How can you create a content metrics process?

Defining these goals is also key to creating content that hits its goals and targets. A post written to drive link clicks should look different than one meant to encourage comments and other engagement. Once you're clear on and aligned around those goals, they should be at the heart of content creation.

Goals for social media and social video brand building and marketing are important but they should be created in tandem with a strategy. Goals without strategy are just dreams. Data without direction is overwhelming. Unmet audience needs waste resources. Missed opportunities to connect with audiences lead to audience confusion and disengagement. For goals and strategy to be effective, you need to understand what you offer that your competitors can't or won't, what your audience needs are and what you excel at; your superpowers. This will lead you to defining a clear white space opportunity within your market. From there, focus your goal and strategies around this opportunity and the rest will start to fit into place.

When I just started in content marketing, tons of metrics felt like an unmanageable burden. The key to mastering metrics lies in understanding your company's stage of marketing development and aligning your goals accordingly. The metrics you choose to focus on should be like the map guiding you to your destination. In the early stages of a company's marketing efforts, your marketing itself is in its infancy, and your goals are distinct from those of a more mature company. Here's a roadmap to follow: 1. Choose Your Goal 2. Assign a "North-Star Metric" to that goal. 3. Determine 2-3 more metrics that complement and provide context. 4. Set it up technically in the tools you use.

This is what NOT to do when collecting data: wasting time and resources on metrics that do not contribute to reaching your goal. For instance, tracking the engagement rate on your corporate LinkedIn page might seem meaningful, but if your followers and visitors there are not your target audience, it's a waste of time. Similarly, counting (and trying to increase) the number of Instagram followers may be irrelevant if your ideal customers are actually active on a different platform. Mastering metrics in content marketing is about aligning your tracking efforts with your company's stage of development and overarching goals. Choose your North-Star Metric wisely, complement it with supporting metrics, and regularly evaluate your progress.

If your company is in its early stages, your marketing efforts are akin to nurturing a fledgling plant. Your primary goal might be to grow your customer base. In this case, start tracking metrics from the bottom of the marketing funnel and work your way up. Keep an eye on metrics like demo requests, product conversions, and other events that propel prospects to become loyal customers. Understand why these metrics work, and scale your efforts accordingly. As your company matures, you might shift from growing individual conversions to building brand awareness and authority. Consequently, your focus should also shift to metrics like brand mentions and conversion rates across various marketing channels.

Establishing guidelines and a taxonomy is key when analysing multi-platform, multi-format social media data. As is understanding how metrics differ across platforms. Focus your analysis on recent performance, like averages from the past 3 months. Avoid vanity metrics like lifetime numbers. Current results offer the most actionable insights. Spend time generating insights that drive real impact - iterate content formats, double down on high-performing content groups. Impressive-sounding insights are useless unless they lead to strategic growth actions.

Create a format of reporting that suits your goals and stick to it, at least for the time when it makes sense and the format is aligned with your goals. Find the rhythm that helps your team and stakeholders see the progress. Usually, it can be a monthly internal report, a quarterly report to the board and C-level, and a yearly company presentation.

You need to ask yourself how much content metrics reporting is healthy. If things get too granular, it's easy to get distracted by trivial things and random fluctuations. Should reporting be quarterly? Monthly? Biweekly? Weekly? Unless your organization is very large, or you're doing a lot of paid activity, you really need to ask yourself if going more often than monthly is really worth it.

Devising a content strategy document is key to establishing a robust content metrics process. It's the foundation upon which we measure success. From defining KPIs to tracking user engagement, this strategy document guides our data-driven decisions. It ensures we stay on course and continuously refine our content efforts for optimal results. ????