Undoubtedly, your number of followers, website traffic, and user engagement mark a digital marketing strategy’s success. However, another factor plays a significant role in determining your success. That factor is ROI. Today, we’ll discuss how to boost ROI with a sound content strategy.
Return to investment or ROI is the key performance indicator(KPI) of a marketing strategy or campaign and is considered critical when making investment decisions. Thus, it is paramount that you know your target ROI beforehand and develop your content marketing strategy accordingly.
Here, we discuss the types of content with the best ROI in 2020. By adapting your content marketing strategy based on these insights, you can boost ROI in 2021
6 Type of Contents with the best ROI in 2020
The ratio of anticipated profitability to the amount of investment (ROI) is the foundation of every business decision faced in business. But when it comes to measuring the ROI of a marketing campaign, things get a bit tricky. You can’t calculate the direct impact of your marketing campaigns as easily as other business activities with less uncertainty. Hence, we use data to suggest content strategies with the highest ROI based on surveys showing how consumers and businesses use content to drive purchase decisions.
We segmented the 6 types of content we discuss into three divisions, each marking the marketing funnel’s specific stages, consisting of the kinds of content that work best in moving the audience ahead towards conversion. So, let’s get started with the graphic below. Then, we work to show how various types of content perform with the hope you can boost ROI for 2021 with our suggestions.
Top of the funnel
This is where you attract the audience to your website. It is crucial to generate brand awareness and put yourself out there, and the following are the most appropriate types of content for that purpose:
Blogs/ Articles
SEO optimized blogs or articles are one of the most dominant forms of content on the web and contribute greatly to building the awareness needed to pour your audience into the funnel. The fewer people you put at the top of the funnel, the lower your conversion, so if you want to boost ROI, you need to drive awareness.
Blogs are instrumental in educating the audience about a product, your brand, and your expertise in the field. Writing blogs helps you connect with your audience by responding to their queries, answering questions, and teaching techniques.
We know that:
- 96% of B2B buyers want content from industry thought leaders
- 47% of B2B companies viewed three to five pieces of content before reaching out to a sales representative
- 87% of consumers begin their product search online
- 60% of consumers say that blogs are essential in the early stage of their buying process
From this, we deduce that blogs effectively bring new visitors to your website, thus blogs boost ROI when some of those visitors convert.
Moreover, studies show that businesses that use blogs in their content marketing strategy are 13 times more likely to boost ROI. So, never ignored blogs when creating your content marketing strategy.
Learn how to write the perfect blog post: https://youtu.be/Q8rN3JKqUc8
Videos
Videos are an essential element in your digital marketing strategy. With their growing popularity and abundance of content, vlogs (video blogs) are an integral part of digital media. Explainer videos or product videos are great examples of video content for your content marketing strategy. Other examples include demo videos, expert interviews, customer testimonials, etc.
Studies show that:
- 75 million people watch videos every day
- The information retention rate for viewers is 95% in the case of videos
- Video content increases landing page conversions by 80% or more
- 90% of consumers say watching product explainer video helps them make buying decisions
This explains why more and more marketers invest in video marketing. Up to 80% of marketers say video directly helped increase sales. Thus, they boost ROI.
Hot tip: even though videos stand at the top of the funnel owing to their informative nature, you can place them anywhere in the conversion funnel to boost ROI.
Learn how to create an animated explainer video: https://youtu.be/lAUAVwYWFdI
Middle of the funnel
This stage of the funnel is for educating the prospects and nurturing the leads. It is crucial to provide them with content they find informative and engaging.
Educational resources and downloadables
White papers, eBooks, reports, etc. fall into this category. This content allows companies and brands to elaborate on relevant topics and add more details, as they’re typically 3000 to 5000 words in length in contrast to blogs, which are often shorter. Downloadables make great lead magnets to drive subscribers to your email marketing, thus they boost ROI by offering opportunities for lead nurturing.
We find that:
- 79% of B2B buyers listed white papers as the material they were most likely to share with colleagues
- blogs with 3000+ words generate more traffic
Prefer reading: Why 3,000+ Word Blog Posts Get More Traffic (A Data-Driven Answer)
Engaging and retaining a customer is all about authority today. Up to 92% of consumers rely on word of mouth more than ads. Long-form content is highly impactful in promoting expertise and in-depth knowledge of your company in their industry, which builds your authority and engages users at the same time.
With better engagement comes more conversions and better ROI.
Email campaigns/ newsletters
Prefer reading: Improve Your Marketing Strategy: Email Marketing and VoIP Solutions
Email marketing works by keeping customers hooked. You can share product information, news, launch, offers, etc. If your prospects subscribed to your newsletter, email marketing works to convince them to make a purchase, reminds them how much they enjoyed your product from past purchases, or offers incentives, such as coupons, to drive purchases.
Give your emails a meaningful headline, and you are bound to attract interest.
- Professionals estimate that the email user pool will rise to 3 billion by 2023
- Emails have a 1.9% CTR (click through) rate and a 10.7 CTO (click to open) rate.
- The average expected ROI is $42 for every $1 you spend on email marketing.
A recent study shows that email marketing produces the best ROI; with numbers as high as 122%, which is four times higher than any other marketing channel.
Learn how to write an engaging newsletter: https://youtu.be/pCpxx8eg6L8
Bottom of the funnel
The bottom of the marketing funnel is the most critical part, as this is where your hard work pays off and where your prospects make their final decision. To ensure conversion, you must give your leads some hardcore reasons to choose you over your competitors. Data-driven contents and third-party endorsements work best to accomplish this goal. So, the following are the best match:
Case studies
Case studies are a detailed analysis of the projects you worked on for other clients. When users read a case study on your website, preferably on your landing page, they understand the philosophy, ideology, and methodology that you follow at your company.
Visitors can estimate your problem-solving skills, view results, and understand how they’ll work with you in the future. Case studies provide you with the best opportunity to humbly promote yourself without sounding petty. You can also add authentic feedback from your customers to create a great impression.
Here is what we found:
- 6% of E-Marketer survey respondents say that case studies are useful in generating leads
- 79% of B2B consumers prefer case studies over any other kind of marketing content.
- 64% of consumers share case studies with their colleagues.
Thus, case studies not only have a great ROI but also assert your dominance in your industry.
Testimonials
Testimonials are the holy grail of third party endorsements, especially in consumer markets. Testimonials involve actual customers who bought your product and voluntarily advocate for your brand.
Prospects who reached the bottom of the marketing funnel are most likely convinced by the positive impression and satisfaction expressed by other customers than any other type of content. And the best part: the consumers themselves seek reviews and testimonials.
Studies show that:
- 88% of consumers say reviews influence their online purchasing decisions.
- 92% of people will trust a recommendation from a peer, while 70% of people will trust a recommendation from an absolute stranger
- 94% of consumers would choose a business with a four-star rating
You can provide the testimonials in video or written posts and share them on different digital channels.
Only authentic testimonials work and the added bonus is they need significantly less investment than other types of content you create.
To sum it up
The catch with digital marketing is its dynamic nature. There are frequent shifts in customer- buying behaviors and patterns. However, these content types continuously demonstrate their popularity and ability to boost ROI.
If you want to boost ROI, formulate a strategy that seamlessly incorporates these types of content. But remember how you use them is as important as what you use. So take your time and come up with a smart digital marketing strategy.
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Hausman and Associates, the publisher of MKT Maven, is a full-service marketing agency operating at the intersection of marketing and digital media. Check out our full range of services.
Today’s guest post comes from Chehak Wadhwa.
Chehak Wadhwa is a Creative Head at webdew and has an intensive 10+ Years of Experience in Designing & Animation. She has produced 500+ Videos with her team including some of the well-known brands in the market like UBER, Microsoft, T-Mobile, Calendar, etc.
