Rise and shine, contrarians! Let's turn this Monday into a masterpiece. (Or at least make it slightly less Monday-ish.)

Missed last week's article? Catch up here. How AI Will Transform Marketing Channels in 2025. Includes tons of AI prompts to help you become a more impactful marketer in 2025.

Today we're looking at content measurement: why traditional traffic metrics fall short, how to track revenue impact, and what metrics actually matter for driving business growth.

Here's a provocative thought: Many marketers love to brag about traffic numbers - 10,000 visitors, 50,000 page views, etc. But how important is this? How much revenue did all that traffic actually generate?

We've all been there. Most content strategies still put traffic and engagement metrics on a pedestal. Sure, clicks, shares, and time on page have value and even look impressive in reports, but they often miss the mark on what truly matters—driving actual revenue.

The Problem: When Vanity Metrics Lead Us Astray

For years, SEO and traffic have ruled the content marketing kingdom. The logic seemed airtight: more traffic means more leads, and more leads should mean more revenue. But this kind of linear thinking crumbles without a solid strategy connecting traffic to the bottom line. Too many of us are stuck measuring success by:

• Traffic volume: Counting visitors like they're worth their weight in gold

• Engagement metrics: Obsessing over likes, shares, comments, and session duration

• Leads captured: Tallying leads while ignoring their quality or conversion potential

These metrics barely scratch the surface of how content really impacts the buyer's journey or generates revenue.

The Reality Check: It's About Influence, Not Just Traffic

Content's real value isn't in how many eyeballs it attracts, but in how it moves the needle on pipeline and revenue. Instead of fixating on "How many views did this blog get?", we need to ask tougher questions:

• Is this piece bringing in qualified leads?

• Does it push prospects closer to making a purchase?

• Can it help close deals faster or boost deal size?

Here are several metrics that help demonstrate the impact of content:

Revenue Metrics:

• Revenue influenced - direct pipeline value from content

• How specific content pieces speed up buying decisions

• Average deal size influenced by content consumption

Conversion Intelligence:

• Content-to-conversion rates across your funnel

• Content consumption patterns of closed-won deals

• Drop-off points needing optimization

Sales Enablement Impact:

• Most frequently used content during successful sales calls

• Customer objections overcome with specific content

• Which sequence of content pieces leads to closed deals

Making the Shift: From Traffic-Obsessed to Revenue-Focused

Ready to align your content with revenue? Here's your roadmap:

1. Map content to your funnel

   • Awareness stage: Hook them with problem/solution content

   • Consideration stage: Win them over with case studies, comparisons, and ROI calculators

   • Decision stage: Seal the deal with sales decks and product deep-dives

2. Start with revenue and work backwards

   • Lock in those revenue targets

   • Figure out your pipeline requirements

   • Zero in on the content that moves your ideal buyers

   • Tackle the pain points that matter most

3. Track your revenue impact

   • Use your marketing automation and CRM platforms to track content's impact

   • Keep tabs on deal velocity and win rates

   • Double down on content formats that actually drive deals

4. Team up with sales

   • Create feedback loops to understand what content closes deals. I highly recommend considering my “Commercial Triangle” framework that brings sales, marketing, and product teams together. Read about the Commercial Triangle here.

   • Build content that tackles real objections and competitive battles

Putting Revenue-Driven Content into Action

Consider this scenario. Your team creates a comprehensive guide on "Hidden Costs of Manual Business Processes". Instead of just tracking page views and downloads, you implement revenue-focused tracking. Here's what you might discover:

• Operations leaders engaging with your article could be 3x more likely to request assessments

• Your demo requests from operations executives might increase by 35%

• Sales conversations could move 50% faster with prospects who've read the piece

• Prospects downloading your ROI calculator might show an 80% higher close rate

• Within a quarter, this single piece could influence over $1.5M in pipeline

• Your content could attract 45% more qualified decision-makers versus general traffic

By focusing on these pipeline metrics and revenue impacts, you could transform your content strategy from simply generating awareness to driving qualified opportunities. Success comes from understanding exactly how your content influences decision-makers throughout their buying journey.

Time to Shift the Scoreboard

Traffic still matters, but it's not the endgame anymore. In today's data-driven world, content success comes down to one thing: revenue impact. It's time to stop celebrating pageviews and start celebrating closed deals.

The future of content marketing isn't about who gets the most visitors—it's about who drives the most value. Are you ready to make the shift?

Until next time, keep swimming against the current!