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Sales Is the Reason Your Content Exists – Content Marketing ROI

By Joe Pulizzi | Published: July 26, 2010

Before I launched my business, I read the Bootstrapper’s Bible by Seth Godin.  It was and is invaluable.

Every year or so, I dig it out of the file folders and re-read it.  I always find something new…something I didn’t realize the last time through.

But every time, this is the statement that resonates the most.

Sales is the reason for your business to exist.

Nothing more true can be said about running a business.  With sales, all things are possible.

Don and Heidi Shultz, in their book IMC, the Next Generation, state, “For all the complexity of marketing and communication plans, firms want only four outcomes from them.” Those outcomes are:

  • To acquire new customers
  • To retain and maintain present customers
  • To retain and grow sales volume or profit from existing customers
  • To migrate existing customers through the firm’s product or service portfolio

The same thinking needs to be applied to your content marketing.

No marketer should be developing new content or curating content unless:

  1. The content drives direct sales of a new customer (customer acquisition).
  2. The content leads a current customer to an additional sale (cross selling).
  3. The content attracts someone that looks like a customer (lead generation).
  4. The content ultimately helps lead to a sale (lead nurturing).
  5. The content keeps sales in the house (customer retention and loyalty).

This is the very essence of content marketing.  In the formal definition of content marketing, the ultimate objective of content marketing is driving profitable action. That’s content marketing ROI.

Do yourself a favor with these two actions:

  1. If your content is not doing the above, stop doing it.
  2. If you are not sure if it is or not, invest enough to find out.
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  • http://www.spinsucks.com Daniel Hindin

    I love the reference to Don Schultz, Joe. He was one of my professors at Northwestern. A dynamic thinker with a shining personality.
    Don also preaches the customer-centric SIVA approach, which stands for solutions, information, value and access.
    Suzanne Aimee, president of Able Web Professionals (no affiliation), adeptly describes a portion of this approach on the Able Web Pro blog:
    “Solving problems is more than simply selling a product or service. Thus giving way to the next letter in the acronym, Information. In the SIVA Model it is the process of sharing information, engaging in a 2-way dialog and educating the market on your solution. Rather than trying to force suspects to see your message, you’ll enable them to find information later on when they have a real problem to solve.”
    In my opinion, that’s where the idea of community comes into play. I wonder what you think of that statement and how you might reconcile it with what you’ve written above.

  • http://blog.junta42.com Joe Pulizzi

    Daniel…great stuff. I wasn’t aware of the SIVA model. Thanks for pointing it out.
    Don is an amazing man. It’s an education just to hear him talk.

  • http://recessionsolution.wordpress.com scott aughtmon @rampbusinesses

    Thanks for reminding me about “The Bootstrapper’s Bible”, Joe. I need to re-read that again!
    I also really liked…
    “5.The content keeps sales in the house (customer retention and loyalty).”
    I don’t think most people think of content marketing being used in this way, but it’s true.
    I can think of ways content marketing can be used for this. One way is to use your content re-educate your customers about the unique selling points of your product, service or business. Another way would be to use content to educate them on how to use your product or service to get the maximum out of it.
    Can you think you think of any little-known, or little-used ways to use content marketing for customer rentention/loyalty that most people overlook, Joe?

  • http://www.baseonegroup.co.uk/beyond John Bottom

    Nice summary Joe. Good to keep our feet on the ground and remember why we’re really doing this. John

  • http://blog.junta42.com Joe Pulizzi

    Thanks John…it’s a good reminder for me as well. That’s actually why I wrote it.
    Hi Scott…you are right, customer retention is the original content marketing goal (in my opinion). I can think of lots of ways, not sure they are little known. Blog posts, enewsletters, white papers, ebooks, content curated roundups, webinars (a big one), in person roundtables and events, luncheons and the list goes on.