At the end of each of your Content Marketing campaigns do you immediately move on to the next one without analyzing the campaign just ending? If you do, you may be missing out sales you can make in your next and all future Content Marketing campaigns.
How? By repeating the same mistakes you made in this campaign and not getting better results.
At the end of each Content Marketing campaign set aside time and review the campaign. See what you could have done differently. What steps can you take to improve each step in the next one and generate more sales for your company?
How Do You and Those in Your Marketing Department Do This?
Here is one way and it can pay big dividends.
Look at your marketing funnel from that campaign. Here is a sample which we will use for our purposes.
300 – Prospects
120 – Leads
60 – Great Leads
15 – Ready to Buy
7 – Sales
Start With the 7 Sales
- Were all 7 companies that bought alike? How closely did they match the persona of the ideal customer you had created at the start of the campaign? If they all were alike and match the buyer persona exactly, this is the type of company you should focus on in future campaigns.
In your research, look for companies like this. Ask you sales department for their help in finding them. Add them to your prospect list.
- If they were not alike, how were they different? Were their circumstances similar and was this the reason they purchased your product or service?
Here also look for companies like this. Get your sales department to help. Add them to your prospect list.
By doing this, you will be creating a list of companies most likely to buy the product or service you offer in your next or future campaigns.
Next – Go to the Ready to Buy Stage
There were15 companies in this stage.
- Only 7 bought.
- How many of the other 8 purchased from a competitor rather than you? Add these to you prospect list. In your future campaigns you want to use various marketing pieces which explain why it is better to purchase what they need from you rather than a competitor?
- Some of those remaining may buy later. Keep them on your prospect list. Figure out how they were different from those which bought. What can you learn from them? If they’re just delaying a purchase, add marketing pieces explaining why not buying what they need now is going to cost them money.
Move on to the Great Leads Stage
60 companies were in this stage.
- Only 15 made it to the Ready to Buy stage.
- How were the 45 that didn’t different from the 15 that did?
- Could different marketing pieces have been used to get those of the 45 that were just like the 15 Ready to Buy move to that stage?
The Leads Stage
120 companies were in the Leads stage.
- Only 60 became great leads.
- 60 did not.
You would have to assume one reason was your marketing pieces did not appeal to them. Go back and look at the marketing you used for those at this stage. How might you improve that to convert more to Great Leads?
The Prospects Stage
At the start of the campaign there were 300 prospects. Of those 180 fell out. There may have been various reasons.
- Some may not have matched the persona you created for your ideal customer. Focusing on companies that more closely match the buyer persona you create will reduce the number of companies who fall out at this stage in future campaigns.
- Others may already have solid relationships with your competitors and weren’t going to choose your company over theirs.
- Others did not connect with the marketing you used during this stage. Remember – at this stage your marketing is designed to give the prospect general information about your company and the product or service you offer. Review the marketing you used here and look at how you can improve it to make your prospects want to find out more.
The Bottom Line
Most marketers have creative personalities. They want to focus on improving their writing skills. Their desire is to make, every email, blog post, article, white paper and case study better than the last.
They have a challenge analyzing data. It is a stretch for them to do any type of analysis to improve the results of marketing campaigns. If they have difficulty doing this research, they need to find someone who can help. Start with Sales.
Today, companies are fighting for business. Your company is no different. Your executive staff is focused on the bottom line – sales and profits.
On a regular basis, the executive staff is looking at each department in the company and seeing if it is making money for the company or if it is costing the company sales and profits.
The Marketing Department is no different. If there is no regular improvement in the marketing and if marketing doesn’t work with sales to increase the number of sales, the Executive team will make any changes.
You don’t want to be in this position. Doing an analysis of the results of every Content Marketing campaign as suggested here will help you and your staff improve the results of future campaigns.
If you have no one on your staff comfortable with analyzing data, ask your sales department for help.
Continuing improvement in your Content Marketing campaigns will result in more sales and profit for your company. The Executive Staff will view your Marketing Department as an asset to your company.
