Content syndication plays a critical role in content Marketing, offering businesses the opportunity to expand their reach and increase their brand visibility. However, as with any Marketing strategy, it’s essential to track the return on investment (ROI) to ensure your efforts are yielding the desired results. In this comprehensive guide, we’ll delve into the intricacies of content syndication, providing valuable insights on measuring its ROI effectively.
What is Content Syndication?
Content syndication is a Marketing strategy that involves republishing existing content on third-party websites to reach a larger audience. This approach is beneficial for businesses looking to increase their brand awareness, drive more traffic to their website, and generate quality leads. However, to fully leverage the advantages of content syndication, companies must track and analyse associated metrics and KPIs.
The Importance of Tracking ROI
Businesses typically allocate a significant portion of their Marketing budget to content syndication, expecting a return that surpasses the initial investment. The challenge, however, lies in quantifying the ROI, as most returns are qualitative and may not manifest for several months or even years.
Despite this, tracking the ROI of content syndication is crucial for several reasons:
- It helps ascertain whether you’re meeting your set benchmarks and objectives.
- It provides insights into resource utilisation efficiency.
- It identifies the most effective channels for investment.
Challenges in Measuring ROI
The primary challenge in measuring the ROI of content syndication lies in its qualitative nature. Returns are often measured in descriptive terms, such as quality leads or high-value prospects, rather than quantitative metrics like Sales figures.
While quantitative results are preferable due to their measurability, only a fraction of marketers can quantitatively demonstrate their content syndication’s impact. This is mainly due to the fact that most returns aren’t immediate, and strategies like SEO can take anywhere from 6 to 12 months to yield results.
Calculating Costs for ROI
Calculating the ROI of content syndication starts by determining the total investment, which includes more than just the cost of individual assets. The costs to consider include content creators, Marketing agencies, in-house Marketing tasks, content distribution agencies, and content Marketing platforms and software.
Remember, while these costs might seem high initially, the content you produce will continue to generate revenue for years after publication.
Content Syndication Campaign Examples
To understand how to measure the ROI of content syndication, it’s helpful to consider campaign examples. Google Workspace, for example, uses content syndication to promote its services through various assets, including a resource library, download page, and whitepaper.
Key Metrics for Content Syndication
When running a content syndication campaign, tracking key performance indicators (KPIs) is essential. Depending on your objectives, these could include lead generation, lead quality, conversion rate, and click-through rate.
Metrics can be categorised into engagement metrics (impressions, clicks, referral traffic), conversion metrics (conversion rate, CPL, CPO), and return metrics (leads, MQL > SQL > SQO, revenue, ROCI).
Evaluating the Success of your Content Syndication Program
Understanding whether your content syndication strategy is working involves assessing your metrics and results. Consider whether your content resonates with your audience, if your landing pages are converting, and whether the leads you generate are becoming customers.
It is important to also assess the quality of leads that your content syndication is generating. To do this, look at the number of contacts that are engaging with your content, the number of leads that are converting to customers, and the time it takes for them to convert. Additionally, look at how many repeat customers you have from content syndication and how these customers compare to other sources. By analysing these data points, you will be able to determine if your content syndication program is successful and if it is worth continuing. You can also use these data points to inform future campaigns and optimise existing ones in order to increase ROI.
Content Resonance
To determine whether your content resonates with your audience, monitor clicks, click-through-rate, and metrics such as time-on-page or heatmaps. Topics that generate the most traffic or conversions can guide future content syndication strategies.
It’s also important to take a look at the quality of leads generated by your content syndication program. Are these leads qualified and relevant? If not, it might be time to adjust the targeting for your content syndication strategy. You should also consider the cost-per-lead (CPL) and cost-per-order (CPO) of your campaign. If these figures are too high, it could be a sign that you need to adjust your approach or target different channels.
Landing Page Conversion
Whether you’re working solely with your vendor and their network of publishers, hosting your own landing pages, or a combination of both, you need to monitor conversion rates. Understanding who converts on which pages and how these leads fare further down the funnel can provide valuable insights into what’s working.
It can also help you identify any areas of improvement in terms of website design or copywriting that could increase conversion rates. Additionally, tracking the number of leads generated by each campaign can help you understand which channels are delivering the best results and focus your efforts there. Finally, tracking customer lifetime value (LTV) can help you determine whether content syndication is worth your investment and identify any areas where you need to adjust your approach.
Conclusion
As your content syndication leads become customers, you’ll gain data on their conversion journey. This can help identify topics or user experience issues that can be optimised for future content syndication efforts.
In conclusion, measuring the ROI of content syndication may be challenging, but it’s a critical aspect of any effective content Marketing strategy. By understanding and tracking the right metrics, businesses can fine-tune their content syndication strategies to maximise ROI and drive growth.
At MyOutreach, we specialise in lead generation and can help you optimise your content syndication strategy for maximum ROI. Contact us today to learn more.
