Content Analytics for the Revenue Marketer

5 minute read

Upland Admin

analytics revenue marketers need to understand

You may have heard the term “revenue marketer,” but do you really know what it means?

The term “revenue marketer” was coined by The Pedowitz Group in 2010 to describe a modern B2B marketer who is held responsible for revenue and the top of the sales funnel.

A revenue marketer is different from a brand marketer. While both marketers aim to increase brand sentiment, brand awareness, and the number of customers who purchase a product, only the revenue marketer is accountable for actual growth in sales or revenue of a business.

“The role of the new CMO has changed,” said Lee Hawksley, Managing Director of Salesforce ExactTarget Marketing Cloud Australia as reported this month. “They are no longer just ‘cost centre,’ but vital asset owners, who are responsible for driving business growth.”

A New Need for Data

The advent of revenue marketing necessitates an increase in supporting data and analytics.

According to a recent study, “adding data and analytics knowledge to marketing” is the number-one area where CMOs feel least prepared, but simultaneously half of all CMOs express a need for more data and analytics.

So we know we need it, but we don’t know how to get it.

It’s not completely surprising that the notoriously vague marketing department is unsure how to track revenue growth. It can be hard to prove how many hamburgers sell because of a TV ad; or to what degree a new customer is influenced by a singular blog post.

But it’s not impossible.

In order to measure success, the revenue marketer can use a variety of data-driven marketing technologies to track ROI.

And if a revenue marketer is involved with content marketing specifically (which they ought to be, since content is at the center of modern marketing), content analytics (and content marketing software) become their bread and butter.

What Are Content Analytics?

Content analytics are the metrics you track to evaluate the performance of your content assets. Metrics such as engagement, production, and content score are critical for setting benchmarks and goals, and verifying the effects of content on lead generation and revenue.

To do this, things like marketing automation, lead scoring, and a CRM system are essential. When numbers pulled from these systems are used together, you get a clear picture of the caliber of content your marketing team produces.

You can then use this data to see how content is effecting the bigger organizational goals.

For instance, you could look at the assets from a single quarter—say, for example, an eBook, webinar, and whitepaper—and track the amount of traffic, leads, and sales each piece drove for your business. In fact, let’s walk through that.

First, Know Your Metrics

First, identify the metrics you’ll track. These measurements should be tailored to your organization, and be available to you. Here’s what the Kapost marketing team tracks, all of which is pulled into our Kapost platform:

(if you like this idea, take this image, print it, and tape it to your desk monitor!)

revenue marketing metrics

Next, Break Down the Data

Compare the data from several assets to each other to see how effective each asset is.

Ask questions like:

  • Which asset was most effective at influencing sales?
  • How about the least effective?
  • Is there a reason one asset outperformed the others?
  • What was the purpose of each asset?
  • At what stage of the sales funnel was the asset effective?

Here’s an example:

comparing lead and traffic results from content

Looking at this data, you can immediately see the marketing team generated 11 sales.

comparing revenue results for content

You can also delve deeper into the data to improve your marketing strategy. For instance, you can easily see the eBook did a great job driving top-of-funnel traffic. In contrast, the webinar generated little traffic, but secured a high number of sales—especially proportionately.

Perhaps this suggests that webinars reach the right audience, and move people through the sales funnel more successfully. They could also be useful and strategic for your business at the bottom of the funnel.

Finally, Calculate Your ROI

The last step for the revenue marketer is dividing the total number of sales by the cost of content production. For instance, if your eBook generated $100,000 in sales, but it cost $10,000 to produce the asset, your total ROI would be $100,000 / $10,000 = 10X ROI.

You can do this with each of your assets to assess individual content power, or collectively to measure the impact of your team.

Together, each content analytic metric—traffic, leads, opportunities, social engagement, and sales—paints the most accurate ROI picture a marketer can get.

But remember, it takes tools to do data and analytics well. The revenue marketer needs to be ready to make an investment in this toolkit to get these kinds of numbers on a regular basis.

Download the Content Analytics Deck to learn more, or checkout The 5 Essential Tools for the Modern Marketer to learn about the best technologies for the revenue marketer.

Reliable products. Real results.

Every day, thousands of companies rely on Upland to get their jobs done simply and effectively. See how brands are putting Upland to work.

View Success Stories