Want to See Better ROI From Your Content? Learn to Maximize It

Creating effective, impactful content takes time — and lots of it. Want to launch a spectacular 1,000-word blog post? Set aside no fewer than three hours for the task of writing it. Thinking about pulling together a comprehensive whitepaper? Better block off your schedule for a far longer runway.

So why do we spend so much time and energy developing content if it requires so much TLC? In a digital marketplace, it’s a fantastic way to accomplish an array of marketing goals, from building your brand to boosting your bottom line. Without content, you end up limiting your possibilities, and no business can afford to do that.

Yet producing content is just the tip of the iceberg. Once written, designed, and published, it shouldn’t be left to its own devices in a “set-it-and-forget-it” fashion. Instead, the content deserves to be leveraged as part of a comprehensive strategy to maximize your content marketing ROI. But what is a good marketing ROI from content, what kinds of maximizing strategies exist, and how can you track marketing ROI from your B2B content creation efforts? Below, we’ll cover what content maximization means, what maximization strategies we and our clients use, and what content marketing ROI we saw in 2021 from our maximization and optimization efforts.

Let’s talk about your content in terms of it being a vehicle. Your mileage depends on a lot of factors, including how wisely you drive and maintain it.

Content maximization is the umbrella process of ensuring you squeeze the most value (“mileage”) out of every piece of content you publish. Without content maximization in place, you’re less likely to break through the online clutter of competing messaging. Never forget that about 70 million WordPress posts appear monthly. To get yours seen, you need the power of content maximization.

No doubt you’re familiar with at least one of the three general marketing tactics that make up content maximization: content distribution, content repurposing, and content optimization. Content distribution involves dispersing content across multiple channels. Content repurposing is the art of recycling content into a variety of formats. Content optimization comprises all those SEO-related updates and changes you make to ensure that your content remains evergreen or relevant.

As you might imagine, your content maximization efforts could go in dozens of different directions. For instance, you might share your content on social media with the active groups and communities you’re a part of. This would fulfill some of your content distribution objectives and expand your reach.

Another example of content maximization is pulling snackable tidbits out of larger long-form creative like sales sheets or thought leadership pieces. The bite-sized content pieces can be delivered online, sent in newsletters, or woven into lead generation emails.

For content optimization, you can’t do better than using a tool like Moz for identifying your target keywords. Once identified, those keywords can serve as the basis for content face-lifts and new content topics.

But does content maximization really help produce an appealing ROI? Absolutely. No matter what your business objectives — keyword ranking, prospecting, sales enablement — you can give your company an edge when you see content as more than just a one-and-done experience.

At Intero Digital, we’re so passionate about content maximization that we regularly employ it. Take our 2021 State of Digital Media report. We update the report each year to reflect new data and industry trends. It’s one of the biggest content projects we produce regularly. Accordingly, we give it the attention it deserves, including brainstorming content maximization techniques to enhance its intrinsic value and ROI.

What were some of the steps we took to make certain our 2021 State of Digital Media report went the distance? From a distribution standpoint, we talked about it nonstop on social, in our newsletters, in our corporate correspondence, and even in a press release. Offline, we discussed the report at networking and partner outreach groups and meetings.

We didn’t stop there, though. We grabbed compelling snapshots from the report and repurposed them into bite-sized content, including social media carousels, videos, and interactive polls. Additionally, we reworked the topic for contributor pieces like the HubSpot article “What Editors Want from Guest Contributors in 2021 [New Data].” We also built a webinar around our findings.

This left optimization. Each year, we optimize our “State of Digital Media” releases to reflect emerging research and trends. Not only does this reengage contacts who downloaded it sometime during the previous years, but it also gives other readers a reason to learn how to improve their content strategies using our fresh, real-time data.

Of course, this yields a big question: What was the outcome of all our intensive content maximization initiatives? Here are the answers, by the numbers:

We’re pleased with our ROI so far. After all, while the 146 new contacts aren’t necessarily saying they’re ready to get onto sales calls, they’re on our radar — and we’re on theirs. As such, they’re being nurtured at the top of our sales funnel until they’re ready to engage a content marketing vendor for help with their efforts.

Even the humblest blog post dashed off in the wee hours of the morning could become the seed that blossoms into a serious money tree. The key is understanding how to practice the right mix of content maximizing strategies.