Spending money is a great risk in business. How much should you be spending on content marketing? Has it ever worked for you? Is it giving back reasonable ROI? Questions like these can sometimes put you in a state of confusion.
First things first
Before you start your calculations, you need to make sure that what you’re doing is really content marketing. Some business owners mistake content marketing as branded content. Remember that in content marketing, you are giving answers to questions, solving problems, and reach your audience at every stage of the sales funnel.
Areas to Focus on
So here’s the part where everything gets serious.
Truth is; in order to get the most out of your content marketing campaign, you must increase your budget. Your task is focused on these four main areas where you will allocate your budget in:
- Creating the right content for your target audience.
- Optimizing the content for better search visibility.
- Promoting the content to bring traffic to your site.
- Distributing the content to find new audiences.
The budget varies on your approach in content marketing. If you are hiring an agency, it could be more expensive, yet the implementation is fast. If you’re doing it yourself, it could be less expensive, but it may take a much longer implementation. If you are doing it in conjunction with an agency, that’s sweet! Although you are still paying for the service, you are learning the best implementation practices. This can turn your expertise into targeted content.
Does spending more guarantee more effective content marketing?
Survey says that the average organization is spending 28% of their overall marketing budget on content marketing. In B2B marketing, those who allocated 42% of their budget on content marketing were the most effective while those who allocated only 15% were the least effective. Moreover, 51% of those surveyed businesses said that they will increase their content marketing budget in the next years.
How to find hidden funds in your digital marketing campaign?
One way to spot a hidden fund is by taking funds from ineffective marketing strategies. For example, transferring funds from traditional advertising to digital marketing.
Identify your commitment
Before budgeting takes place, you need to determine how committed you are in creating a successful content marketing. Where do you fit in these three levels?
- A novice who is just trying it out.
- Someone who knows it’s important but has doubts since not everyone is doing it.
- Someone who is ready to take it all in.
Where to find funds for your content marketing campaign?
The most obvious way is to move the allocated money from ineffective marketing channels to your content marketing. You might need to start reviewing your strategies now to find where you’re the weakest at and then begin the reallocation of funds.
How to justify your content marketing budget?
Everyone wants to rank higher on search engines! Non-branded organic search terms are your measuring tool to help you justify your content marketing budget. There’s no question if a visitor finds you through a branded search on search engines. That individual probably knows your business already. But if a visitor finds you through unbranded organic search, it’s a sign that your content marketing efforts are paying off.
How do you measure your content marketing’s ROI?
A 5:1 ratio is a fair expectation. A 10:1 is considered awesome. The ratio depends on the length of your sales cycle and your ability to establish conversions. The competitive nature of your industry is also a measuring factor.
How much is enough for your content marketing budget?
The most ideal budget in content marketing is allocating 20% on the content creation process and 80% on promotion and distribution of the content. You are aware of the flooding information on the web so your responsibility is to create great, epic content and then promote it.
What types of content should you publish?
There’s a lot of great content to choose from which will make readers love your content. Your goal is to find which content best suits your business – consider the right format and the channels where you publish the content.
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