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How HubSpot Measures Its
Marketing Content
Shannon Johnson
Content Strategist, HubSpot
Pamela Vaughan
Manager of Optimization & Growth, HubSpot Content

2.
Fun fact: If you’re a
HubSpot customer, you
can spot me in the stock
photos pre-loaded into your
software. I may even be
the face of one of your
personas.
@pamelump
PAMELA
VAUGHAN

3.
Fun fact: I’ve never
broken a bone.
@shannopop
SHANNON
JOHNSON

4.
1 How the HubSpot Content Machine Works
2 About the Blogging and Offers Teams & Our Goals
3 The KPIs We Track: What, Why & How
4 Final Thoughts About Content Reporting
AGENDA

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1 HOW THE HUBSPOT
CONTENT MACHINE WORKS

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Ebooks,
Whitepapers & Guides
Blog Posts
Webinars
Content
Creation Assets
ChecklistsTemplates
HUBSPOT’S
CONTENT MACHINE
• 11,000+ customers in over 70
countries
• 1.5M visits / mo.
• 250 articles / mo.
• 4-6 long form pieces of
content / mo.
• Thousands of downloads / mo.

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BLOG CONTENT:
• What: Short-form, ungated content
housed on HubSpot’s blog
• Purpose: Fill the top of the funnel and
convert traffic into new leads
• Measurement Focus: Quantity of traffic,
subscribers, and leads
OFFERS CONTENT:
• What: Long-form, gated content housed
on HubSpot’s landing pages
• Purpose: Qualify and nurture existing
leads
• Measurement Focus: Quality of Leads
and quality of content
BLOG CONTENT VS. OFFERS CONTENT

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WHERE CONTENT LIVES IN HUBSPOT MARKETING
CONTENT TEAM
(CONTENT) FUNNEL TEAM
(DISTRIBUTION
CHANNELS)
Offers
(Long-Form
Content)
Blog
(Short-Form
Content)
Paid Marketing
Landing Pages
SEO
EmailSocial Media

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BLOG = CONTENT + DISTRIBUTION
+

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OFFERS = CONTENT
Paid Marketing
(Funnel Team)
Landing Pages
(Funnel Team)
(Relies on Other Teams for Distribution)
Blog
(Blogging Team)
SEO
(Funnel Team)
Social Media
(Funnel Team)
Email
(Funnel Team)

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Where do our content
goals come from?
Marketing’s Service-Level
Agreement (SLA) With Sales:
Quantity of Leads +
Quality of Leads

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Why do we do
reporting?
For two
reasons …

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to track progress
toward our goals

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to be prescriptive,
actionable,
and optimization-driven

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1 ABOUT THE BLOGGING TEAM
& OUR GOALS

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• 6 Full-Time Employees + Network of Contributors
• 3 Main Blogs: Marketing, Sales, The Agency Post
• 250 Blog Posts Per Month
• Primary Goals: Traffic, Subscribers & New Leads
(Measured by Quantity)
BLOGGING TEAM

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specific goals depend on each
blog’s maturity

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INFANT BLOGS
Primary Goals =
Traffic + Subscribers
Why? To build up a critical
mass of dedicated readers
who will share and
evangelize our content to
new visitors

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~70%
of the initial traffic to a new post
on HubSpot’s Marketing Blog
comes from email subscribers.
Internal HubSpot Data

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Over time, that initial surge of traffic leads to views & social
sharing that translates into organic search traffic growth.

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In other words,
subscribers are critical
to a blog’s long-term
traffic growth.

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MATURE BLOGS
Primary Goals =
Traffic + Leads
Why? To convert visitors
into leads while
continuing to grow the
top of the funnel

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3 BLOGGING TEAM KPIs: THE
WHAT, WHY & HOW

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What are our monthly
blog goals based on?
1) Total New Leads Goal From SLA
2) Historical Blog Lead Contributions
3) Blog Growth

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How often do we do
blog reporting?
How often do we do blog reporting?

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three frequencies …

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monthly report on all
key blog metrics

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daily/weekly progress
check-ins for primary goals

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documentation
of one-off
analytical
projects

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• Blog Topic Analysis: “I wonder which topics generate the most view/leads …”
• Blog Type Analysis: “I wonder if infographic posts generate more views/leads than
SlideShare posts …”
• Subscriber Email Analysis: “I wonder which email frequency option (instant, daily,
weekly) has the best clickthrough rate …”
• Blog Traffic Analysis: “I wonder how much traffic we get to new posts vs. old posts …”
• Blog Leads Analysis: “I wonder how many leads we get from new posts vs. old posts …”
EXAMPLES …

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Which metrics
do we track?

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Progress- and goal-based
metrics …

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METRIC:
TOTAL VISITS &
THEIR TRAFFIC
SOURCES
Why: To track blog
traffic growth & analyze
strengths/weaknesses
in traffic sources month
over month
How: HubSpot Sources
Report

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METRIC:
EMAIL
SUBSCRIBERS
Why: To track
audience growth
and blog stickiness,
particularly for
infant blogs
How: HubSpot Blog
Dashboard

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METRIC:
NEW LEADS
Why: To track how the
blog is contributing to the
overall marketing SLA and
growing leads month over
month
How: HubSpot Contacts
Report

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prescriptive/actionable
metrics …

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METRIC:
TOP POSTS BY
VIEWS
Why: To analyze
themes from high-
performing posts and
identify opportunities
for conversion
optimization
How: HubSpot Pages
Report

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Old posts with high traffic become
targets/opportunities for conversion
optimization.
WHAT NEXT?

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I wonder how big that opportunity is …

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OVER 75%
of our monthly blog post views are
of old posts (i.e. posts published
prior to that month).
Internal HubSpot Data

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That’s seems like a pretty big
opportunity, if you ask me.

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But I wonder how well
all those old posts
are converting …

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METRIC:
TOP POSTS BY LEADS
(VIA LAST INTERACTION)
Why: To identify top lead-generating
posts, spot themes that can inform
future content creation, and pinpoint
poorly converting posts
How: HubSpot’s New Attribution Report

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OVER 90%
of the leads we generate in a given
month are also from old posts (i.e.
posts published prior to that month).
Internal HubSpot Data

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I wonder where all that traffic
to old posts is coming from …

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The majority of
traffic to old, high-
trafficked posts on
HubSpot’s blog
comes from organic
search.
How: HubSpot Pages
Report
METRIC:
BLOG POST
SOURCES

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WHAT NEXT?
Expand that list of high-converting old
posts by getting more posts to rank in
search. Put more effort into SEO.

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4 ABOUT THE OFFERS TEAM

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We don’t have offers
measurement completely
figured out.
BELIEVE IT OR
NOT …

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LIKE EVERYONE
ELSE …
We are challenged with
determining the value of
what we create.

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• How much did people read?
• Did they like it?
• What didn’t they like?
• Did they share it?
• Was it helpful to the business?
• Should we have packaged it differently?
QUESTIONS WE SEEK ANSWERS TO

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• We have to wait a sales cycle to see how many customers our offers generated.
• The success of an individual offer relies heavily on the promotional effort around it.
• You could technically say our offers are the source of all HubSpot lead generation.
• Unlike blogging, email, or social media, long-form content doesn’t have a built-in
promotional channel.
• Company metrics and priorities shift regularly.
• Quality is harder to measure than quantity.
• Content benefits the company in ways that are nearly impossible to quantify.
CHALLENGES: MEASURING LONG-FORM CONTENT

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5 OFFERS TEAM KPIs: THE
WHAT, WHY & HOW

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1. Percent of Leads Transferred to Sales Every Month
2. Offer Performance by Lead and Customer Generation
3. Net Promoter Score (NPS) by Offer Title, Author, and Type
THE 3 PRIMARY OFFERS TEAM KPIs

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% OF LEADS
TRANSFERRED TO
SALES
Measures the offers team’s
contribution to our marketing
team’s monthly leads-
transferred-to-sales goal.

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% OF LEADS TRANSFERRED TO SALES

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TOP-PERFORMING
OFFERS
Measures which offers
excel at generating leads
and customers.

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The longer an offer exists,
the more leads and
customers it generates.
WE TRACK YTD
AND QUARTERLY
PERFORMANCE

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TOP-PERFORMING OFFERS: Q2 2014
Offer Publish Date Author Customers
Leads (Total
Submits)* Recognized MRR*
Quality
Score*
Lead Generation Workbook May-14 Erik 60 35,000 $300,000 71
Content Creation Ebook May-14 Erik 50 20,000 $200,000 70
Facebook 101 Guide Jun-14 Shannon 40 15,000 $100,000 63
Website Redesign Workbook Jun-14 Erik 30 10,000 $90,000 69
Email Marketing Template May-14 Funnel 20 8,000 $80,000 67
*Not Actual HubSpot Data

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NET PROMOTER
SCORE
Measures our
audience’s perception of
our content quality.

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NET PROMOTER SCORE (NPS)

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6 WHAT’S NEXT FOR OFFERS
MEASUREMENT?

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To allow us to understand
if an offer is a hit without
having to wait 3-6
months.
BETTER PREDICT
AN OFFER’S
SUCCESS

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7 FINAL THOUGHTS ABOUT
CONTENT REPORTING

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1 Don’t waste time on reporting just for the sake of reporting.
2 Prioritize metrics that enable you to be prescriptive.
3 It’s okay to change your metrics over time.
4 Keep asking questions – make time for one-off analytical
projects.
FINAL THOUGHTS

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QUESTIONS ?