The big data boom offers content marketers a unique opportunity to analyse every digital interaction with their brand to improve decisions, inform strategies and overhaul campaigns. Harnessing the power of analytics is no longer an option – it is a necessity as brands seek to drive competitiveness and deliver relevant, personalised content to audiences. What are the best ways to use data to improve content marketing?
Google Search Console
Google’s analytical offerings should be a go-to for marketers. They serve up a treasure trove of actionable metrics and insights. The search analytics report is particularly useful as it provides data on search impressions and clicks, among others. You can then use this information to determine what topics to focus on during the creative process. For example, keywords with high impressions but low click rates may be of interest as there is an opportunity to deliver higher-quality articles and videos centred on these keywords. The audience is there – you may just need to adjust how you engage with them.
Website search bar
Analytics doesn’t need to be complex. Mining the search bar queries on a corporate website can throw up a range of keywords and topics that you may not even have considered. Creating content for each one is a great first step for branching out from tried-and-trusted methods that may not be resonating with your target audience.
Write 100 articles
It will be easier to make smarter content decisions if you already have a wealth of published articles to call on and analyse. Working with a third-party agency can help your business to become a more prolific content creator and distributor. After you have published 100 articles, take a closer look at how they performed, identify trends, and establish whether they really resonated with an audience. Some topics may also be “evergreen”. You can tap into these again moving forward.
Optimise
In addition to strategic overhauls and new campaigns, analytics should also support ongoing optimisation. Small changes and updates may be best. Focusing on conversion optimisation is a good place to start. Here, you can test the content formats and mediums that drive the best key performance indicators (KPIs). This is useful if you want to pivot towards the B2C side of your business. When you have found the best KPIs, optimise and then continue the cycle.
Data and insights should always be an asset. Try to use analytics to uncover hidden truths and pinpoint customer behaviours. Then leverage this insight to support higher-quality, targeted content.
