How long does content marketing take to actually work?

"Does content marketing work? What is the average time it takes to see the results you want? These are common questions we get.

Yes, content marketing is effective. To see substantial results, it can take up to five months .

Remember that your business may have a different answer. Depending on the amount of effort you put into promotion, strategy, and production, Content Marketing ROI might be more visible.

It may take you longer to see the same results depending on how much content you produce and where your focus is. These factors will affect your timeline.

• Model for business
• Market and industry
• Strategies and goals
• How you define success

Content marketing is a time-consuming process. This is a long-term strategy. You may not get immediate results if you are looking for them. Content marketing is a great option if you want to build a solid foundation for your business and continue growing confidently.

These stats prove the importance of content marketing.

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  More than 90% of B2B marketers, and 86% of marketers in B2C use Content Marketing
  
  
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  Conventional marketing costs 62% less than Content Marketing
  
  
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  Companies that blog generate 67% more leads compared to those who don't
  
  

Quick Takeaways

• Each business's results will vary depending on how hard they work. Your goals and execution will determine how content marketing works for you business.
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  Content marketing is a long-term strategy. Although it can seem discouraging at first, the long-term results can be substantial and compound over time.
  
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  It is essential to consistently produce quality content.
  

How to tell if your content marketing strategy is working

How to prepare your content marketing team for success. You can also measure your results to determine how effective your strategies are over time. Here is a basic guideline.

1. You can define success for your content marketing efforts

Before you can determine if content marketing works for you, you need to first define success for your company.

Is success defined as making the first dollar. Is it possible to succeed if you reach a certain level of traffic or leads? It is when you reach a certain amount of sales. How many shares you have on Facebook and LinkedIn? Engagement? Month-over-month growth?

Your brand will succeed if your efforts reach the goals that you have set. Content marketing is not easy.

The chart below, which includes 15 of our clients shows that content marketing has a significant impact on revenue and leads. The real growth comes around month 6. When is the best time for content marketing to begin? Yesterday!

It took SAP a year for us to reach $1 million in sales. However, the ROI was immediately evident when the content was used by our sales team to create conversations with prospects.

2. Use the right metrics

Before you can set goals and create content marketing strategies to grow your company, you need to define your key performance indicators (KPIs). You should choose the most relevant metrics to your industry and business.

If you are a startup, your key metrics could include website traffic, email subscribers and brand awareness. You might want to concentrate on metrics such as revenue and sales-qualified lead (SQL) if you have been in business for more than ten years.

No matter how large or small your business is, we recommend that you include the following metrics in your Content Marketing Plan.

• Traffic: traffic is the lifeblood a website. Your content marketing efforts won't succeed if you don't grow your traffic consistently.
• Leads The ultimate reason for driving traffic to your site is to generate interest in your content or business.

If you want a more detailed view of the topic, click here to download a free content marketing measurement template.

3. Find your target audience and create buyer personas

If you don't know your target audience, how can you create effective strategies?

Researching your audience is an important step in building a content marketing strategy. To target your ideal customers through your content, you must create reader personas.

Personas should not be void of actionability. Include the following things when building personas:

• Basic demographics (age and gender, income, etc.
• Background information (career history, job history, and position)
• Personality/unique traits
• Challenges/pain points
• What they do to find answers (or your business)

You can create your reader personas by conducting research online and interviewing people to gain more insight. This will help you determine the content your audience is looking for. This information will directly impact your marketing strategy and goal setting.

4. Set Smart Goals

You won't know if your content marketing and content creation efforts are producing desired results if you don't define success and set goals. Prior to defining and implementing content-marketing strategies for your business, establish SMART goals.

As we have already mentioned, it is important to use the right metrics for your business and industry. Semrush discovered that the top goals in content marketing include increasing quality leads, attracting more visitors to the website and improving brand awareness.

These are just a few examples of how SMART goals could look for your business.

• By June 1, 2023, I want to increase my newsletter subscriber list by 500 people
• By the end of Q1, increase blog traffic to 10,000 visitors per month
• In Q2, generate on average 100 qualified leads per month

5. Analyze the results regularly

Now you're ready to start implementing your strategies and creating and publishing quality content. You need to track your results in order to see how you are doing. You can measure your performance to determine if the goals you have set are achievable or if they need to be adjusted for the next period.

To ensure that you are on track, review your overall goals every three to six month. You can always create new goals if you have exceeded your original plans. This will allow for more amazing growth.

To know how effective your CM works, make sure you are getting feedback. Send a survey or email to your contacts. You can identify which tactics are most effective in reaching your SMART goals, and which ones you should abandon. Continue building momentum by reviewing your goals and adjusting your strategies.

6. Be patient and consistent

Do not rush the process and don't expect to see results immediately. You'll regret it later. Content takes time to rank on search engines. Your business brand must also be established online to establish authority and recognition.

There may be spikes or drops in traffic to the website. This is normal. Keep your eyes on the steady, gradual climb. Content marketing results increase exponentially rather than linearly. It is possible to make tangible progress and generate revenue from what may seem like a tedious task at first.

Content marketing is hard work. The longest articles that perform well online are over 3,000 words. They get three to four times the traffic, four time shares, and three and a half times backlinks for average-length articles (901-1200 word). Many businesses outsource their content marketing so that they can concentrate on their business and not worry about SEO and content creation.

You must work hard if you want to see results. Be patient, invest in the right resources and be patient, especially at the beginning. You will see long-lasting and significant results if you do.

Content marketing is a powerful tool to increase your brand awareness, drive traffic, sales, and grow revenue. These are just a few of the many benefits that content marketing can bring to your business:

• Social media platforms can help you gain more traffic
• Attract the attention of your target audience
• Building trust and loyalty
• Convert more customers
• Be a thought-leader in your industry
• To rank higher in SERPs, you need to build a base of authoritative and quality content
• Increase your traffic and lead volume.

8 Reasons Why Content Marketing isn't Working For Your Business

The following list of reasons why content marketing isn't working for your business may help you to see the results you desire. There's always hope. To improve your results and efforts, make strategic changes.

1. Your budget is too low

You won't get the results you desire if you don't put enough effort and time into CM. Higher quality content can be afforded with a larger budget, which will result in faster results. You get what you pay.

Be consistent regardless of publishing frequency or budget. Focus on cheaper tactics like blogging or free social media promotion. You can skip more costly strategies such as video marketing and paid ads until you are able to afford them.

Track which initiatives have the highest ROI for your company and spend more money there. Consider whether outsourcing CM is more cost-effective and efficient than trying to juggle all the tasks in-house using limited resources or hiring an expert.

Although content marketing is expensive, it can provide a high return. It generates three-times as many leads per dollar than traditional marketing (Demand Metric).

2. You are not producing the right types of content

B2B marketers think blogs are the best channel for content marketing at 59%. According to Demand Metric, companies that blog generate 67% more leads per month than those who don't. But it is not the only viable or most profitable option.

You should begin blogging if you don't already. Here are some additional content forms you might consider to add to your marketing plan if you're not already blogging.

• Ebooks
• Pillar pages
• Video
• Infographics
• Case studies
• Guides
• Checklists
• White papers
• Podcasts
• Interviews
• Webinars
• Courses
• Slide decks
• Posts on social media
• Reviews and testimonials
• Paid Ad Content
• Content created by users

3. You are not promoting enough

Do you promote your content once it is created? This is just as important as the creation phase. You won't be able to build engagement if you don't promote your product. Engagement is the key to higher search engine rankings and more traffic.

Promote your content on social media and in email newsletters and other blogs, as appropriate. You might also consider working with influencers. You can ask them to share your content with your audience, expanding your reach. Make sure that you both have the same target audience.

4. Low quality content or low value

Does your content engage your target audience? Is it relevant to their needs and provides value?

Your content should be engaging, relevant, and well-written to be considered high quality. You must also demonstrate authority, knowledge, and trustworthiness about the topic. It should inspire your readers to take action, such as to fill out a form and download a PDF.

Your content may not be providing enough value to readers if it isn't. These statements may be true if your content is of poor quality.

• Your content is boring when it should be entertaining
• Your writers don’t know your market and buyer personas.
• Your ideal audience doesn't like the content you produce.
• Your writers lack experience. Your work will not be of the highest quality.
• Your content is too vague or broad, rather than being focused. It lacks depth.

5. You don't publish consistently

This has been mentioned before. Your results will improve and speed up if you produce high quality content that your audience enjoys. To build trust with your followers, ensure consistency over the long-term. You must commit to a plan that you can achieve.

6. SEO is not a priority

Are you tracking your progress and keyword research? Are you optimizing each piece of content to be found on search engines? Is your website keeping up with the latest content? You won't be able to succeed if you don't.

An expert consultant or agency can help you with SEO. An audit can be done to determine SEO weaknesses or gaps and then they will tell you how to fix them, or do it for you.

7. The Landscape is extremely competitive

It may take more time to rank in search engines and get the traffic you desire if you are in a niche that is highly competitive. If you are in an aggressive industry, here are some tips to help you stay on the right side of the action.

• Continue to produce consistent, high-quality content.
• Do a content gap analysis to identify and fill the gaps.
• Do more research than your competitors.
• To build a loyal fanbase, target a specific audience and treat them as royalty.

You must be strategic and hardworking to compete with larger, more established competitors.

8. You have set the wrong expectations

You will never be satisfied with your results if you set unrealistic expectations. Do not compare your results with other businesses or competitors. If you don't achieve your goals, you'll be discouraged.

Compare your results to how you did six months ago, last year, or this year. Give it more time if you aren't producing consistent content for a while.

We can make content marketing work for your business

Marketing Insider Group, a content marketing agency, is a business thought leader. Our clients can count on us to provide strategy, branding, coaching and ROI. Our Content Builder Service was created to create custom content marketing strategies that help businesses win new clients quickly.

MIG will take care of all the details. MIG will help you create a content strategy, implement key strategies, and reach your SMART goals. We will create high-quality content that attracts the right traffic and converts leads. Instead of worrying about your business, you can concentrate on building it.

Learn more about our Content Builder Services.