You know the importance of Facebook/Instagram/Snapchat/[insert social media app here] marketing.
You’ve heard good ol’ email marketing is essential, too.
And getting on the first page of Google will always be an aspiration that keeps you coming back to SEO best practices.
What do all of these digital marketing strategies have in common?
They all rely on quality content to boost their effectiveness, and in some cases even drive their success.
And why is content marketing so important?
Well, that comes down to the measurable results a good content marketing strategy produces.
In terms of ROI, companies that invest in content marketing experience an average website conversion rate of close to 3%, compared to 0.5% for non-users.
Content marketing is also 62% less expensive than traditional outbound marketing.
For email platforms, a similar pattern emerges when it comes to the benefits of content marketing:
Companies with a content marketing strategy in place experience an average email CTR of 3.4% compared to 1.8% for those without.
Customers prefer articles over traditional ads, too:
- 82% of consumers have more positive feelings about a company after reading their content
- 78% believe content helps establish a relationship between them and a brand
- 70% would prefer to learn about a company through an article instead of an ad (for B2B customers, this number rises to 80%)
So what can you do to start enjoying all of these benefits of content marketing?
That’s where I come in.
Hi, I’m Rae Steinbach: Head Content Strategist here at Taktical.
I’m going to dive into the top three content marketing tips that we’ve used to create successful strategies across our SEO and paid social marketing departments.
The reason we’re disclosing our secrets?
The results from this style of social media content marketing results have been incredible.
And we’re feeling generous.
We’ll take a look at exactly what those results have been with content marketing examples.
And, we’ll dive into how you can implement these practices immediately into your own strategy.
For any marketer looking to increase ROI, boost CTR, and reduce CPC, these are the only three content marketing tips you need to know.
1. Make the Content Appealing to Your Audience on Social Media
Your content marketing is only effective if people actually read what you’re putting out there.
Consumers are already motivated to read more about a brand:
79% of them need to see branded content more than once before making a purchasing decision.
The average number of times they need to see this content is 3.1, in fact.
So you’ve already got the audience of willing readers who want to learn more.
Now it’s time to create copy that resonates with them.
On the high level, good content means:
1. engaging readers
2. adding value to the brand’s product or service
3. delivering high quality content (instead of just a lot of it)
4. maintaining a genuine tone
Also keep in mind that consumers generally find content that “informs” and “educates” to be the most valuable.
More granularly, in order to make you social media content marketing more effective, it needs to align with the campaign’s target audience.
In this era of personalization, creating a social media content marketing strategy that’s relevant to the target customer is essential.
About 78% of consumers say their purchase intent increases with more relevant content.
This means getting together with your client or colleague running the Facebook account and other paid social ads.
These experts are the ones on the front lines serving and optimizing the ads, and therefore understand the audience best.
Once you’ve determined who the target audience is, it’s far easier to craft content that speaks directly to them.
Let’s use one of our own Facebook content marketing examples.
Use Case: Peepers
Peepers is a fashionable reading glasses company whose Facebook ads targeted a demographic consisting on average of females above the age of 40.
When we decided to run a prospecting campaign that directed users from the Facebook ad to an article, we had to consider copy that would seem valuable to this audience.
We also needed to make sure to capture the brand values and stay true to their voice and character.
What resulted was Five Reasons Why Everyone Loves Peepers Reading Glasses.
The strategy for this piece of social media content marketing was to emphasize the flattering nature of the product.
Additionally, we highlighted testimonials, like the fact that the glasses made Oprah’s Favorite Things list.
While keeping copy brief and to the point, we highlighted the value-props of Peepers that we knew would be most relevant to the audience.
Given the customer, we consciously built trust and value in the product.
And within one month, the results proved this worked:
- CPC for the campaign came down to $0.14
- Average CTR was 4.1%
- 29 purchases made
- ROAS of 1.89
Considering the average CPC and CTR for retail is $0.70 and 1.59%, respectively, we realized Facebook content marketing could really be something valuable.
2. Tailor the Content to the Ad Campaign Objectives
One of the reasons why content marketing is so important is that it can provide a major boost to other marketing campaigns.
In order for it to do this, however, the content marketing strategy must be aligned with the ad objectives.
For example, let’s say you’re running a Facebook ad campaign with the goal of generating new leads.
For your Facebook content marketing to boost that objective, you need to generate copy that’s tailored to prospecting customers.
This means creating an article that combines brand awareness with some light pre-sell language.
The goal isn’t necessarily to convert the reader after they read over content once.
Instead, this content marketing strategy lets you track the behavior of the customer (thanks to the handy Facebook pixel).
Then, you can retarget them more effectively with further content and ads down the line.
Other ad objectives supported by social media content marketing can include:
- Brand awareness
- Generating organic traffic
- Sales
- Engagement
Let’s take a look at another of our social media content marketing examples to show how this is put into practice.
Use Case: Mia Melon
When Mia Melon wanted to tell the whole story of their fashionable yet technology-driven outerwear, they turned to us for the solution.
They needed the opportunity to explain their brand values to prospective customers further than just a Facebook ad allowed.
In order to generate the right leads and spread brand awareness, we suggested a Facebook content marketing strategy.
It would involve directing their Facebook ads to an article that discussed what set them apart: The fashionable, functional, and affordable designs of their coats.
The objective for both the Facebook ad and content was brand awareness.
However, there was also an element of selling.
We tailored the article to appeal to people looking for a warmer jacket in order to sell the remaining inventory of wool coats before the seasons changed.
We also included images of the products and links to purchase, along with a CTA at the end of the article in order to encourage those conversions.
What resulted was The Perfect Commuter Jacket Is Now Weatherproof & Wool.
With content that emphasized the company value props and the product features, we succeeded at addressing the objective of brand awareness.
The direct links to purchase, the CTA at the bottom of the article, and the more promotional language also succeeded at the goal of selling.
We knew this example of Facebook content marketing had addressed both of these ad objectives based on the results.
Just over two months of running yielded an average CPC of just $0.10.
Meanwhile, the average CTR was a whopping 7.02%.
Revenue-wise, the social media content marketing campaign resulted in 620 adds to cart and a purchase conversion value of $4,085.90.
This translated into an incredible ROAS of 1.83.
Some pretty impressive stuff, right?
3. Track Your Content Marketing Performance
Proving the benefits of content marketing means looking at real results.
Therefore, tracking the performance and optimizing your social media content marketing is essential.
But how do you determine what performance metrics to track?
Furthermore, how do you translate something like brand awareness or engagement into monetary value?
Essentially, the question to answer here is how do you quantify content marketing ROI?
What Others Do
Organizations determine the value of content marketing differently.
Their judgement is based on their unique goals and needs.
However, most businesses look at the following 7 metrics:
1. Traffic
2. Sales
3. Conversions
4. Ranking on search pages
5. Time on site
6. What customers are saying
7. Subscriber growth
Overwhelmingly, website traffic and sales are the most popular ways to measure the benefits of content marketing.
There are also additional metrics used by some, which you can take a look at to inspire your own goals and objectives.
What We Track
From our experience implementing social media content marketing, we’ve focused on similar metrics as paid social ads.
Using a tool as simple as Google Sheets, we look at factors like:
- Impressions
- CPC
- CTR
- Adds to Cart
- Purchase Conversion Value
- ROAS
We also use the Facebook pixel and platforms like Google Analytics to track the success of content even once people leave the page itself.
For Facebook and other social media content marketing, in particular, there is an emphasis on sales and engagement metrics like CTR and CPC.
Consider focusing on these for the start of your content marketing strategy as they are among the easiest to track and quantify.
Improving and optimizing your content marketing strategy should always be a goal.
Some of the most popular adjustments that have led to greater success for other businesses include:
- Better content creation (but remember: quality over quantity!)
- Adjustment of overall strategy
- Prioritize content marketing
Start Benefiting From Social Media Content Marketing
Whichever metrics you decide to track or methods you use to develop your strategy, it’s time to start recognizing the benefits of content marketing.
Integrating social media content marketing into your current ad campaign clearly can do more than just boost CTR and reduce CPC.
The answer to why is content marketing important should now be clear.
(Honestly, it’s question that shouldn’t even be asked.)
Content marketing is the best way to reach customers, build loyalty, boost engagement, and generate real revenue.
As either the foundation or the supporting role to your other marketing strategies, content is the key.
