In these slides from INBOUND 2014, learn how the HubSpot marketing content team measures the effectiveness of its blog and offers content. Get the scoop on our content goal-setting methodology, and discover which metrics we track and prioritize and why.
HOW HUBSPOT MEASURES ITS MARKETING CONTENT [INBOUND 2014]
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How HubSpot Measures Its Marketing Content
Shannon Johnson
Content Strategist, HubSpot
Pamela Vaughan
Manager of Optimization & Growth, HubSpot Content
2. Fun fact: If you’re a HubSpot customer, you can spot me in the stock photos pre-loaded into your software. I may even be the face of one of your personas.
@pamelump
PAMELAVAUGHAN
3. Fun fact: I’ve never broken a bone.
@shannopop
SHANNON
JOHNSON
4. 1How the HubSpot Content Machine Works
2About the Blogging and Offers Teams & Our Goals
3The KPIs We Track: What, Why & How
4Final Thoughts About Content Reporting
AGENDA
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Ebooks,
Whitepapers & Guides
Blog Posts
Webinars
Content Creation Assets
Checklists
Templates
HUBSPOT’S CONTENT MACHINE
•11,000+ customers in over 70 countries
•1.5M visits / mo.
•250 articles / mo.
•4-6 long form pieces of content / mo.
•Thousands of downloads / mo.
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BLOG CONTENT:
•What: Short-form, ungated content housed on HubSpot’s blog
•Purpose: Fill the top of the funnel and convert traffic into new leads
•Measurement Focus: Quantityof traffic, subscribers, and leads
OFFERS CONTENT:
•What:Long-form, gated content housed on HubSpot’s landing pages
•Purpose:Qualify and nurture existing leads
•Measurement Focus: Qualityof Leads and quality of content
BLOG CONTENT VS. OFFERS CONTENT
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WHERE CONTENT LIVES IN HUBSPOT MARKETING
CONTENT TEAM
(CONTENT)
FUNNEL TEAM
(DISTRIBUTION CHANNELS)
Offers
(Long-Form Content)
Blog
(Short-Form Content)
Paid Marketing
Landing Pages
SEO
Email
Social Media
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OFFERS = CONTENT
Paid Marketing (Funnel Team)
Landing Pages (Funnel Team)
(Relies on Other Teams for Distribution)
Blog
(Blogging Team)
SEO
(Funnel Team)
Social Media
(Funnel Team)
Email
(Funnel Team)
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Where do our content goals come from?
Marketing’s Service-Level
Agreement (SLA) With Sales:
Quantity of Leads +
Quality of Leads
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•6 Full-Time Employees + Network of Contributors
•3 Main Blogs: Marketing, Sales, The Agency Post
•250 Blog Posts Per Month
•Primary Goals: Traffic, Subscribers & New Leads (Measured by Quantity)
BLOGGING TEAM
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INFANT BLOGS
Primary Goals =
Traffic + Subscribers
Why? To build up a critical mass of dedicated readers who will share and evangelize our content to new visitors
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~70%
of the initial traffic to a new post on HubSpot’s Marketing Blog comes from email subscribers.
Internal HubSpot Data
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Over time, that initial surge of traffic leads to views & social sharing that translates into organic search traffic growth.
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In other words, subscribers are critical to a blog’s long-term traffic growth.
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MATURE BLOGS
Primary Goals =
Traffic + Leads
Why? To convert visitors into leads while continuing to grow the top of the funnel
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•Blog Topic Analysis:“I wonder which topics generate the most view/leads …”
•Blog Type Analysis: “I wonder if infographic posts generate more views/leads than SlideShareposts …”
•Subscriber Email Analysis: “I wonder which email frequency option (instant, daily, weekly) has the best clickthroughrate …”
•Blog Traffic Analysis: “I wonder how much traffic we get to new posts vs. old posts …”
•Blog Leads Analysis: “I wonder how many leads we get from new posts vs. old posts …”
EXAMPLES …
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METRIC:
TOTAL VISITS & THEIR TRAFFIC SOURCES
Why: To track blog traffic growth & analyze strengths/weaknesses in traffic sources month over month
How: HubSpot Sources Report
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METRIC:
EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS
Why: To track audience growth and blog stickiness, particularly for infant blogs
How: HubSpot Blog Dashboard
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METRIC:
NEW LEADS
Why: To track how the blog is contributing to the overall marketing SLA and growing leads month over month
How: HubSpot Contacts Report
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METRIC:
TOP POSTS BY VIEWS
Why: To analyze themes from high- performing posts and identify opportunities for conversion optimization
How: HubSpot Pages Report
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Old posts with high traffic become targets/opportunities for conversion optimization.
WHAT NEXT?
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But I wonder how well all those old posts are converting …
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METRIC:
TOP POSTS BY LEADS
(VIA LAST INTERACTION)
Why: To identify top lead-generating posts, spot themes that can inform future content creation, and pinpoint poorly converting posts
How: HubSpot’s New Attribution Report
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OVER 90%
of the leads we generate in a given month are alsofrom old posts (i.e. posts published prior to that month).
Internal HubSpot Data
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The majority of traffic to old, high- trafficked posts on HubSpot’s blog comes from organic search.
How: HubSpot Pages Report
METRIC:
BLOG POST SOURCES
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WHAT NEXT?
Expand that list of high-converting old posts by getting more posts to rank in search. Put more effort into SEO.
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•How much did people read?
•Did they like it?
•What didn’t they like?
•Did they share it?
•Was it helpful to the business?
•Should we have packaged it differently?
QUESTIONS WE SEEK ANSWERS TO
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•We have to wait a sales cycle to see how many customers our offers generated.
•The success of an individual offer relies heavily on the promotional effort around it.
•You could technically say our offers are the source of all HubSpot lead generation.
•Unlike blogging, email, or social media, long-form content doesn’t have a built-in promotional channel.
•Company metrics and priorities shift regularly.
•Quality is harder to measure than quantity.
•Content benefits the company in ways that are nearly impossible to quantify.
CHALLENGES: MEASURING LONG-FORM CONTENT
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1.Percent of Leads Transferred to Sales Every Month
2.Offer Performance by Lead and Customer Generation
3.Net Promoter Score (NPS) by Offer Title, Author, and Type
THE 3 PRIMARY OFFERS TEAM KPIs
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% OF LEADS TRANSFERRED TO SALES
Measures the offers team’s contribution to our marketing team’s monthly leads- transferred-to-sales goal.
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1Don’t waste time on reporting just for the sake of reporting.
2Prioritize metrics that enable you to be prescriptive.
3It’s okay to change your metrics over time.
4Keep asking questions –make time for one-off analytical projects.
FINAL THOUGHTS