Wasting Money with Content Marketing?

As many know, content marketing has become a key component in a well-balanced marketing strategy for companies today. Excellent examples can be seen each day in various industries. Some of our favorites are Whole Foods and Kreg Tool. Both have innovative ways to reach their target audiences. Whole Foods focuses on unique recipes, while Kreg Tool creates woodworking plans for their target audience.

According to a recent study, in 2016, companies are spending 29% of their marketing budget on content marketing. So, an annual budget of $1 million is spending $290,000 on content marketing after salaries.

Over a quarter of all funds are being used to create content to share with potential customers. More and more organizations are hiring teams or individuals to handle the execution of these marketing plans. In addition to the initial budget, these are significant investments to create content to attract an audience to a company’s product or service.

In the same study, it was interesting to see that only 37% of companies use outside analytics to target their content at specific audiences. It is a shame that over 1/4 of marketing budgets are being used to create content that may never reach the correct audience.

Let’s incorporate some math in this scenario. In a simple email campaign that is driven by a white paper, here are some sample response rates. While every industry has different response, open, and close rates, improving them by a small amount can make a big difference.

Yes, there is additional cost for the analytics and data. Depending on the data and the analytics utilized, the additional cost could range from $100-$200 per 1,000 names. Using an average of $150 per 1,000 contacts, our additional cost for improving our response rate through additional analytics could see significant increase in sales.

After reading this, several may be able to find some fact or figure that will change the formulas, but the real proof would only be settled by a test. If you are interested in participating in a test to improve your content marketing strategy, give us a call here at B2E Direct.

We have seen results over and over that show how small improvements can change the end result by targeting the right audience with content that is specifically written for them. Simply using outside analytics to target the best customers, at the right time, with the right content, can result in higher response rates and sales.

Cheers,

Keith