How to Get C-suite Buy in for Your Content Marketing Campaigns?

Data-driven marketing is the new normal.

What ROI is your content marketing efforts generating is the top of mind question for any marketer these days. Analytics has become an integral part of any marketing strategy-in case it is not the case in your organization you’d best get learning.

Metrics today have moved beyond just the number of followers, like counts. With the advent of advanced analytical tools and the increasing number of platforms that let us speak directly with users pose a bigger challenge to marketers on how one can measure the true impact of marketing efforts on the organization’s bottom line.

So what are the metrics that can prove that your content strategy is driving business impact? How can you influence your C-suite better to unlock higher marketing budgets? To begin with, put yourself in their shoes! 

Choose The Right Words

There’s a big difference between how a typical marketer would talk and what the C-suite would use. For example, as marketers we tend to use words like cost per click of an ad campaign. However, when a C-suite hears the term “cost per” from marketing, they may consider the marketing team as a cost centre vis-a-vis a business growth enabler. Always talk about ‘revenue per’ or ‘contribution’ with the C-suite, with the objective of creating the perception that the marketing function is a source to generate business revenue.

Yes, the language used to talk with the C-suite is equally important as the metrics we use to demonstrate marketing success. A good way to approach the leadership team is applying the principles of buyer personas to them as well. Each member of the C-suite will have different pain points and needs, and you must appeal to these to get your point across. By choosing your words wisely with them your chances of getting the desired marketing budgets or resources become higher and thereby you can create best-in-class content.

What Are Those Right Words?

So the next question would be, if we steer away from general metrics such as cost per click, followers etc, then what language can we use instead?

According to HubSpot, some of the key metrics that can grab the attention of C-suite include:  

• Customer acquisition cost (CAC): The formula to calculate this would be the amount spent by the company in marketing and sales costs—including ad spend, salaries, overheads—within a given time period, divided by the number of new customers in the same period.
• Ratio of CAC to customer lifetime value (CAC:CLV): Most of the C-suite will be interested in the overall value a customer can bring to the company, especially if you are a SaaS based company focussing on subscriptions or recurring revenue models. Being able to show the cost of acquiring a customer against the total value they bring can be incredibly powerful in demonstrating marketing’s value.
• Time to pay back CAC: This is the amount of time it takes to earn back the customer acquisition costs. You can calculate this by taking the CAC and divide by margin-adjusted revenue per month for the average new customer you just signed up, and the resulting number is the number of months to payback.
• Marketing-oriented customer percentage: What ratio of new customers came initially through marketing efforts? What was the first touch point?
• Marketing-influenced customer percentage: This is calculated by looking at sales where marketing had some influence. This could be initial contact, but it could also be where content or other marketing efforts, such as webinars, panel discussions, speaking opportunities helped to nurture the prospect through the funnel.

Proving Your Worth

Always remember, the C-suite is ultimately looking for value from all of the company’s teams and marketing is included in that as well. Put in the effort to gather the right metrics and research to justify your content marketing campaign, including those ROI and customer acquisition cost stats mentioned above. Then, present your findings to senior leadership using their language. By doing this you will find that they will not only listen to you carefully but also your content strategy success.