In the beginning, big brands were able to throw what they wanted on the web. It was a new technology. Small business owners followed suit, and as a result… lots of ineffective content ended up getting published.
As more content was published, it was found that certain types of content did better than others. We’re talking the longer, more useful content. We’re talking about different styles of content like infographics and videos. And, as those new forms of content were produced, content software that was designed to make your content even *better* was created.
Some of that software is great. Some of it… well, not so much. How do you know you’re getting your money’s worth?
The ‘Investment’ Part of ROI
Before you know what type of return that you’re getting from your content software, you need to know the type of investment that you’re making in the software to begin with.
The Money Investment
This is the straight-up purchase price of the software, whether you’re investing in subscription service or a single payment. The direct money that you’re putting into the software needs to be taken into account.
The Time Investment
No legitimate software package will automatically pump out content. Software CAN, however, save lots of time in the creation of the content by searching for information to put in the article, making your content easier to read, or even directing you in what to write. If your software isn’t saving you time or giving actionable information, it’s a poor investment.
The Energy Investment
Not only are you investing time and money in your software, but you’re investing energy. This energy is spent in learning how to most effectively use your software. Is the software difficult to use? Is getting the reports just right harder than it’s worth?
Determining the Return on Investment From Your Content Software
Now that you know how much you’ve invested in your content creation software, it’s time to take a look at the return on the investment that you’re receiving.
Does This Product Save Time?
One facet of content marketing is competitive research. You might spend hours reading your competition’s content, determining which content was shared the most. You might have to manually cut and paste their articles to find out the average number of words per post. You might be curious about which topics are doing the best. Doing this manually can take hours, especially if it’s a huge site with lots of pieces of content.
If there were a piece of content software that could put all of that competitive information at your fingertips, how much time would that save you overall?
Does This Product Return Leads and Sales?
Leads and sales are crucial to keeping the business pipeline open. After using this piece of content software (or getting its free trial), did your leads and sales go up? Can you see this product significantly affecting the bottom line for your company? Perhaps the program itself cast light on new revenue streams of which you might not have been aware. That would increase the positive ROI, would it not?
Does This Product Enhance Your Community?
People are most likely to buy from those they trust. What if the piece of content software that you use was able to provide more trustworthy information? What if it was able to guide you in the creation of articles and other information that people were more likely to read and therefore trust? This is one factor of getting a good ROI from your content software.
Hidden Returns that Matter
There are even other returns on your content investment that you’ll want to think about. And the content software you choose to use can help you capture the returns that you deserve. Once you’ve asked the three questions, do you believe that your ROI for content software is on point?