For far too long, Marketing has been in the dark about the performance of the content they create. Sure, marketers have insight into basics like page views, time spent on page, links clicked, etc. but in the end those statistics don’t really tell the whole picture.
There are so many questions that marketers have wanted to know for years: Did a piece of content entice a buyer to start a conversation with Sales? Was there a particular section of the content that resonated with them? When going through the buyer’s journey did a piece of content move them along their journey? And the Holy Grail: can content efforts be directly tied to revenue to finally reveal ROI?
A Content Marketing Institute report found that 47% of marketers are yet to find the Holy Grail (haven’t they seen Indiana Jones? It’s the least ostentatious one!) Without hard proof that content is driving revenue it’s difficult to prove effectiveness and fight for budget to be allocated to the content creation machine.
Because this is not a blog that poses problems without offering up a solution, there’s good news. Sales enablement has come to save the day in the form of Sales and Marketing alignment. By bridging the gap between these two traditionally separate teams, sales enablement has opened up a whole new world of insights. By opening a clear line of communication between Sales and Marketing, information is able to pass freely between the two departments. Marketing not only gains important insights about their content efforts; Sales benefits from learning what content resonates best with buyers and which pieces are most likely to move the needle. But enough about Sales! Let’s focus on Marketing. What are the 2 must-have content analytics for Marketing?
1. Content usage
It sounds simple. Is Sales actually using all of this content? But the answer to that is harder to derive than you might think. Content can be stored in a million different depositories. A seller might just save documents to their desktop and use them from there when they need them (shudder to think of the branding and messaging inconsistencies.) And that’s only for pieces they actually like. What about the pieces that gather digital dust on them and sit unused in the moldy corner of your content kingdom?
Here at Seismic we’ve seen a trend amongst our clients that 95% of content is used infrequently by Sales. Once you’re done being outraged by Sales failing to effectively use the work you’ve poured blood, sweat, and tears into, think about why they might not be using that content. Maybe it doesn’t speak to their needs. Maybe it’s out-of-date. Maybe they hate you and everything you stand for. Whatever the reason is, the content isn’t being used.
Enter content usage statistics. Imagine being able to know exactly how many times a piece has been used, who uses it the most, and in what ways they are using the content. This isn’t the stuff of super-specific and boring science fiction. These are all available to you today.
A sales enablement platform provides marketers with all of the content usage statistics they could desire. By utilizing the power of the sales enablement solution, marketers gain insights into what pieces are most used and from that data they can make informed decisions about
2. Content engagement
It’s not just about if content is being used, it’s also how and when the content is used. Being able to determine what content actually moves deals along goes a long way to legitimizing content in the eyes of executives. And isn’t acceptance and understanding all we’re really looking for here on this lonely planet?
Content engagement analytics unlock the actual ways that buyers interact with content. By leveraging the power of a sales enablement platform designed to improve an organization’s content efforts, marketers and sellers alike gain incredible insights into the way their buyers behave.
Content engagement analytics tell you not only what piece of content a buyer looked at, but how long they looked at it, and what pages they interacted with most. If a buyer spent most of their time looking at information about a particular feature, it would stand to reason that Sales can tailor their conversation around that topic. But hey, don’t let me tell you how to do your job, I’m just writing a blog here.
These engagement analytics also provide an important feedback loop for Marketing. By honing on what pieces of content, and parts within the piece, are most effective, Marketing can begin making smarter decisions about the types of content they want to create. This process ultimately leads to content that buyers like reading, Sales likes using, and Marketing enjoys creating.
