Which marketing content delivers the best ROI?

We’ve talked about the rapid adoption of content marketing lately, but not all thought leadership content has the same perceived value. When it comes to featured articles, new research finds that “who said it” is just as important as “what was said” if not more so. Let me explain.

According to the new Copy Press State of Content Marketing Study, two-thirds (65.6%) of the 329 surveyed marketing decision makers said that authorship played a key role in their strategies. They preferred articles that contained a byline as opposed to articles posted under a brand name only. In fact, 41 percent said they would pay at least TWICE as much more for content created by a popular author. And with all due respect to popular social networking platforms, the word “authorship” is far more likely to be associated with blogging (56% agree), than with Google (31%), Facebook (9%), Twitter (3%) or Tumblr (1%).

Thought leadership content with best ROI

In terms of ROI, bylined feature articles topped the list, cited by 62 percent of respondents. Video was next at 52 percent, followed by white papers (46%), photos (38%) and interactive media (36%).

·       
 -- Bylined articles 62%
--Video 52%
--White papers 46%
--Photos 38%
--Interactive media 36%

Note: While video and interactive media scored high on ROI scale, they also topped the list of content considered “Difficult and expensive to create, but we want to do more.” You don’t have to overpay to get great results. Our Free Resources page has examples of low-cost, high impact videos that we’ve created for clients.

Macro View

Markets quickly swung back into record territory yesterday, shrugging off a series of bogus Associated Press tweets alleging that there had been an explosion at the White House and that the President had been injured. All BS of course, but enough to spook traders temporarily.

More good economic news: The National Association of Realtors (NAR) said that existing home sales in March were 10.3 percent higher than a year earlier. Housing analysts said low supply, combined with rising demand for housing, could accelerate construction in the months ahead. According to NAR, buyer traffic was 25 percent higher than a year ago.

Meanwhile, the median home price rose 11.8 percent from February to March to $184,300, the biggest one-month gain since 2005. Things look even rosier at the high end of the market where many of your clients and prospects reside. For instance, sales of homes priced from $500,000 to $750,000 jumped 25.3 percent from a year earlier. By contrast, sales of homes priced from $100,000 to $250,000 rose just 7.1 percent.

What’s more, according to the American Affluence Research Center’s semi-annual tracking study of the nation’s wealthiest households, more than half said they do NOT plan to reduce their expenditures in major categories over the next year (including autos, homes, home improvements, vacations and travel) and 60 percent expect their incomes to be the same or higher over the next year.


Conclusion

Whether it’s an article, video, white paper, research report or tweet, putting your name behind what you say substantially increases your credibility and the potential for being shared by your clients, prospects and professional colleagues. If you decide to enlist the services of high profile authors or content production experts, don’t be cheap. Quality always wins out in the long run, but remember everything these days is negotiable. Get the best help you can possibly afford, but always cut yourself a good deal. You’ll be glad you did.

Tags: Fake tweets, White House Explosion, American Affluence Research Center, blogging, Copy Press State of Content Marketing Study 

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