When we picture lead generation working the way we think it should, most of us envision the salesperson being handed a fully qualified lead and only a small step from closing. We want the process to be predictable and the performance to be near perfect.

If only the real world were so simple and straightforward. You remember the real world—where humans act human and analysis turns murky. Below are seven ways to calculate blog ROI; in other words, is it generating a return on your investment, and is the company blog really working?

There’s no rule book or history to rely on that tells us where our content marketing efforts during COVID-19 will take us in future endeavors. Data from HubSpot’s 70,000 global customer base supports business slowdown predictions; however both sales and marketing metrics are rapidly changing.

Businesses are being researched more online, average monthly website traffic has increased, and online research has led to customer-initiated conversations with sales reps. There’s no question of whether or not quality content still generates leads.

With constantly changing data, a new normal, and an uncertain economic landscape, what should your content marketing strategy look like?

Creating blog content, developing premium content, content distribution, email marketing, social media marketing—there's a continuous list of what it takes to create a content marketing strategy. However, one of the most common mistakes among businesses is creating content for content's sake.

You can't crank out three articles a day without defining your audience and creating a content marketing strategy. Once you develop that strategy, one of the first things to determine is how often you should publish blogs. There are numerous studies about why blog posts are integral to your inbound marketing strategy, but there's not much hard data on the frequency of posting. That's because blogging frequency depends greatly on the goals you hope to accomplish with your blog.

From driving traffic and leads to your website to providing valuable information and assets for your sales team, there are multiple benefits of having a content marketing strategy. In order to address your prospects' needs and problems as they travel through their buyers’ journey, continuous quality content is an integral part of each stage of the inbound methodology (Attract, Convert, Close, Delight.)

There’s just one problem: What do you write about? How do you generate content ideas quickly while still being strategic and effective?

Through years of experience, we’ve found that you ideally need to publish to your blog a minimum of 1-3 times a week, and publishing new premium content on a regular basis (quarterly, if not monthly depending on your goals). In order to produce 156 blogs (or more) a year, our experts share tips on how to generate content ideas.

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Brands who prioritize blogging efforts are 13x more likely to see positive ROI, and 55% of brands say blog content creation is their top inbound marketing priority, according to Hubspot data.

However, having a blog on your website doesn't guarantee ROI. Too often we see businesses and brands start without a blog strategy. They're full of energy and they start producing numerous blog posts filled with fresh ideas. The first 45 days are exciting as the content is flowing but between day 45 and 60, page views start to taper, and even though the numbers look good, visitors aren’t turning into customers.

Prospective clients often ask, “How can writing blog posts turn into website visitors into leads and new customers?” It really is the Big Question they need to understand before committing to inbound—or content—marketing.

For businesses, blogging does much more than let followers know about recent news and events. When done right, it establishes your organization as an authority in your industry, gives followers an insider look at your company culture, boosts SEO, and generates qualified leads. 

"There's always room for a story that can transport people to another place.” 
–J.K. Rowling 

Why does your business need stories? Because a good story builds rapport and makes a complex product or process easy to understand. A story places your prospect in the shoes of your existing clients, allowing them to imagine what it’s like doing business with you.

Whether you’re on a stage, sharing a video, writing a blog post, or laughing over a cup of coffee, the stories you tell bring you — and your business—to life.

Are you using content in the sales process? How do you use content in the sales process?

Likely, your marketing team has created a large amount of great content that's not only beneficial for lead generation but is also helpful for lead nurturing. This content could range from informational blog posts to eBooks, checklists, or industry guides. 

In this video, I share one important way to utilize content in the sales process that many salespeople overlook. This one, simple tip can help improve a salesperson's sales performance.

Blogging is a mighty strategy when done correct, and it's a goal of ours to provide our clients and visitors top-notch, quality content to teach them and guide them to success. We've searched for the most popular blogs of 2019, and we've curated these lists that will publish each day this week to bring you some of the most educational and informative content from the year.

Check out these top blogs on content strategy from 2019, and let them guide your content marketing efforts in 2020!

Many people out there think they are blogging. Are they just blogging to blog? Or are they strategically blogging to get results and drive the efforts closer to success?