How do I calculate the cost of content marketing?

Running out of time? This article is from Trek magazine, our annual digital magazine on inbound marketing trends!

What are the different facets of content marketing?

Once again, it's vital to know your target audience. There are various tools we can use to discover the elements surrounding your target, such as the Ideal Client Profile (ICP) or personas. Once we've determined these two elements, we can begin messaging and content strategy.

Content strategy isn't necessarily just about SEO; it can be deployed across a multitude of communication channels.

However, keyword research remains very important, whether for content published on your website or on another platform. You need to know how users consume content. In addition to Google, there's Voice Search, social media and so on. Depending on the service you offer, your target audience may not be very familiar with solutions for their needs. So you need to target not only the terms related to the solution, but also the terms surrounding the need.

Competitor analysis is also very important, especially of your direct competitors. You're offering the same solution to the same target: so there's an opportunity to analyze their content strategy. Subscribe to their newsletter, explore their blog, check out their social media, etc.

The cost of content marketing varies greatly from one company to another. It encompasses so many different areas of marketing that an expense won't necessarily be related solely to content. It's very difficult to put an exact figure on it, and you won't find the answer in this article.

When we talk about cost, we're primarily concerned with calculating the return on your investment. Often, the impact of a blog post can be measured over time. The easiest to calculate are the pieces of downloadable content, since you have to fill in a form to access them.

If we only take into account copywriting, it's easy to take the invoice from the agency or freelancer and tally it up. However, if the work is done in-house, it starts to get a little more complex, and that's not the same as saving money. The time spent on copywriting by the employee needs to be counted, and if his or her hours are billable, this should also be taken into account.

Distribution costs,as in the case of press releases or white paper advertising, need to be factored into the calculation. The right agency will set you up with a multi-channel strategy to ensure yougenerate leads.

Attributing a future sale becomes simple for this content, but can be difficult for the rest. The key to success is to increase the means of conversion. Add a newsletter sign-up form to your blog pages, keep your content downloadable behind a form, make your blog posts downloadable and publicize it all.

In short, make sure you're accumulating data and leads. Don't hesitate to go and see the results and if there are areas for improvement, update your content. It's imperative to offer value to your readers.