic.
Then, check these keyword phrases on Google's Keyword Planner to assess what the cost would be to purchase that traffic via an ad. Since you can't directly attribute organic search traffic to a specific keyword, you can't get an exact calculation, but you can get a general idea of what it would cost to purchase the level of traffic that your content is already receiving.
Steal Market Share From Your Competitors
The value of advantageous rankings goes well beyond circumventing the need for paid ads. If your content doesn't rank in the top slot, someone else's will — and there's a good chance it will be your competitor.
If that matters to your business, then holding rank for a variety of keywords is essential regardless of whether the content can be monetized. Content can be a tool for competitive branding, and the more you produce, the more widespread your footprint will be in relation to your competition.
Your content performs a similar function in search engine results. Higher-ranking placements result in a competitive branding advantage, more click-throughs and, presumably, greater revenue.
Think of the search engine results page like a grocery store shelf; there are only so many placements available that are visible to the customer, and you want your brand and products to be the most advantageously placed. This will not only lead to more sales but also casts a more favorable light on your brand.
For example, at DealNews, our content consistently ranks well for Black Friday-related keywords. While our competitors have market share in some areas, we hold high-ranking positions for these phrases. This has strengthened our position as an authority around the holiday. Because our brand is continually at the top of many Black Friday results, we have been able to grow our new user traffic in the double digits year-over-year for the past several Black Fridays — traffic (and revenue) that might have otherwise gone to our competitors.
Look Broadly At How Content Brings Value To Your Business
Of course, this way of assessing content value doesn't stop at SEO. There are many other ways that content can replace costs elsewhere in your company.
Perhaps the content team acts as a customer service touchstone through comment sections and social media, alleviating the burden on your dedicated customer service team. Perhaps the act of creating, publishing and measuring content provides invaluable customer data that informs your business decisions. Or maybe the alignment of content with high-conversion pages increases conversion quality of those pages.
The content that my team produces is very successful at attracting media hits that expose the brand to new audiences. If content creation were not an integral part of our brand strategy, however, then our publicist would have to lean more heavily on other tactics for her outreach — and many of the alternative solutions can be very costly. Running a third-party survey, for example, can cost several thousands of dollars, while a single blog post costs a few hundred dollars in overall resources.
However you choose to focus your strategy, don't fall into the trap of thinking that good content is failing your business because it isn't resulting in direct sales. There are many ways a brand can benefit from content marketing, and the best way to quantify this is by thinking creatively about the impact your content has on brand visibility and user behavior.
