Listen to this blog post as a podcast:
Is content marketing really worth it? You publish an article,
some people read it, maybe they like it, and then what? Do they
volunteer to get tattoos of your logo on their foreheads? Do they
open their wallets and let you take out as much as you want?
If you read enough blog posts or skim through enough ebooks,
you’ll see an overly simplistic narrative everywhere you look: If
you publish high-quality content, revenue will follow.
That sounds great, but the truth is more complicated.
What Marketers Get Wrong About the Value of Content
Content marketing can definitely be worth it, but perhaps it’s
not meant to drive the hard ROI everyone expects. That’s because
what we like to refer to as lead generation, one of the
oft-mentioned goals of content marketing, is a little
broken.
“Leads” are misleading, mostly because a content download itself
isn’t a lead. Just because someone fills out a form and grabs
your report doesn’t mean they’re going to buy your product now or
ever. Speaking of which, don’t believe the hype around email
nurturing. From my experience, the chances of a prospect ultimately
setting up a meeting after exposure to email nurturing are quite
slim.
Don’t get me wrong—at GumGum, we generate thousands of downloads
each month, and it’s comforting to use that number as a proxy for
the success of our content marketing programs. But we also go
further by analyzing sales opportunities, ROI, and lifetime
value.
And there’s another way to assess the value of your content
marketing. Based on what I’ve seen, content marketing’s real
strength lies in brand lift and changes in brand attitudes.
Companies can use content to change the way people perceive
them.
It doesn’t have to be overly…
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