Great creative is the central pillar of every successful content marketing campaign, but your articles and blogs are unlikely to fulfil their potential without a robust data and analytics strategy. You need to know exactly how content performs. Fortunately, marketers can easily call on metrics to connect the dots, determine the success of campaigns, and support changes and improvements. But what exactly should you be looking for?
KPIs
You should always keep a close eye on metrics that align with your key performance indicators (KPIs), which evaluate the success of your brand at a particular activity within content marketing. Your content team should be able to define “success” before a campaign goes live and have the necessary tools to track the data that matters.
Track and report
Once you have designated your KPIs, you can start tracking the right metrics. For example, if you want to increase the reach of your content, it is best to keep tabs on views, impressions and organic traffic. Content can be used at different stages during a buyer’s journey, so take this into account when tracking data. When a consumer is considering a purchase, engagement can be determined by metrics including time on site and traffic.
Continue testing
Less than half of marketers are able to secure a complete view of consumer data, so uncovering those blind spots can put you at a competitive advantage. This is crucial as content marketing is such a fierce battleground in respective industries. Before going all-in on a content campaign, remember to run tests and be open to the fact that your metrics may change if you pivot to new goals and objectives.
It is a good idea to run the rule over KPIs and metrics at least once every six months to ensure that everything is relevant. All of this data can be used to support various aspects of content marketing moving forward. Everything from ideation to distribution benefits from relevant, actionable data. Finally, make sure that your team knows best practices and has access to the resources and tools to work smart and make the most of your content materials.
