Does content marketing work? I’ve been asking myself that question for quite some time and I bet you have, too.

It’s a valid question that deserves a well-researched answer. The problem is that there’s a lot of hype about content marketing. As a result, people are confused about whether it actually generates the results proponents say it does.

With that in mind, I set out to do some homework on the subject and have some information I’d like to share with you. (A special shout-out goes to Dan McDade at PointClear who wrote an excellent white paper on this subject. I’d encourage you to download it by clicking here.)

Let’s start the process by defining what content marketing is.

According to the Content Marketing Institute, content marketing is the process of creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to attract, acquire, and engage a clearly defined and understood target audience – with the objective of driving profitable customer action.

In other words, content marketing is a magnet that attracts people to your brand.

(Side note: For our purposes, I’m dropping content marketing into the same bucket as inbound marketing. There’s a difference between the two as outlined in this post from Hubspot, but for our intents and purposes, we’re considering them the same.)

Okay, now that we know what content marketing is, let’s take a look at the interest content marketing has generated from people like you and me over the past few years.

The interactive chart below compares the global search volume for search engine marketing, mobile marketing, and content marketing over time.

You’ll see that the search volume for “Search Engine Marketing” has dropped off over the past decade. The search volume for “Mobile Marketing” has also slowly declined over the past several years. But the search volume for “Content Marketing” has exploded, especially since 2012.

There are two primary reasons for the growing interest in content marketing — the first is because there’s a perception that the cost of generating an inbound lead is inexpensive, and the second is because there’s a perception that once you’ve set up your content marketing program, all your work is done.

Both assumptions are incorrect.

The truth is that while the initial cost of generating a lead via content marketing is low, the cost to nurture that lead through the sales funnel and to weed out all the bad leads makes content marketing less of a slam dunk.

In Dan McDade’s excellent report, he writes the following:

“The fact is, while some inbound leads are worthwhile, recent studies show that generally inbound leads drive smaller deals that often involve relatively lower level decision makers. Why? According to Marketo, ‘it’s unlikely that CXOs are going to spend time trolling the web for blogs or other content.’

In short, most senior executives aren’t willing to jump through hoops to get your attention. To simply wait for the big ones to come your way, while more aggressive competitors take proactive action, is not the smartest course to take.”

Dan’s key point is that while the initial cost of generating an inbound lead is cheap, there are some hidden costs that make the final ROI less appealing.

Here’s an example. Let’s say you’re company is a large, enterprise level software platform called Platform X. Let’s also say that the fee to use your software is $20,000 per year. If it costs Platform X $23.15 to generate an inbound lead using content marketing (as seen in the chart below), it will cost them an additional $2,662.22 to nurture and qualify that lead all the way through the sales funnel.

By comparison, the cost to nurture an outbound lead through the sales funnel is $1,357.25. (In this case, outbound is defined as phone, email, or voicemail.)

Spend a minute with the chart below and you’ll see that the cost to qualify a raw inbound lead is about twice the cost to qualify an outbound sales call.

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By the way, there’s something I’d like to say again that’s worth repeating:

I’m not saying that content marketing doesn’t work. What I’m saying is that it doesn’t work the way some people think it does.

In order for content marketing to work properly, you have to combine it with an outbound program which, on its own, may significantly outperform the inbound lead generation program.

So, if you really want to do content marketing right, you have to combine it with an outbound program in order to get the full impact.

In research conducted by PointClear based on 25,000 dispositions (defined as a completed conversation with a contact), they found that an advanced lead generation campaign that includes a proper nurturing program outperforms a standard lead generation program by more than 3 to 1.

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Again, it’s important to note that we’re not saying content marketing doesn’t work. Instead, we’re saying it really only works when it’s combined with a lead nurturing campaign as well as an outbound marketing campaign.

What’s the bottom line to all this?

Here’s the scoop — if you’re in business and you expect content marketing alone to generate enough leads to solve your sales requirements, you’ll be disappointed.

The good news is that this can be fixed. By adding an advanced nurturing program into the inbound lead generation process, and including outbound into the mix, you’ll be much more likely to reach your goals.

Action steps for you.

If all this resonates with you, here are some action steps I’d encourage you to take.

  1. Analyze Your Sales Schema: A sales schema is like a map that outlines the customer journey from the top of a sales funnel to the bottom. I’ve found that formalizing that journey ensures that everyone in the organization understands their role in the process.
  2. Track Your Results: Once you’ve analyzed the sales schema, it’s time to put it into action. It’s important track the results of your program. Some of the things we track at 60 Second Communications (our marketing optimization firm) include the click-through rate, time spent on site, the micro-conversion rate, the lead nurturing touches, the outbound contacts and a few other items.
  3. Test Your Way to Success: Of course, you’ll want to do A/B split tests throughout the length of the program to be sure you’re optimizing your campaign. Over the course of time, a 1% improvement here and a 3% improvement there adds up to big numbers.

That’s all for now. I hope this was helpful. If this is your first time here, be sure to click the image below so you can download our 101 Best Digital Marketing Tools for Business e-book.

About the Author: Jamie Turner is the CEO of the 60 Second Marketer and 60 Second Communications, a marketing optimization firm that helps businesses improve the impact of their marketing by 10% or more. He is the co-author of “How to Make Money with Social Media” and “Go Mobile” and is a popular marketing speaker at events, trade shows and corporations around the globe.

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