Need to see results from content marketing? Worried about how long that’ll take?
Let’s be frank; no-one does content marketing just for the fun of it. You’re going to need to see results, especially if you’re investing between £2,000 – £6,000 every month. Otherwise, you’re just throwing away money!
Unfortunately, this is not a quick fix, but more a long-term solution that can reap great rewards – provided it’s given time. Sorry if that’s a bit of a blow for you, but that’s not all.
The time it takes to see results from content marketing varies greatly, depending on a wealth of different factors.
Not a great help so far, we are? Let us explain a bit more below, including how long on average you can expect things to take before you start seeing results from content marketing.
There’s no easy answer, but…
Let’s cut right to the chase. As a rule of thumb, you can typically expect to wait somewhere between five to eight months before you really start to see results from content marketing.
On one hand, we’ve had clients start to see very promising results in as little as three or four months, but then we’ve also seen businesses start to get a bit twitchy when they still haven’t seen much of a difference around nine months in.
The reason the time it takes to see content marketing results varies so much is down to factors such as:
- Your sales cycle (i.e. how long it takes your clients to make a decision about your products or services)
- Where you’re starting from (starting from scratch can often take longer than if you already have content assets you can leverage)
- How well you know your buyer personas (in other words, your ideal clients)
- How much content you’re publishing every month
- How well your website and blog is set up to convert visitors to leads
- The quality of your set-up content and marketing automation
It could even depend on the time of the year you first start with a content marketing agency! (If you’re one of those companies that tend to have busier periods than others)
One thing’s for sure; when content marketing is done right, you’ll start to see small changes at first, but in time your results will start to snowball. And with the right analytics and data, you could even reduce that sales cycle over time!
Ideas to help you see results faster
About to start a new content marketing campaign? There are things you can do to help speed things up and get results a little faster, but a good content marketing should already have this covered for you.
Here are some things your agency may suggest/implement:
- Conversion optimisation and A/B testing to improve your website’s performance
- User testing and heatmaps to see if visitors are encountering any road blocks
- Retro-optimisation of any existing content (be it blogs or ebooks/whitepapers)
- Introducing email marketing or nurturing for existing leads in your database
- PPC (this can help give you a bit more of a boost in the early months – providing it’s done right)
You can ask your content marketing agency whether any of the above may be a good idea for your business. Maybe you already have some great existing content that you could leverage!
Skip to the end… (key takeaways)
If you’re thinking of investing in content marketing, you should know that it can be a bit nerve-wracking in the first few months. You’re going to want to know that what you’re doing is worthwhile, but when you aren’t seeing results from content marketing, it can be tough to keep the faith.
On average, you should start seeing a difference within the first five to eight months of your campaign, but remember that this can vary greatly depending on some of the factors above.
A good content marketing agency should be able to reassure you, and suggest other ways you can start seeing results faster in the first few months of a campaign.
How long would you feel comfortable waiting to see results from content marketing? Perhaps you’re fed up of waiting already. Either way, we’d love to hear from you in the comments!
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