Instead of setting something like brand awareness as THE goal, think of it as one step toward a #business goal.

And what’s the business goal of #contentmarketing? To drive profitable action.

What counts as a profitable action? Let’s explore.

To be useful (and measurable), content marketing goals must be specific – and match a meaningful #business goal your company is working toward.

Businesses care about three things:

Sales

Savings

customer LOYALTY, retention, and cross-sales

Choose goals that support one of those three things and you should have no problem communicating how #contentmarketing contributed to the business goals.

Here are several business-related possibilities to consider when setting your content marketing goals.

Building a subscribed audience is the basis of #content marketing. Subscribers give you permission to communicate with them regularly. And that gives you permission to subtly market to them while giving them value outside of your company’s products or services. The business asset created by #content marketing isn’t content, it’s the audience.

WHEN IT MAKES SENSE: Make a subscriber-related goal when your business wants to penetrate a new market, compete with a high-profile market leader, or BEGIN THE #CONTENT MARKETING JOURNEY.

PROFITABLE ACTIONS TO TRACK:Measure progress by the number of subscribers to an owned channel (email newsletter, blog alerts, magazine, podcast, etc.) or the subscriber conversion rate compared with general audience conversion rate.

GREAT CONTENT can encourage consumers to become prospects by signing up for a demo, registering for an event, or requesting access to a resource center. (In some organizations, a lead could be defined as a contact.) Unlike subscribers, leads provide more than an email address. They trade more information about themselves because they see value in the CONTENT OFFER.

CAVEAT: Some leads aren’t really leads. These contacts might have wanted the piece of content, but they may not want to hear from your brand again or aren’t that interested in your product or service now. Consider getting these not-really leads to OPT-IN as subscribers because they may become more valuable over time.

When it makes sense: Focus on lead-related goals if your business sees #content marketing as a tool for the SALES TEAM – to help find or qualify new prospects or to help nurture leads through the funnel.

PROFITABLE ACTIONS TO TRACK: Measure content’s impact with form and LANDING PAGE conversion rates, downloads, and percentage of marketing- and sales-qualified leads.

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