MARKETING
Do You Really Need To Measure Your Content’s Impact on Brand Value? [Rose-Colored Glasses]
Once upon a time, I had a marketing boss who would ask me about our efforts at brand building: What were the results? What value did they add to the business?
My answer was always the same: “good things.”
In our 2022 B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends research, we find 80% of marketers say “creating brand awareness” is the goal they achieved using content marketing. Interestingly, “building credibility and trust” is number two with 75%, “educating audiences” follows at 70%, and “building loyalty with existing clients/customers” is 60%.
Arguably, these top four goals are all associated with brand value. Whether it’s wider awareness and recall, deeper trust or affinity, differentiation through education, or additional value to stay loyal – it’s all about increasing the value of our brand.
If it’s such an important goal, why is brand value so hard to measure?
Marketers’ top four #content goals are all associated with brand value. Why is that so hard to measure, asks @Robert_Rose via @CMIContent. Click To Tweet
Pushback on vanity metrics
We are desperate to measure brand awareness. Well, to be clear, there isn’t much today’s businesses aren’t desperate to measure. There are myriad articles on the difficulty of associating transactional data with brand value. When you find articles that recommend brand measurement tactics, most rely on the same vanity metrics used for other elements of marketing strategies. They direct you to look at the growth of direct traffic, referral traffic, earned media coverage, or social media share of voice.
We see this in our research. Marketers mention those metrics when describing which have provided the most insight in the last 12 months. Website engagement is top (69%), traffic is third (65%), email engagement is fourth (64%), and social media analytics is fifth (51%). (Conversions rank No. 2 at 67%.)
But anyone who has tried to argue for more money for brand and/or content marketing will tell you that those “vanity metrics” won’t get you very far. The pushback is that more traffic doesn’t necessarily mean that the brand has more unaided or aided recall. It could mean the brand suddenly ranked well for an unbranded search term. Nor does “website engagement” mean credibility and trust have grown with the target audience. It could mean people are scrutinizing the digital content more because they actually don’t trust the brand. More engagement from email could be because the topic is finally relevant to the audience rather than – yep, you guessed it – the brand.
Put simply, many of those vanity metrics may have nothing to do with increasing or decreasing the value of the brand, and ironically, some may run counter to it.
Many vanity metrics have nothing to do with measuring the brand’s value, says @Robert_Rose via @CMIContent. Click To Tweet
ADVERTISEMENT
The Definitive Guide to Content Analytics: Understanding the Data That Matters Most for Successful Marketing
Want to optimize your content? Start with the right metrics and measure how your content is engaging with your audience. Get the guide to learn more!
Transactions are easy; triggers are hard
Now, before fans of brand-building value get depressed, there are plenty of ways to measure if brand building with content is working. The key is to put an objective behind the effort and then build testable and focused measurability into it. For example:
- About five years ago, Salesforce had a real problem with its brand and clarity of purpose. Nobody understood what Salesforce did. In 2019, they launched a full-scale effort with content marketing and paid media to provide for better unaided brand recall and clarity. Put simply, they wanted people to articulate an answer to “what does Salesforce do?” Recently, Salesforce measured (through a study) the effectiveness of its efforts and saw a huge improvement in general brand clarity.
- A financial services organization wanted to increase its brand trust with its existing investors and financial advisors. We conducted a general brand trust survey with their audiences to compare competitors and even mainstream news media outlets that covered financial services. One year later, we conducted the same study again. This time we measured the same kind of audience but added a segment of their customer base –subscribers to their blog and thought leadership platform. The organization performed better in the industry (speaking specifically to their overall branding efforts such as TV ads, print, and content). But the subscriber segment performed even better – ranking the organization even higher than some of the mainstream news sources when it came to trust.
- In 2018, BMO Harris Bank wanted to increase its brand awareness with younger people just beginning their journey to financial independence. They launched a brand awareness campaign by partnering with The Onion’s humor-focused content agency to develop a series of videos promoting a fictional mobile banking app. The parody plays on socially popular apps. It features face filters (making faces look like ATM machines), couch surfing (in a bank vault), and the opportunity to swipe right on potential dates based on the value of their checking accounts. BMO Harris Bank saw a huge lift in brand awareness among the younger demographic as measured by how many downloaded the real BMO Harris banking app.
But hold on, sure, you measured if brand building with content was working, but the question may still be, “So what?”
So what if more people know what Salesforce does? So what if the financial advisors and investors have more trust in the financial services company than they do CNBC? So what if young people downloaded the app?
What real value does any of that provide for the business? More revenue? More savings?
You can easily measure more traffic, more votes, more engagement, and more downloads. It’s identifying what inspired the action that benefited the company that’s hard. Put simply: Measuring transactions is easy; measuring triggers is hard.
Measuring transactions with #content is easy. Measuring triggers that motivate action is hard, says @Robert_Rose via @CMIContent. Click To Tweet
Being satisfied with good things
We have spent our careers building business systems for consistency. We have a laser focus on removing operational conflicts and anything that takes away from consistent, predictable, harmonious processes.
We believe in measurability as a foundation for that predictability. The old saying, “If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it,” comes out of this thinking. This trope is sometimes morphed into “If you can’t measure it, it doesn’t count.” And this, of course, is complete nonsense.
The saying “If you can’t measure it, it doesn’t count” is complete nonsense, says @Robert_Rose via @CMIContent. Click To Tweet
Over 30 years of marriage, I’ve learned that doing good things for my wife provides good things in return. I have no idea how much time, effort, or money I spend on these things (though I’d bet it’s … ummm … significant). I could easily measure the transactions, but even if I did, it would be impossible to connect them value for value to the good things I get in return.
Think for a moment about the love you have for someone special in your life. Maybe it’s your partner, mom, dad, or children — or even a dog. How much love is there? Have you measured it lately? Well, if you can’t measure it, it doesn’t count, right?
Sometimes the most satisfying and accurate answer to the question of what happens when we engage in brand building is simply “good things happen.” Yes, more revenue, more savings, better customers, more trust, more brand equity, and more profitability. But you’re just not going to try and quantify it.
How much brand building should we do?
My answer? Enough. Do enough and good things will happen.
Get Robert’s take on content marketing industry news in just three minutes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=videoseries
Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute
!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)
{if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?
n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};
if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version=’2.0′;
n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;
t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];
s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window, document,’script’,
‘https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js’);
fbq(‘init’, ‘1432232210459613’);
fbq(‘track’, ‘PageView’);
MARKETING
A Recap of Everything Marketers & Advertisers Need to Know
When rumors started swirling about Twitter changing its name to X, I couldn’t believe it at first. But then, in July 2023, as I searched for my favorite blue icon on the phone, I found a black icon instead. It had actually happened!
MARKETING
The key to correcting the C-suite trust deficit
Take a moment to search “CMO tenure” and you’ll find a wide variety of content discussing the short tenure of CMOs and how it’s among the shortest of roles in the C-suite. If you dive deeper, you’ll find that CEOs don’t seem to trust CMOs.
Boathouse’s CMO Insights study (registration required) noted several sobering conclusions:
- 34% of CEOs have great confidence in their CMOs.
- 32% of CEOs trust their CMOs.
- 56% of CEOs believe their CMO supports their long-term vision.
- And only 10% of CEOs believe their CMO puts the CEO’s needs before their own.
If these statistics also apply to the CMO’s entire organization, then it’s clear we have a trust problem with marketing leadership.
If you haven’t read Patrick Lencioni’s “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team,” I consider it required reading for anyone in any leadership role. In his book, Lencioni builds a pyramid of dysfunctions that need to be addressed for a team to succeed. The foundational dysfunction — with which one cannot build a successful team — is “absence of trust.” We see it at scale with marketing organizations today.
Introducing objectivity through data
In “Hamlet,” Shakespeare writes, “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.” Each organization that makes up a company looks at the company from a different perspective. What marketing sees as positive, finance may see as negative. But who’s right? No one.
Usually, there is no objectivity because leadership comes up with an idea and we execute it. It’s like the fashion proverb “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” Unfortunately, we’re going to struggle to run a profitable organization if it’s run like a fashion show.
Therefore, we need to introduce objectivity to how we work. Leadership needs to come together to agree on goals that align with the goals of the broader organization. One element of this conversation should be an acknowledgment that this is turning a ship.
Often leaders — especially those without marketing backgrounds — are likely to expect instant gratification. It’s going to take time to turn the ship and you and your team would do well to set reasonable expectations right away.
Dig deeper: KPIs that connect: 5 metrics for marketing, sales and product alignment
Aligning goals and metrics across the organization
With goals in hand, we need to assign metrics to their progress and agree on the source(s) of truth. Once these objective measures are in place, perspective doesn’t matter. 2 + 2 = 4 regardless of whether you’re in HR or accounting.
Every public road has a speed limit and whether you’re in compliance with it has nothing to do with your perspective. If you’re above it, you’re wrong and subject to penalties. Referring to the fashion example, it’s not a fashion show where some people like a dress and others don’t.
By using data to objectively measure marketing’s progress within the organization and having the rest of the leadership buy into the strategy, we build trust through objectivity. Maybe the CEO would not have chosen the campaign the marketing team chose.
But if it was agreed that a >1 ROAS is how we measure a successful campaign, it can’t be argued that the campaign was unsuccessful if the ROAS was >1. In this example, the campaign was an objective success even if the CEO’s subjective opinion was negative.
Data-driven campaign planning
Within the marketing organization, campaigns should always be developed with measurement top of mind. Through analysis, we can determine what channels, creative, audiences and tactics will be most successful for a given campaign.
Being able to tell the leadership team that campaigns are chosen based on their ability to deliver measured results across metrics aligned to cross-departmental goals is a powerful message. It further builds trust and confidence that marketing isn’t run based on the CMO’s subjective opinions or gut decisions. Rather, it’s a collaborative, data-driven process.
For this to be successful, though, it can’t just be for show, where we make a gut decision and direct an analyst to go find data to back up our approach. This would be analytics theater, which is a perversion of the data. Instead, tell the analyst what you think you want to do and ask them to assess it.
For the rest of the organization’s leadership, ask questions when the marketing team presents a campaign. Find out how they came up with the strategy and expect to hear a lot about data — especially the metrics you all agreed would support the company’s overarching goals.
Dig deeper: 5 failure points of a marketing measurement plan — and how to fix them
Data literacy: Building credibility through transparency
Building trust doesn’t happen overnight, but a sustained practice of using data to drive marketing leadership’s decisions will build trust if the metrics ladder up to the organizational goals and all of leadership is bought into the measurement plan.
Over time, this trust will translate into longer tenure and more successful teams through building the infrastructure needed to tackle Lencioni’s five dysfunctions.
Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily MarTech. Staff authors are listed here.
MARKETING
How Tagging Strategies Transform Marketing Campaigns
As a marketer, I understand how today’s marketing campaigns face fierce competition. With so much content and ads competing for eyeballs, creating campaigns that stand out is no easy task.
That’s where strategies like tagging come in.
It helps you categorize and optimize your marketing efforts. It also helps your campaigns cut through the noise and reach the right audience.
To help you out, I’ve compiled nine ways brands use a tagging strategy to create an impactful marketing campaign.
Let’s get to it.
How Brands Use a Tagging Strategy
Tagging involves using keywords or labels to categorize and organize content, products, or customer data. You attach tags to specific items or information to make searching, sorting, and analyzing data easier.
There are various types of tags, including meta tags, analytics tags, image tags, hashtags, blog tags, and more.
So, how do brands use a tagging strategy to make their marketing campaigns stand out?
Improve Social Media Engagement
With over 5 billion users, social media provides an easy way to connect with your audience, build relationships, and promote your offerings.
Use a tagging strategy to boost social media interactions. Consistently use hashtags that align with current trends and topics. This encourages people to interact with your content and boosts content visibility.
You can also use tags to monitor brand mentions of your products or your industry. This allows you to engage with your audience promptly.
Consider virtual social media assistants to streamline your tagging strategy. These AI-driven tools can suggest relevant hashtags, track mentions, and automate responses. Implementing them can save time and resources while ensuring consistent engagement across your socials.
Build a Personal Brand on LinkedIn
LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional networking platform, with over 1 billion members across 200 nations. It offers excellent opportunities for individuals and businesses to build and nurture their brands.
However, simply creating a professional profile isn’t enough to build a personal brand on LinkedIn.
Use various tags to increase your visibility, establish thought leadership, showcase expertise, and attract the right connections. For instance, use skill tags to showcase your expertise and industry tags to attract connections and opportunities within your industry. Use certification tags to help showcase your expertise and credibility to potential employers or clients.
Facilitate Customer Segmentation and Personalization
Personalization matters—more so in today’s data-driven world. In fact, 65% of consumers expect your brand to adapt to their changing preferences and needs.
To meet this expectation, consider using a tagging strategy.
Segment your customers based on shared characteristics, such as demographics, interests, purchase history, cart abandonment, and behavior.
Here’s a summary of the steps to customer segmentation.
With your customer segments ready, use tags to tailor your marketing messages and offerings to specific segments. Imagine sending targeted email campaigns based on what your customers need. That’s the power of segmentation and tagging in action!
Enhance SEO and Content Discoverability
Tagging content can have a profound impact on search engine optimization (SEO) and content discoverability. When users search for specific topics or products, well-tagged content is more likely to appear in search results, driving organic traffic to your website.
Additionally, tags can help you analyze the most popular topics with your readers. Then, the results of this analysis can help you adjust your content strategies accordingly.
And get this— certain AI tools can help analyze your content and suggest relevant tags and keywords. Using these tools in addition to a tagging strategy can help optimize your SEO strategies and boost content discoverability.
Partner with the Right Influencers
Influencer marketing has become a go-to marketing approach for modern brands. Recent stats show that 85% of marketers and business owners believe influencer marketing is an effective marketing strategy.
But how do you find the perfect influencer for your campaign?
Utilize tags to identify influencers who are relevant to your niche. Beyond this, find influencers who align with your brand values and target audience.
Additionally, look for influencers who use hashtags that are relevant to your campaigns. For instance, fashion influencer Chiara Ferragni uses #adv (advertising) and #ghd (good hair day) hashtags in this campaign.
Monitor industry-specific hashtags and mentions to discover influential voices and build profitable relationships with them.
Track Hashtag Performance
Tracking your hashtag performance helps you understand your campaigns’ engagement, reach, and effectiveness.
To achieve this goal, assign special hashtags to each marketing project. This helps you see which hashtags generate the most engagement and reach, enabling you to refine your tagging strategy.
Here’s an example of a hashtag performance report for the #SuperBowl2024.
This curated list of hashtag generators by Attrock discusses the top tools for your consideration. You can analyze each and choose the one that best fits your needs.
Categorize Content Accordingly
The human attention span is shrinking. The last thing you want is for your audience to have difficulty in finding or navigating your content, get frustrated, and bounce.
Untagged content can be difficult to navigate and manage. As any marketer knows, content is important in digital marketing campaigns.
To categorize your content, identify the main categories by topics, themes, campaigns, target audiences, or product lines. Then, assign relevant tags based on the categories you’ve identified. After that, implement a consistent tagging strategy for existing and new content.
Organizing your content using tags can also help streamline your content management workflow. Most importantly, readers can easily find the content they’re looking for, thereby boosting overall user experience, engagement, and conversions.
Boost Your Email Marketing Strategy
Email marketing remains a powerful marketing tool in today’s digital world. It’s also another area where brands use a tagging strategy to directly reach their target audience.
Use tags to segment your email list and personalize your marketing messages. Then, you can send targeted emails based on factors like purchase history, interests, and demographics.
Personalization can significantly improve open rates, CTRs, and overall engagement and conversion rates. It’s a simple yet impactful strategy to make your email marketing strategy more effective.
Plus, you can use tags to track how well your emails perform with each group. This helps you understand what content resonates best with your audience and provides insight on how to improve your emails going forward.
Enhance Analytics and Reporting
Every marketer appreciates the immense value of data. For brands using tagging strategies, tags are powerful tools for gathering valuable data.
Analyze how users interact with your tagged content. See which tags generate the most clicks, shares, conversions, and other forms of engagement. Gain insight into audience preferences and campaign effectiveness.
This granular data about your marketing efforts allow you to make data-driven decisions, allocate resources effectively, and refine your marketing strategies.
Final Thoughts
There isn’t a single correct way for brands to use a tagging strategy in marketing. You can use a tagging strategy however you see fit. However, the bottom line is that this strategy offers you a simple yet powerful way to create attention-grabbing and unique marketing campaigns.
Fortunately, tagging strategies are useful across various marketing initiatives, from social media and email marketing to SEO and more.
So, if you’re ready to elevate your marketing campaign, build a strong brand presence, and stand out among the competition, consider employing effective tagging strategies today.
-
SEARCHENGINES6 days ago
Daily Search Forum Recap: April 30, 2024
-
MARKETING6 days ago
How To Develop a Great Creative Brief and Get On-Target Content
-
WORDPRESS6 days ago
13 Best Fun WordPress Plugins You’re Missing Out On
-
SEO6 days ago
Why Big Companies Make Bad Content
-
SEO6 days ago
How To Drive Pipeline With A Silo-Free Strategy
-
SEO6 days ago
OpenAI To Show Content & Links In Response To Queries
-
MARKETING5 days ago
Generative Engine Optimization Framework Introduced in New Research
-
PPC6 days ago
26 Ready-to-Go AI Prompts for Social Media
You must be logged in to post a comment Login