4 Tips On How To Measure Results From A Brand Publishing Marketing Plan

Measuring engagement and engaging consumers are two sides of the same coin.

- David Penn, md, Conquest Research

“46% of our marketing budget for Brand Publishing and Content Marketing?  Have you gone MAD?!?” 

How many of us who understand the importance of brand publishing and content marketing have played this hypothetical reaction from our boss over and over again in our head as we attempt to justify that kind of expenditure on something that is still relatively new to water and wastewater manufacturers (although it’s not new almost everywhere else). 

There exists, in this market, an incessant need for immediate return on any “new” concept related to marketing and yet manufacturers continue to play “the long game” in terms of display advertising without much concern for its proven lack of immediate impact.

So how can you justify a new concept that works, but needs validation?  Well, like most things, it MUST start with an initial leap of faith.  From there, it’s actually pretty straight forward.

In its most recent Benchmark Report (2016), CMI noted that the most effective brand publishers in the B2B space spent 46% of their total marketing budget on this activity BUT only 21% admitted being  good at measuring its impact.

In the water and wastewater market there are 4 initial ways to begin measuring the effectiveness of a solid brand publishing plan but they depend greatly on your predetermined outcomes. 

1. More Sales Leads

Math plays a big role in sales so why not have it play a role in the assessment of your brand publishing plan as well. 

Start with your lead value ratio (lead value = value of sale/number of leads it took to get that sale).  Let’s say your lead value is $600.  Then let’s say you produce an article, publish it and it generates 100 leads.  The created gross value of that action was $60,000.  Perhaps the venue in which you published the piece combined with the cost of creation for the piece is $5,000 total. In that given month, your NET value then equals $55,000. 

2. Brand Awareness

Brand awareness cannot be directly tied to a monetary return.This makes it a tough sell to upper management if the expectation for marketing is to generate immediate financial gains.

Tracking the success of brand awareness relies heavily on the feedback you receive from your sales team.Do prospects know who you are BEFORE your rep even walks in?If the answer is resoundingly no, then consider surveying your reps over time on the success of your marketing efforts to improve customer awareness of your brand.

3. Client Upsell

This one is about as straight forward as you can get.  At the end of each year (fiscal or calendar) review the gross revenues from existing clients versus the year prior.   This must be done in terms of account specifics.  In other words you’ll have to evaluate what brand publishing assets a certain customer accessed and determine what role those assets played in the upsell. 

Example:  You create a “How-To” tutorial (video or online article) around how a municipality can be more energy efficient.  Who among your current customer set accessed that piece?  Did they buy extra inventory from you in order to make their operations more energy efficient?  If so, how much?

Client upsell is easily overlooked as a solid contributor to the overall revenue stream when discussed in terms of marketing, which is often tied only to new account development.  Don’t ignore your existing client base. Embrace them because no one loves you more than your happy customers.

4. Traffic To Website

Every year at least 20% of Water Online clients come out with a new or updated website.  Driving traffic to that new asset always becomes top of mind and is generally put at the top of the priority list. 

There are a number of ways to accomplish this directive that include everything from organic visibility to paid search.  I won’t get into all of those avenues here but I’ll use one option simply for illustration.

Let’s say you decide to embrace the power of the Blog. As with everything, there is a cost associated with that decision.   You need to measure how much time (in house work units) is spent on creating it and its ongoing day-to-day operation versus the percentage increase in website traffic.  This of course means that you have a “visit value” associated with each website hit (visit value may vary depending on what page the visitor lands on).  Then, all that’s left is the math.

Justifying the monetary benefit of a brand publishing plan is actually quite easy with a tweak of your traditional tracking mechanisms.  If you need further help on how to do this, or how to get started, please feel free to contact me.