Sara Lingafelter @saralingafelter | @portent slingafelter@portent.com

ROI WTF? Content Marketing Today

In Ten Truths

http://portent.co/ROIWTF

(Yes, use .co, not .com)

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First things FIRST

Who AM I? Why am I HERE?

Because I’m endemic…

… and I really, really love what I do …

"Sara  is  kind  of  like  our  social  media  therapist."          -­‐  A  former  client  

… and where I get to do it, surrounded by other like-minded web dorks…

…harboring a not-so-secret love for data and analytics.

And this is what we do.

BUT WHY THIS SEMINAR? WHY ARE YOU HERE?

Before we talk about ROI, Let’s warm up with

everybody’s favorite…

Pop Quiz: Choose the best answer:

Content Marketing is all about _______________.

a.  Near-term revenue;

b.   Keyword stuffing;

c.  Cat memes;

d.  The customer.

Building a relationship with your customer.

Content marketing is about

h8p://bit.ly/15w5IvY  

h8p://bit.ly/1406H7K  

h8p://bit.ly/1ebK81L  

1.  Scaled to suit your business;

2.  Developed and targeted at activating key customer segments;

3.  Tracked and refined over time.

Content marketing can be:

Which part of the purchasing decision does content marketing affect?

Pop Quiz:

1.  Problem / Need Recognition / Idea

2.  Information Search 3.  Evaluation of Alternatives 4.  Purchase 5.  Post-purchase Behavior

It’s not impossible to demonstrate ROI for social & content.

It’s just not necessarily easy.

ROI: actual return calculated after the campaign.

Break-even or CBA: does it appear this campaign will break even or make a profit? Do the potential benefits outweigh the costs?

Should we try it?

As a housekeeping matter…

BRING ON THE METRICS!

GETTING WARMER… BUT REFERRAL TRAFFIC AND CONVERSIONS ARE STILL ONLY PART OF THE PICTURE.

THE METRICS THAT MATTER ARE THE ONES THAT DRIVE YOUR BROADER BUSINESS GOALS.

Terrible

Great

Scale of Value as a Metric

Followers / Likes Impressions Reach Clicks Bounce Rate Abandonment Rate Conversation Rate (or is that Conversion Rate?) Economic Value Lifetime Value

Based  on  a  recap  slide  from  Avinash  Kaushik  at  Mozcon  2013  

So let’s take a closer look at lifetime value…

Meet Jane. •  Jane  just  heard  about  this  new  

thing  called  a  Fitbit  from  a  co-­‐worker.  

•  “Track  my  steps  all  day,  and  help  me  lose  weight?    I’m  SOLD.”  

See Jane Google.

See Jane Fitbit •  $91.77  later,  Jane’s  Fitbit  is  

clipped  to  her  waistbelt  logging  her  steps.  

•  Six  weeks  later:  •  She’s  bought  the  

accompanying  scale  ($126  at  her  local  Target  store,  found  through  Fitbit’s  Store  Locator)  

•  She’s  signed  up  for  Fitbit’s  $49/year  premium  service  and  

•  She’s  lost  five  pounds.  

See Jane Talk to Her Friends

•  Jane  shares  her  progress  via  Facebook  and  Twi8er;  

•  Her  review  on  Amazon  is  most  helpful;  

•  She’s  happy  to  answer  quesdons  when  people  ask  her  about  what  that  thing  is  clipped  to  her  belt.  

 

See Jane’s Friends buy Fitbits.

•  Let’s  say,  only  five  friends  buy  a  Fitbit  One,  and  three  buy  a  Fitbit  Scale.      

•  Now  what’s  Jane  worth?  

 

See Jane’s Value.

(or do you?)

•  Jane’s  purchase  of  the  premium  service  may  be  all  Fitbit  knows  about  Jane.  

•  Is  Jane  a  $49  a  year  customer,  or  is  Jane  a  $1,076  customer  so  far  this  quarter?  

 

See Jane’s Value.

(or do you?)

•  And  now,  say  you’re  not  Fitbit.  •  What  does  Jane’s  affinity  for  

Fitbit  tell  you  about  her  potendal  interest  in  YOUR  brand?  

And, if Jane does introduce herself

Create  a  Facebook  Custom  Audience  and  add  Jane  to  it,  to  find  more  people  like  Jane.      Facebook’s  Lookalike  Audience  tools  are  gehng  solid  reviews  from  early  users.    

What if Fitbit actually encouraged Jane’s ambassadorship?

Now what I want to know is:

1.  The next time Jane visits Fitbit.com (with social login enabled), Fitbit can prompt her to complete her account (if she hasn’t already);

2.  Track clicks in social shares to determine users who meet a threshold for influential activity;

3.  Email invitation to a special members-only community for extra support;

4.  Interview super-Janes for blog posts, to help personalize the brand;

5.  Reward Jane with gifts from affinity brands to surprise and delight her…

I COULD DO THIS ALL DAY!

So, what’s Jane’s value NOW?

•  Create  segments  around  customer  demography  and  behavior    

•  Understand  your  customer  types  and  likely  social  behavior  and  value  beyond  the  inidal  sale.  

 Think  bigger  about  social  and  content  ROI.  

Besides… Isn’t estimating SOMETHING better than what you’re doing right now?

A recap…

Individual Tracking: Jane

•  Loyalty  rewards  •  Surprise  and  delight  •  Actual  customer  reladonship-­‐building  

•  At  the  influencer  level,  they’ll  rise  up:  it  won’t  take  tracking.  

Customer Segments: Like Jane

•  Lifedme  Value    •  Content  Planning  &  Targedng  

•  Adverdsing  Targedng  

•  Portent measured results across 100 client accounts and found that social media investment broke even or lost money in the near term 85% of the time.

•  Eighty. Five. Percent.

What about near-term ROI?

QUICK! FIRE THE INTERN!

NOT SO FAST.

Not so fast.

blah

Over  30  days,  social  is  the  third  most  influenOal  correlaOng  factor  when  you  define  conversions  broadly.  

But wait, the fun’s not over yet! there are even more hard to quantify

returns to consider!

1.  Customer Service Value 2.  Brand Awareness 3.  Customer Retention 4.  New Customer Acquisition

Now, with even more mathiness!

h8p://portent.co/18LXqS6  

WOW! That’s almost as mathy as my mass media ROI!

So where are we now? 1.  Social and content benefits extend

beyond last click conversion.

2.  There is value to your brand of fostering and encouraging conversation, even if it’s hard to measure.

3.  If it’s too hard to measure, at least model and estimate in a way that makes sense for your organization.

Because, let’s be honest. When, over time, customer retention, loyalty, and customer lifetime value goes up, who’s complaining?

TEN KEY TRUTHS Content Marketing Today

#1 You’re either a publisher, or

you’re awesome. (or both)

Who has the highest referral traffic from social sources?

Who has the highest referral traffic from social sources?

5.41%  

.98%  

1.54%  

3.91%  

3.24%  

6.02%  

6.47%  

6.99%  

7.79%  

7.81%  

9.96%  

Outdoor Research is crushing it.

Social signals correlate to search performance

#2 It all starts with Google.

#3 The customer is in the

driver’s seat.

Yes, I already said that. It’s important enough to be

repeated.

#4 Get used to the search earth

moving under your feet.

A tip: this isn’t a blog post title.

Straight from the Google’s mouth

h8p://portent.co/1bIoxSH  

#5 You’re wasting time asking what the “next Facebook” is.

The Conversation Prism 2008

What matters: Who and where is your customer?

Early adoption isn’t strictly required in

social: it’s okay to be a fast follower.

#6 Get comfortable with

transparency.

Transparency means saying I’m sorry when and how you should.

This  is  not  an  apology.  

Transparency means saying I’m sorry when and how you should.

This  is  an  apology.  

Transparency means saying I’m sorry so well, the response is positive.

Transparency means operating on the customer’s schedule

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Transparency means sharing your corporate values.

#7 People’s names are the new

black.

Which link would YOU click? Implement Google Authorship ASAP.

#8 It’s still about who your

friends are.

You need inbound links (and social mentions) from real friends, not link spam.

You need inbound links from real friends, not link spam.

This  link  is  worth  its  weight  in  gold.  

#9 If you build it, they won’t

necessarily come.

This makes me sad.

This makes me happy.

#10 Get familiar with your

audience’s random affinities (or at least start thinking

about affinities).

Random affinities

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That’s all ten truths! WHEW!

But wait…

SO TRUE IT HURTS I’ve got a Spinal Tap fact:

#11 You’re the roadblock to

determining the ROI of your content and social programs.*

* but you don’t have to be. So get on that.

THANK YOU FOR ATTENDING

LET THE content awesome COMMENCE!

#ROIWTF

Me: @saralingafelter @portent an Internet Marketing Company http://portent.co/ROIWTF #ROIWTF