Excuses: They’re what stop us from measuring the impact on our content marketing. What if we told you that the data wasn’t as hard to understand as you thought?

Content marketing metrics don’t have to be difficult. All most of us really need is a place to start. Let us help.

The Content Marketing Institute partnered with Convince & Convert to tap into our friend Jay Baer’s extensive analytical experience. The resulting eBook, A Field Guide to the Four Types of Content Marketing Metrics, details critical analytics to which content marketers must pay attention if they want to deliver more effective results.

Here are some of the topics the eBook covers:

Four areas to measure, and their metrics: To simplify how content marketers approach measurement, this book breaks the process down into four categories: consumption, sharing, lead generation, and sales metrics. We divide each category further into the individual metrics that make up the whole.

The benefits of measuring your content’s impact: Remember why you started creating content in the first place — to achieve business goals, rather than content objectives. By learning how to measure, content marketers can reframe their strategy and revamp for 2013.

Useful measurement tools: Google Analytics is a strong start — but it isn’t everything. From social tracking to link sharing, content marketers may need a few different tools to measure everything.

Content marketing’s impact on your bottom line: So how do you know whether or not you’re achieving business goals with your content? The book also details how you can find the ROI of your content marketing.

Measuring is necessary for any successful content marketing strategy. A Field Guide to the Four Types of Content Marketing Metrics is an essential resource for content marketers at any size company, whether or not you’re already measuring your content’s performance.

Like this eBook? Share it with your friends through Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook. Or, if you have more questions about measurement, let us know in the comments below.

And, if you want to see more from Jay, it was just announced that he’ll be a keynote at Content Marketing World 2013 in Cleveland from September 9 – 12. He’ll also a featured speaker at Content Marketing World Sydney from March 4 – 6.