Eight B2B Marketing Metrics Your Business Should Care About. Allison Platte

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1 Eight B2B Marketing Metrics Your Business Should Care About Allison Platte June 2014

2 The first question marketers should ask themselves when starting a campaign is, What are we trying to accomplish? B2B content marketing is no different. In order to have an effective content marketing strategy, you should first have key performance indicators (KPIs) that have been agreed upon by all involved parties. On a high-level, B2B content marketing goals can be divided into two categories: lead generation and lead nurturing. Within those two categories are eight specific metrics that really matter. Lead Generation When measuring the success of a B2B content marketing campaign, lead generation KPIs are crucial. By looking at conversions after campaign content entrances, marketers can evaluate which landing pages contributed to their total leads. Once you know which landing pages brought in conversions, you can associate that conversion with a keyword and continue optimization efforts based on the keyword data. 2

3 Conversions from campaign content pages where CTAs are present are also helpful, as you can attribute the high-quality, informative content on the page to conversions you captured. Finally, by evaluating the number of goal paths with optimized content pageviews, you can credit your content marketing campaign with moving the user through the customer journey to capture a conversion. Lead Nurturing A common problem among marketing leaders is the lack of time dedicated to nurturing leads, losing them to competition. While lead generation metrics should certainly be top of mind for B2B marketers, lead nurturing should not be forgotten. A common problem among marketing leaders is the lack of time dedicated to nurturing leads, losing them to the competition. Time on page is a useful lead nurturing metric because it allows you to know if users are actually taking the time to read the content you are creating. Pageviews for optimized content is an important metric to track for two reasons. First, pageviews should increase as organic landing pages begin to rank for longtail keywords in the search engine results pages (SERPs). Secondly, pageviews should increase even if the visitor entered the site on another page, because the content has an attention-grabbing topic your visitors think are useful. This of course means promoting the content well through the site. Returning visitors is an especially important metric for evaluating the success of your blog content. A returning visitor is more likely to convert than a new visitor, so a successful blog will make users want to return to the site time and time again. One way to accomplish this is to ensure you are posting at a regular cadence so users know when to expect a new post. The number of social media shares and blog comments received reflect the success of your lead nurturing efforts through engagement. When people find valuable content, they want to share it with others. Encourage visitors to share 3

4 your content on social media and ask questions at the end of blog posts to encourage discussion. Each of these lead generation and nurturing metrics should be continually monitored throughout the duration of your content marketing campaign. Marketers should use these KPIs to determine which content types and topics work best to achieve the mutually agreed upon goals. If you find that your company s content is not having a positive impact on one of these metrics, adjust your content marketing strategy accordingly. B2B marketers who use these eight metrics as their guide are on the path toward content marketing success! 4

5 The Agency Overground is a B2B demand generation and sales enablement agency that creates revenue growth opportunities across the entire customer lifecycle. We believe that by creating inspired customer experiences we can close the loop between marketing and sales to achieve previously elusive business objectives. With our broad industry expertise, Overground helps top B2B organizations establish and deepen profitable customer relationships. 5