We’re 10 days into the new financial year. No matter when it falls for you and your organisation, the new financial year is a time when we reflect. We remember the work we have done, we wrap up projects, and we evaluate what worked and what didn’t. This examination is largely aimed at moving towards more success in the year ahead.As we reflect on the year and start to work on our new goals, we realise the importance of measurement. Measurement is challenging for many industries, where inputs and outputs are easy to measure – but outcomes more elusive. But this is no excuse for neglecting measurement.
When it comes to content marketing, measurement is a fundamental part of the process and, even when not done perfectly, is critical to proving value and creating better results.
As Kevin Cain highlighted in his guest BlueChip blog on the top 11 Keys to Content Marketing Success, the only way to understand what’s working and what’s not is to track and analyse key metrics. If your content factory isn’t underpinned by robust analytics, it will be impossible to make improvements.
Alas, this is often easier said than done. Publishing experts at Contently recently wrote a report on content measurement, highlighting that only nine per cent of brand publishers are confident the metrics they’re using are effective in measuring business results. So how do you determine which metrics you should measure and whether your content is succeeding or not? Here are our top three tips.
1. Align business and content objectives
Before conducting any analysis, it’s imperative to know what your underlying business objectives are. Only then will you be able to set clear KPIs and measure impact. As tempting as it is to keep goals ‘woolly’, ultimately this is a trap. Under the persistent pressure of well-considered KPIs your content marketing strategy will develop more effectively.
2. ROI
Whether it’s Return on Investment or Return on Objective, or both, you need to introduce robust, coherent measurement systems that can demonstrate your new marketing approach is delivering as intended. When it comes to content marketing, we can find out who sees what and who does what at the click of a button, and relate it back to other key measures of success.
3. Quantity vs quality
Don’t simply weigh up results in ‘hard’ monetary terms – although, of course, the bottom-line numbers are critical – but also rely on other qualitative metrics such as downloads, leads or subscribers. Analyse your customer behaviour carefully. Find out what content and which delivery channels are more effective with different client segments. Contently outlines some good examples of this, including understanding your audience’s engagement with your content, whether your audience is coming back to your content, and how much time your audience spend reading it.
