KPIs for Roofing Content: What Matters Most?

Have you ever wondered what truly matters in the world of roofing content?

We know that in the roofing industry, it's not just about shingles and nails; it's also about crafting content that captures the essence of your roofing business. This is where key performance indicators (KPIs) come into play. 

They're the numbers and data that help you track how well your content is doing. Think of them as your content's personal cheerleaders, showing you if you're winning or if there's room for improvement.

Measuring content effectiveness is like putting your content under a magnifying glass and giving it the TLC it deserves. It's how you figure out what's working and what might need a little tweak. Just like you wouldn't use a screwdriver to hammer in a nail, you want your content to hit the right spot with your audience. 

But that's not all. It's also about building trust with your audience. Good content builds trust like a solid, well-done roof keeps a house dry in a storm. When you're consistent and offer valuable information, people see you as the expert you are. And, let's be honest, a trusty roofer is a homeowner's best friend.

Related: Using Storytelling to Connect with Roofing Customers & Win Their Trust

How significant are KPIs in the roofing industry? Let us take a closer look…

• The significance of KPIs in roofing content
• Understanding your objectives and common challenges
• Measuring online presence and brand visibility: what you should be tracking
• Understanding and improving your rankings with KPIs
• Customer reviews and ratings as KPIs

The Significance of KPIs in Roofing Content

While KPIs find their place of importance in the content related to the roofing industry, it’s often a wonder…how important is it?

Many individuals and organizations prioritize lagging performance metrics (metrics that take a longer time to measure), such as sales figures or profit margins, without paying enough attention to the underlying activity metrics (indicators that “lead” to results by showing the progress you’re making toward your goal). However, this skewed focus can be detrimental to overall productivity and success. 

While lagging metrics provide a snapshot of past performance, activity or leading metrics offer valuable insights into the work being done, the effort being put in, and the potential for future growth. 

By shifting our attention to activity metrics, we can better understand what drives success and make informed decisions that lead to long-term achievements. It's time to reevaluate our priorities and give due credit to the work behind the scenes. After all, it is the consistent and dedicated effort that ultimately produces remarkable results.

Your goal is to be the best teacher of your product or service in your local area. To do this, you need to educate. Educate your customers by committing to consistently publish content that addresses commonly asked questions your customers have…not temporarily, but forever. 

The most critical KPIs for roofing content that require meticulous tracking and analysis encompass various facets of content marketing. 

First and foremost, activity metrics serve as a leading indicator, gauging the consistency and engagement of articles published each week that focus on answering common roofing questions. These metrics ensure that the content remains relevant and valuable to the audience. 

Additionally, evaluating the performance of buying journey videos—videos that guide potential customers through the various stages of their decision-making process— within 1-2 weeks is paramount, measuring key indicators like view duration and conversion rates and illustrating their effectiveness in guiding potential customers through the decision-making process. 

Social media publishing, encompassing a mix of video and written content on platforms like YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, offers a dynamic landscape for engagement. Tracking the volume and sources of website traffic is essential to understanding the broader impact of the content strategy within the roofing industry. 

Regularly analyzing these KPIs empowers roofing companies to adapt, refine, and optimize their content marketing efforts for maximum effectiveness.

Understanding Your Objectives and Common Challenges

Many roofing companies need help deciding which KPIs to focus on for their content marketing and demand generation efforts. One common mistake is the lack of a clear plan and specific goals. Without a well-defined strategy, it's like starting a roofing project without proper blueprints—you might end up with a disorganized result. 

Before diving into content marketing, companies must outline their objectives, target audience, and metrics aligning with their business goals.

Another frequent misstep is underestimating the effort required to execute an effective demand-generation strategy. Some companies may add it as an additional responsibility to an existing job role or outsource it without providing the necessary support and resources.

Building a solid content marketing strategy requires time, effort, and dedication. To represent your brand effectively, it's crucial to have dedicated, knowledgeable individuals who understand your industry, your customers, and the nuances of demand generation.

Instead, a more effective approach is to invest in hiring full-time positions dedicated solely to demand generation. A team or individual specializing in this area can lead to more focused, consistent, and successful efforts. 

It ensures that demand generation receives the attention and expertise it deserves, ultimately benefiting the roofing company by generating leads, building brand awareness, and driving growth in a competitive industry.

Measuring Online Presence and Brand Visibility: What You Should Be Tracking

To measure the effectiveness of online presence and brand visibility, roofing companies can leverage a combination of KPIs that encompass lagging metrics, revenue growth, pipeline growth, and customer engagement. 

Ask yourself these two questions:

Am I seeing growth in my pipeline? Am I seeing revenue growth? 

You should be seeing growth in both. 

Pipeline growth typically precedes revenue growth. When your market strategy is functioning effectively, you should observe an expansion in your sales pipeline, accompanied by improved sales pipeline velocity.

Here are some essential KPIs for tracking these aspects:

Pipeline Growth and Sales Metrics: 

• Sales Pipeline Velocity: Monitor the speed at which leads move through your sales pipeline. A faster pipeline velocity often correlates with adequate brand visibility and customer engagement.
• Number of Qualified Opportunities: Tracks the number of potential customers genuinely interested in your roofing services, reflecting the strength of your online presence.
• Win Rate: Measure the percentage of sales opportunities that you successfully convert. A high win rate indicates effective sales communication and customer satisfaction.
• Average Contract Value: Understanding the average value of contracts secured through your online presence is essential for assessing the financial impact of your brand visibility efforts.
• Sales Cycle Length: Track how long it takes to close a deal from the initial contact. Shortening the sales cycle often correlates with utilizing sales and marketing content to educate your buyers.

Website Traffic and User/Customer Engagement: 

• Number of Sessions: Measures the total number of visits to your website, reflecting the extent of your online reach.
• Time on Page: Assess how long visitors spend on your content pages. Longer time on the page indicates higher engagement and interest in your roofing content.
• Bounce Rate: A high bounce rate suggests visitors leave your website quickly, indicating potential issues with content relevance or user experience.
• Keyword Rankings: Track how well your website ranks for relevant roofing-related keywords in search engines. Higher rankings increase brand visibility.
• Click-Through Rate (CTR): For email marketing and social media promotion, measure CTR to assess how well your roofing content resonates with your audience.
• Video Watch Time: Showcases the effectiveness of your video content in capturing and retaining the audience's attention. 

Lagging Metrics – The “Results”:

• Conversion Rate: Measures the percentage of website visitors who take a desired action, such as requesting a quote or filling out a contact form. A high conversion rate indicates effective content and website design.
• Lead Generation: Track the number of leads generated through content marketing efforts. This directly reflects the effectiveness of your online presence in capturing potential customers.
• Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC): Measure how much it costs to acquire a new customer through your online presence. This helps assess the efficiency of your marketing spending.
• Customer Lifetime Value (CLV): Understanding the long-term value of customers acquired through your online presence is crucial for assessing brand visibility and the impact of content marketing.
• Customer Retention Rate: Indicates how well your online presence and content engage existing customers, contributing to brand visibility and trust.

By regularly monitoring and analyzing these KPIs, roofing companies can comprehensively understand the effectiveness and brand visibility of their online presence. 

Adjusting their content marketing strategy based on these insights can improve results, better customer engagement, and increase revenue growth.

Understanding and Improving Your Rankings with KPIs

Content marketing KPIs are crucial in helping roofing companies enhance their search engine ranking and organic traffic. Instead of obsessing over keyword rankings, the focus should be on the quality and relevance of the content itself. 

Monitoring KPIs like increased search engine traffic, user engagement, and lead generation provides insights into whether your content resonates with your audience. 

Ask yourself this: Are your articles and resources effectively addressing the questions and needs of your target audience? 

Suppose certain content isn't performing as expected. In that case, it may be time to optimize, repurpose, or remove it to better align with your sales objectives and generate valuable search traffic that fuels revenue growth.

Customer Reviews and Ratings as KPIs

Reviews are something your customers write on their own, typically unprompted, and are the most ‘raw’ form of feedback. The combination of reviews and ratings can offer numerous benefits that can contribute to the success and growth of your business. 

Let’s look a little further into the KPIs that can offer value to your business.

• Content Engagement: This is like the applause at the end of an excellent performance. It shows you how engaged your audience is—do they read your articles, watch your videos, and interact with your content? High engagement means your content is hitting the right chords.
• Customer Feedback and Reviews: Customer reviews and feedback are invaluable. They tell you if your content resonates with your readers and if it's genuinely helpful. These are like your performance reviews–you can learn a lot from them.
• Self-Reported Attribution: It's like asking your audience, "Hey, where did you hear about us?" on a form on your website. This helps you understand which content pieces influenced your audience's decision-making process.
• Multi-Touch Points: Just as you need multiple tools for a roofing project, this tracks the different touchpoints your audience encounters before they become customers. It's like knowing which tools in your toolkit are essential for the job.
• Overall Opportunities: This is like counting the number of roofing projects in your pipeline. After interacting with your content, it tells you how many people are interested in your services. More opportunities mean your content is working its magic.

Regarding customer feedback and reviews, think of them as your online reputation. Like a roofing company's reputation is vital, your online reviews and ratings reflect your content performance. 

Final Thoughts

Roofing companies should have a regular date with their content marketing KPIs to keep things on track. Think of it like checking the weather forecast before planning your weekend activities; it's a routine you can rely on. 

We recommend reviewing your KPIs both monthly and quarterly. Monthly check-ins help you monitor the day-to-day performance and make quick adjustments, while quarterly reviews provide a bigger picture.

The focus should be on activity metrics, like the consistency of producing content. But here's the trick—when making decisions, prioritize actions that tie your content to your sales pipeline and revenue rather than getting overly fixated on search engine performance. 

When making decisions, consider how they can impact or improve the four key metrics of sales pipeline velocity. The aim is to keep all four metrics consistent or even better without sacrificing one to boost another. 

Your content marketing journey is about finding the sweet spot where all your goals align and flourish.

At Roofing Demand, we utilize a blend of technology and techniques with our customers to ensure they have the best all-in-one option for reporting and analysis. 

Is it something you might be interested in finding out more about? Or do you have questions about how you can utilize content for your sales or marketing strategy?

We would be happy to help. Take some time to talk with an advisor today!