We all know that content marketing and social media are important elements of a well-rounded and engaging customer experience — in fact, we go deep on this topic in our recent blog post titled "5 Reasons Your Business Should Invest in Content Marketing", which you can read here. But how do you know if you're spending the right amount of money on the right content?

There’s no question that brands are spending more money on content than ever before. With over 64% of B2B marketers outsourcing the content creation process according to TopRankBlog, there is no shortage of content flowing into the marketplace. There is content everywhere, from videos to interactive emails, to white pages, to webinars, and many others. But is it working? Calculating the ROI on content marketing can be challenging, and highly interactive content such as infographics and videos can be expensive. Before you invest another dollar in content creation, we recommend that you ask yourself these two questions:

Question 1: If a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it fall, did it actually happen?

No, we aren’t trying to be cheeky with you. With so many marketing dollars going toward content creation, we have to wonder whether there is enough left over to effectively invest in the targeted distribution of that content. You might have the most engaging infographics in the world, but if your target audience isn’t seeing them, you’ve just wasted your budget.

Omni-channel marketing is the answer. Understand where your audience is already consuming content and which types of content they engage with most organically, then mimic their natural consumption patterns. Simple social listening tools, attribution marketing models, and A/B testing can help you understand your best customers’ behavior and begin targeting prospects with the right content, at the right time, in the right place.

This allows you to invest in your most valuable channels and begin plugging existing content into marketing mechanisms that will inspire action. You may find that you have enough content right now and that your dollars would be better spent targeting prospects with the amazing assets you have, rather than continuing to create work no one will see.

Question 2: Why are you writing your own content?

If you find that you still do need content, we recommend flipping the creation process on its head. And don’t worry, we won’t tell your creative team we said so. While curated and professional content is hard to beat, it sometimes overshadows one of the most effective and free content creation resources available to you. Your customers.

Don’t fight it. Today’s consumers have a big voice. They are blogging and reviewing and posting everywhere. Use this to your advantage. By adopting your best customer-generated content and investing in distribution around those assets you accomplish three things. First, you reduce the cost of creating content. Second, you make those creators feel connected to your brand by elevating their opinions and efforts into the spotlight. And third, you expand your reach by utilizing your customers’ own spheres of influence and follower bases to support your distribution efforts. We agree, that sounds like a pretty amazing opportunity.

Right now, marketers spend close to 80% of their budget on content creation and only 20% on distribution. By flipping the content creation model, you just freed up that money you have been looking for to kick off your latest test and target campaign. You’re welcome.

Let us work with you to perform a comprehensive content audit on your brand to understand which of your assets are strongest, where you should be promoting them, and how effective your current distribution strategy is. Together, we’ll make sure you never have to say you spent too much money on the wrong content.