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How to Calculate ROI for Your Content Creation Marketing Campaign
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[/et_pb_text][et_pb_divider admin_label=”Divider” color=”#cc4315″ show_divider=”on” divider_style=”solid” divider_position=”top” hide_on_mobile=”off” custom_css_main_element=”width:20px;”] [/et_pb_divider][et_pb_text admin_label=”Month Year Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” text_font=”Montserrat|on|||” text_font_size=”18″ text_text_color=”#cc4315″ use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid” custom_margin=”-10px||0px|”] SEPTEMBER 2016 [/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”2_3″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” max_width=”620px” text_font=”Montserrat||||” text_font_size=”24″ text_text_color=”#363636″ use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid” custom_margin=”10px||0px|” text_line_height=”1.4em” text_font_size_last_edited=”on|tablet”]
Let’s say you have a meeting in half an hour with your c-level boss who wants to know, again, why the company spends 16% of its marketing budget on that “content creation marketing” when he’d rather spend that on yet another direct mail campaign. He’d like to see the return on investment (ROI) for the content marketing, because really – who needs blog posts when you can mail 100,000 spot-color postcards?
Don’t panic. You won’t have to work in the mailroom. We’ve got this.
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Calculating Content Creation Marketing ROI: the quick-and-easy way
ROI for online marketing relies on conversions, which can be broken down into sales figures and email list opt-in subscribers. Both types of conversions are useful for demonstrating your campaign’s effectiveness, but together, they’re even more effective in making your case for your marketing strategy.
[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][et_pb_row admin_label=”Row” make_fullwidth=”off” use_custom_width=”off” width_unit=”on” use_custom_gutter=”off” custom_padding=”50px|||” padding_mobile=”on” allow_player_pause=”off” parallax=”off” parallax_method=”off” make_equal=”off” parallax_1=”off” parallax_method_1=”off” column_padding_mobile=”on” custom_padding_tablet=”17px|||” custom_padding_last_edited=”on|tablet”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_image admin_label=”George Washington 3D dollar bill” src=”https://iriscontent.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/5645175542_fa12ab159f_z.jpg” show_in_lightbox=”off” url_new_window=”off” use_overlay=”off” animation=”fade_in” sticky=”on” align=”left” force_fullwidth=”off” always_center_on_mobile=”on” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid” custom_css_main_element=”max-height=600px” alt=”Content Creation Marketing ROI dollars stand out in 3D”] [/et_pb_image][et_pb_text admin_label=”Image Credit Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” text_text_color=”#363636″ use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid” text_font=”Montserrat||on||” text_font_size=”12″ text_line_height=”1.2em” custom_margin=”6px|||”] photo credit: frankleleon via Flickr cc [/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][et_pb_row admin_label=”row” make_fullwidth=”off” use_custom_width=”off” width_unit=”on” use_custom_gutter=”off” custom_padding=”0px|||” padding_mobile=”on” allow_player_pause=”off” parallax=”off” parallax_method=”off” make_equal=”off” parallax_1=”off” parallax_method_1=”off” parallax_2=”off” parallax_method_2=”off” column_padding_mobile=”on”][et_pb_column type=”1_3″][/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”2_3″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” max_width=”620px” text_font=”Montserrat||||” text_font_size=”20″ text_text_color=”#363636″ use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid” custom_margin=”30px||0px|” text_line_height=”1.5em” text_font_size_last_edited=”on|tablet”]
Before calculating your ROI, you’ll need to know:
Current monthly spending
As Jayson Demers, Founder and CEO of Audience Bloom, writes, it’s important to understand the investment part of return on investment. How much do you pay for blog content services? How much do you pay internal and external content writers for your websites? Does someone in-house post that content to your sites? Add that cost in, too. If you purchase images, be sure to have the subscription or per-image cost.
Example:
content marketing budget = $1,280/month
Current monthly revenue and email list size
What was the company’s gross sales revenue for the past month and the month before that? How many site visitors did you have two months ago? How many in the past month? How big was your email opt-in list two months ago? How big was that list a month ago?
Example:
Gross sales revenue, last month = $100,000 in revenue Gross sales revenue, two months ago = $85,000 in revenue
Number of transactions, last month: 20,000 transactions Number of transactions, two months ago: 12,000 transactions
Site visitors, last month = 10 million visitors Site visitors, two months ago = 9 million visitors
Opt-in subscribers, last month = 250,000 subscribers Opt-in subscribers, two months ago = 240,00 subscribers
[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][et_pb_row admin_label=”Row” make_fullwidth=”off” use_custom_width=”off” width_unit=”on” use_custom_gutter=”off” custom_padding=”50px|||” padding_mobile=”on” allow_player_pause=”off” parallax=”off” parallax_method=”off” make_equal=”off” parallax_1=”off” parallax_method_1=”off” column_padding_mobile=”on”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_divider admin_label=”Divider” color=”#7e8f7c” show_divider=”on” divider_style=”solid” divider_position=”top” hide_on_mobile=”off”] [/et_pb_divider][et_pb_text admin_label=”Pull Quote Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”center” text_font=”Cantata One||||” text_font_size=”48″ text_text_color=”#7e8f7c” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid” custom_margin=”16px||30px|” text_line_height=”1.3em” text_font_size_last_edited=”on|tablet” text_font_size_tablet=”38″ max_width=”900px”] “The sales ROI is the return on your content marketing investment in terms of sales.” [/et_pb_text][et_pb_divider admin_label=”Divider” color=”#7e8f7c” show_divider=”on” divider_style=”solid” divider_position=”top” hide_on_mobile=”off”] [/et_pb_divider][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][et_pb_row admin_label=”row” make_fullwidth=”off” use_custom_width=”off” width_unit=”on” use_custom_gutter=”off” custom_padding=”17px|||” padding_mobile=”on” allow_player_pause=”off” parallax=”off” parallax_method=”off” make_equal=”off” parallax_1=”off” parallax_method_1=”off” parallax_2=”off” parallax_method_2=”off” column_padding_mobile=”on”][et_pb_column type=”1_3″][/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”2_3″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” max_width=”620px” text_font=”Montserrat||||” text_font_size=”20″ text_text_color=”#363636″ use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid” custom_margin=”30px||0px|” text_line_height=”1.5em” text_font_size_last_edited=”on|tablet”]
Now that you have the numbers, grab your calculator and crunch your content creation marketing’s ROI.
1. Calculate Sales ROI
The sales ROI is the return on your content marketing investment in terms of sales. Calculate the average sales last month and the previous month. Use those averages to calculate the content marketing campaign’s ROI from a sales perspective.
Average sales
This number represents how much the average customer spends in a transaction. For each month, divide the gross revenue by the number of transactions.
Gross revenue ÷ number of transaction = average sales
Example:
Last month: $100,000 gross sales revenue ÷ 20,000 transactions = $5 (last month’s average sale) Two months ago: $85,000 gross sales revenue ÷ 18,000 transactions = $4.72 (average sale two months ago)
Sales ROI
If sales have increased (or decreased) over the last month, It’s not easy to tell if that activity comes from your content or from other marketing efforts. However, let’s assume that the increase comes from the new online content campaign that started in the past month. With that in mind, to find the ROI, first divide the sales change by the content budget.
Last month’s sales – two months ago’s sales = sales change
Sales change ÷ content budget = sales ROI
Example:
$15,000 revenue increase ÷ $1,280 content budget = $11.72 of revenue per $1 spent on content creation marketing (sales ROI)
[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][et_pb_row admin_label=”Row” make_fullwidth=”off” use_custom_width=”off” width_unit=”on” use_custom_gutter=”off” custom_padding=”50px|||” padding_mobile=”on” allow_player_pause=”off” parallax=”off” parallax_method=”off” make_equal=”off” parallax_1=”off” parallax_method_1=”off” column_padding_mobile=”on”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_divider admin_label=”Divider” color=”#7e8f7c” show_divider=”on” divider_style=”solid” divider_position=”top” hide_on_mobile=”off”] [/et_pb_divider][et_pb_text admin_label=”Pull Quote Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”center” text_font=”Cantata One||||” text_font_size=”48″ text_text_color=”#7e8f7c” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid” custom_margin=”16px||30px|” text_line_height=”1.3em” text_font_size_last_edited=”on|tablet” text_font_size_tablet=”38″ max_width=”900px”] “Think of it this way: subscriber is just another word for future paying customer. ” [/et_pb_text][et_pb_divider admin_label=”Divider” color=”#7e8f7c” show_divider=”on” divider_style=”solid” divider_position=”top” hide_on_mobile=”off”] [/et_pb_divider][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][et_pb_row admin_label=”row” make_fullwidth=”off” use_custom_width=”off” width_unit=”on” use_custom_gutter=”off” custom_padding=”17px|||” padding_mobile=”on” allow_player_pause=”off” parallax=”off” parallax_method=”off” make_equal=”off” parallax_1=”off” parallax_method_1=”off” parallax_2=”off” parallax_method_2=”off” column_padding_mobile=”on”][et_pb_column type=”1_3″][/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”2_3″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” max_width=”620px” text_font=”Montserrat||||” text_font_size=”20″ text_text_color=”#363636″ use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid” custom_margin=”30px||0px|” text_line_height=”1.5em” text_font_size_last_edited=”on|tablet”]
2. Calculate opt-in subscriber value
If you’ve ever bought an email list, you know that the names and addresses of people who have demonstrated consumer interest in a product are a valuable commodity. People who have opted in to your subscriber list have done so because they have found useful content on your site. Subscribers are valuable because they’ve demonstrated an interest in your information and your product. They know you and trust you. Soon, they’ll begin spending money with you and continue to do so. Think of it this way: subscriber is just another word for future paying customer. Claim all of the new subscribers as the fruits of your new content marketing campaign.
Average subscriber’s value
This number represents the value of each of your opt-in email list subscribers for one month. Start by calculating the average subscriber’s value for last month by dividing the month’s gross revenue by the number of opt-ins.
Gross revenue ÷ number of subscribers = average subscriber’s value
Example:
Last month: $100,000 gross revenue ÷ 250,000 subscribers = $0.40 (average subscriber’s value)
Total subscribers’ ROI
A company’s opt-in list varies each month; we hope that it grows, but sometimes it decreases. If it increases, that increase is a positive return on investment for the content campaign. To calculate this ROI, multiply the number of new subscribers by the average subscriber’s value. Divide that amount by your budget to find the cost per dollar of marketing money invested.
new subscribers × average subscriber’s value = total subscriber ROI
Example:
10,000 new subscribers × $0.40 individual subscriber value = $4,000 total subscriber ROI.
Subscribers’ ROI per dollar
Using the total subscriber ROI and dividing that by the content creation marketing budget will yield the ROI per dollar, which is in the same format as the sales ROI.
total subscriber ROI ÷ content creation marketing budget = subscriber ROI (dollars) for each $1 spent on content creation
Example:
$4,000 total subscriber ROI ÷ $1,280 budget = $3.13 subscriber ROI/$1 spent on content creation marketing
[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][et_pb_row admin_label=”Row” make_fullwidth=”off” use_custom_width=”off” width_unit=”on” use_custom_gutter=”on” gutter_width=”2″ padding_mobile=”on” allow_player_pause=”off” parallax=”off” parallax_method=”off” make_equal=”off” parallax_1=”off” parallax_method_1=”off” parallax_2=”off” parallax_method_2=”off” column_padding_mobile=”on” custom_padding=”50px|||” custom_padding_tablet=”30px|||” custom_padding_last_edited=”on|tablet”][et_pb_column type=”1_3″][et_pb_image admin_label=”Broken dollar” src=”https://iriscontent.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/5299199423_f8de99f3ee_z.jpg” show_in_lightbox=”on” url_new_window=”off” use_overlay=”off” animation=”fade_in” sticky=”off” align=”left” force_fullwidth=”on” always_center_on_mobile=”on” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”] [/et_pb_image][et_pb_text admin_label=”Image Credit Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” text_text_color=”#363636″ use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid” text_font=”Montserrat||on||” text_font_size=”12″ text_line_height=”1.2em” custom_margin=”6px|||”] photo credit: photosteve101 via Flickr cc [/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”2_3″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” max_width=”620px” text_font=”Montserrat||||” text_font_size=”20″ text_text_color=”#363636″ use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid” custom_margin=”30px||0px|” text_line_height=”1.5em” text_font_size_last_edited=”on|tablet”]
The bottom line: use both types of content creation marketing ROI
It’s important to know these numbers for your content marketing strategy monthly meetings, not just because your c-level boss wants them and needs convincing to increase your budget, add more content writers for websites or hire a blog content service. ROI lets you know that your efforts are bringing real value to your organization.
Don’t be afraid to calculate and use ROI for both sales and subscribers. Using them both is valid because content creation marketing pays huge dividends not just in sales, but also in building your opt-in list (which will result in sales). And who knows? Your c-level boss might be so impressed with your numbers that he never mentions his good ol’ days of direct marketing ever again. At least until next month.
[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][et_pb_row admin_label=”Row”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_divider admin_label=”Divider” color=”#cc4315″ show_divider=”on” divider_style=”groove” divider_position=”top” hide_on_mobile=”on”] [/et_pb_divider][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section][et_pb_section admin_label=”Blog post main Section” fullwidth=”off” specialty=”off” transparent_background=”off” background_color=”FDF3E7″ allow_player_pause=”off” inner_shadow=”off” parallax=”off” parallax_method=”off” padding_mobile=”off” make_fullwidth=”off” use_custom_width=”off” width_unit=”on” make_equal=”off” use_custom_gutter=”off”][et_pb_row admin_label=”Row” make_fullwidth=”off” use_custom_width=”off” width_unit=”on” use_custom_gutter=”off” padding_mobile=”off” allow_player_pause=”off” parallax=”off” parallax_method=”off” make_equal=”off” parallax_1=”off” parallax_method_1=”off” parallax_2=”off” parallax_method_2=”off” column_padding_mobile=”on”][et_pb_column type=”1_3″][et_pb_image admin_label=”Image” src=”https://iriscontent.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/DT-avatar-headshot.png” show_in_lightbox=”off” url_new_window=”off” use_overlay=”off” animation=”left” sticky=”off” align=”right” force_fullwidth=”off” always_center_on_mobile=”on” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid” alt=”Diane Trim”] [/et_pb_image][/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”2_3″][et_pb_team_member admin_label=”Person” name=”Diane Trim” position=”former mathlete” animation=”off” background_layout=”light” facebook_url=”https://www.facebook.com/IrisWebContent/” twitter_url=”https://twitter.com/DT_IrisContent” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid” custom_css_main_element=”box-shadow: 0 0 20px rgba(0,0,0,.1);||”]
Diane is a former middle school math team competitor and current freelance writer and editor with over 20 years’ experience in journalism and journalism education. When asked to solve equations, she fakes amnesia, head trauma or both. Diane lives in Titletown, U.S.A., where her husband accepts her math limitations and puts up with her Packers obsession.
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