Dear B2B Manager,
Let’s cut through the polite corporate B.S. and get real for a second.
You’re doing B2B content marketing. You’re pouring hours (and dollars) into blog posts, whitepapers, case studies, infographics, videos, podcasts, whatever. Your team’s churning out “content” like it’s going out of style. You’re publishing so consistently that your CMS is practically begging for mercy.
But here’s the $64,000 question nobody wants to ask out loud:
Is any of it actually making you money?
Because here’s the brutal truth that would make most “content strategists” squirm like a preacher at a porn convention:
Most B2B content marketing doesn’t produce squat.
Yeah, I said it.
It’s not that content marketing can’t work. Oh, it absolutely can. It can bring in leads cheaper than sales teams, warm them up faster than coffee, and drive long-term growth like a freight train.
But only if you know how to measure it.
And sadly, most marketers are stuck measuring “engagement,” “impressions,” and “brand lift” like it’s still 2011 and everyone’s impressed by a pie chart in a PowerPoint.
Let’s fix that.
First Things First: Why B2B ROI Is So Damn Tricky
Let me tell you why this is harder than tracking the ROI of a Google Ads campaign selling phone cases.
Because in B2B:
- Your sales cycle is longer than a government procurement process.
- You’ve got six decision-makers, three of whom don’t even open emails.
- Your “leads” go cold faster than leftover pizza in a Chicago winter.
So yeah. Tricky.
But not impossible.
Here’s the framework. Write this down. Tattoo it on your arm. Feed it to your CRM if you have to.
Ready?
Step 1: Know What the Hell You’re Measuring
You’re not just trying to “create value.” That’s something your CFO hears right before she slashes your budget.
Your job is to produce revenue. So track the right stuff.
Here’s your content marketing ROI formula in plain English:
(Revenue Attributed to Content – Cost of Content) / Cost of Content = ROI
Not shares. Not traffic. Not hearts or high-fives.
Revenue. Minus. Cost. Divided. By. Cost.
“But how do I attribute revenue to content?” you cry.
I’m getting there, my friend. Stay with me.
Step 2: Tag Everything Like a Madman
If you’re not using UTM parameters on every single link, then go stand in the corner and think about what you’ve done.
How the hell do you expect to track results if you don’t know where people came from?
Set up proper tracking:
- Google Analytics (GA4 or bust)
- CRM integrations (HubSpot, Salesforce, whatever)
- UTMs on everything (I mean EVERYTHING)
- Call tracking, if you’ve got phone leads
- Offline lead attribution (tie content to actual deals)
If you’re not tracking it, you don’t own the results. Period.
Step 3: Set Up Goals That Actually Matter
Stop tracking meaningless vanity metrics.
Pageviews? Pfft. Nobody pays you for those.
Here’s what you want:
- Leads generated from content
- Opportunities influenced by content
- Deals closed that touched content
That’s your content marketing pipeline.
Look at first-touch and multi-touch attribution. If your content brought them in the door or nudged them closer to a sale, it counts.
But again, only if you measure it right.
Step 4: Know Your True Content Costs
Everyone underestimates this part. They think, “Oh, we just paid the writer $300 and used Canva. Cheap, right?”
Wrong.
You better include:
- Writer/designer fees
- Editor time
- Distribution costs (ads, tools)
- Promotion time (your team’s hours)
- Software you use (CMS, analytics, email)
All in. Everything.
If you’re not measuring true cost, you’re lying to yourself about ROI.
And don’t forget time. If it took three weeks to push out a whitepaper and $1,500 in internal resources, that’s your cost.
Write it down.
Step 5: Give It Time (But Not Too Much)
Look, content marketing isn’t instant noodles. You don’t publish a blog post and wake up rich the next day.
Especially in B2B.
It can take 3, 6, even 12 months for a piece of content to bear fruit. That’s normal.
But here’s the kicker: If you’re not seeing any movement within 90 days — no traffic, no leads, no engagement from sales — then either:
- Your content sucks,
- You’re targeting the wrong audience, or
- You’re distributing it like a ghost in a blackout.
Don’t “set and forget.” Keep tracking. Keep tweaking.
Step 6: Calculate the Damn ROI
Let’s say you spent $2,500 creating and promoting a whitepaper.
Over 6 months, that whitepaper:
- Generated 40 leads
- Influenced 10 sales calls
- Contributed to 4 closed deals worth $20,000
ROI = ($20,000 – $2,500) / $2,500 = 7
Boom. 700% ROI. Frame it. Brag about it. Send it to your CFO with a note that says, “You’re welcome.”
Now do that again and again. Scale what works. Axe what doesn’t.
Step 7: Report Like a Streetwise Pro
Here’s how most marketers report results:
“We got 10,000 impressions!”
Great. Did your impressions pay the light bill?
What you need to do is connect content to pipeline.
Make your reporting so revenue-focused that even your CEO can understand it in one sentence:
“This blog series generated $85,000 in pipeline and closed $22,000 in revenue last quarter.”
That, my friend, is ROI worth caring about.
That’s how you get more budget, more headcount, and more respect than every other marketer in the building.
Final Thoughts From The Salty Side of Content Town
If you’re going to do content marketing in B2B — which you should — then you damn well better measure it like it matters.
Because if you don’t, you’re not a strategist. You’re a glorified blogger.
And listen — you don’t need to be perfect. You just need to be relentless about figuring out:
- What works,
- What doesn’t, and
- What to do more of.
Most companies are flying blind. Or worse — they’re flying with a report that says “Our reach is up 14%!”
You don’t need reach. You need revenue.
Measure that.
And don’t stop until you’re measuring content the way a CEO measures everything else — in dollars and sense.
Talk soon,
Your B2B Marketing Strategist and Tactician
P.S. Click here for the free white paper titled “The B2B Sales Pipeline Playbook: Strategies That Actually Close Deals”