Content strategy is the process of planning, creating, and managing content to achieve specific goals and meet user needs. But how can content strategists measure the effectiveness of their work and the impact of their content? In this article, we will explore some of the metrics that content strategists can use to evaluate their work and improve their content performance.
Content quality is the degree to which your content is relevant, accurate, engaging, and useful for your audience and your organization. Content quality can be assessed by using various criteria, such as readability, clarity, consistency, tone, style, grammar, spelling, and formatting. Content quality can also be influenced by factors such as content format, structure, length, and design. Content quality can be measured by using tools such as content audits, content scoring, content feedback, and content testing.
Ensuring content quality involves meticulous attention to various facets. Readability and clarity are paramount, employing tools like Flesch-Kincaid readability tests ensures accessibility. Originality is crucial for both value addition and SEO; plagiarism checks maintain uniqueness. Visual appeal, through images or infographics, enriches content engagement. Consistency in tone, established via brand guidelines, fosters a cohesive brand identity. In-depth research, including data and citations, boosts credibility. Collectively, these elements create content that is not only easily digestible but also resonates, elevates brand presence & substantiates claims through robust research, contributing to a compelling & influential narrative.
Content strategists can look at a few key points to see how well their work is doing: Engagement Metrics: Look at page views, time on page, bounce rate, and social media shares. These metrics indicate how well your content is capturing and holding your audience's attention. Conversion Rates: If your content is designed to lead to a specific action, like signing up for a newsletter or making a purchase, conversion rates are crucial. Track the number of users who complete the desired action. SEO Performance: Keep an eye on your content's search engine rankings, organic traffic, and keyword performance. Tools like Google Analytics can help you assess the impact of your content on SEO.
Right of the bat, I can see this article doesn't talk about metrics like Traffic, Lead generation, Sales Tracking, Search Engine ranking, and Brand awareness The above metrics are also important key performance indicators for evaluating and improving content marketing strategies
En mi opinión, la más útil es la legibilidad o claridad, que está ligada a la accesibilidad. Puede medirse inicialmente con herramientas como Lorca o Clara, pero mucho mejor si se pone a prueba con personas usuarias.
Content quality can and should be evaluated before and after publication. We mostly hear of metrics for already published content, including reach (page views), engagement metrics (clicks, scrolls, likes, comments), and perhaps sentiment from comments and social media shares. We can track and use insights from this performance to improve our content creation pre-publication. But there's more. Secret sauce: Many companies and academics have been doing research on content quality for years before us! Follow and use this research to inform how you improve your content quality even before it gets published. You'll have internal and external metrics you can use to measure content quality pre- and post-publication.
Content reach is the extent to which your content is exposed to and consumed by your target audience and beyond. Content reach can be measured by using metrics such as impressions, views, downloads, shares, referrals, and backlinks. Content reach can help you understand how well your content is distributed and promoted across different channels and platforms, and how much exposure and awareness your content generates.
Content Reach is the most underrated and misunderstood thing. There are only absolute numbers given without understanding the bifurcation and demographics. We need to get this fact checked and then move our research into understanding it better so that content gets aligned accordingly.
Content engagement is the degree to which your content attracts and retains the attention and interest of your audience. Content engagement can be measured by using metrics such as time on page, scroll depth, bounce rate, exit rate, comments, likes, reactions, ratings, and reviews. Content engagement can help you understand how well your content resonates with your audience and how much value and satisfaction your content delivers.
Content engagement refers to how visitors are interacting and responding to your content. Metrics to evaluate content engagement will include bounce rate, time on page/site, repeat visit rate, social shares, comments, links from other sites, conversions etc Higher content engagement indicates that your audience are finding value in your content
Content conversion is the extent to which your content drives your audience to take a desired action or achieve a desired outcome. Content conversion can be measured by using metrics such as click-through rate, conversion rate, lead generation, sales, revenue, retention, loyalty, and advocacy. Content conversion can help you understand how well your content aligns with your business goals and how much return on investment your content provides.
In general, the metrics I think are most important for social content strategy are: - Engagement rate (clicks over impressions) - Impressions - In-niche engagement rate (the number of users within your niche that engage with your content) - DMs with prospective clients, whether inbound or outbound - Clicks on CTAs, profile views, or clicks to website So, as a marketer, I know you're thinking "which matters most?" Look: whether we like it or not, we all know that personal branding is becoming the new path forward in B2B. Company pages are becoming obsolete. In-niche engagement rate and in-niche follower rate should be the top metrics you track across executives. People want to hear from authentic humans, not branded AI copy.
Content optimization is the process of improving your content based on data and insights from your metrics and feedback. Content optimization can help you enhance your content quality, reach, engagement, and conversion by using techniques such as content analysis, content updates, content repurposing, content personalization, content experimentation, and content automation. Content optimization can help you ensure that your content is always relevant, fresh, and effective for your audience and your organization.
If you're optimizing content to improve topical coverage, then you need a topic model for the subject of your page and a method of scoring the coverage and a determination of word count. Long content isn't necessarily better and doesn't rank better either. However, that combination of Content Score and Word Count gives you an indication of what I call information density. Poor writers use lots of words and say very little. You'll see that in their high word count and low content score. At the other end of the spectrum is the writer who conveys their breadth and depth of knowledge in a concise manner. There, you'll see a high content score with a moderate word count.
Content optimization is key to ensuring that the content is relevant to the audience that it is aimed at. There can be various ways to do this. You can focus on the type of content to be included, a unique hook, the tone of the piece, examples to make it an easier read, etc. For instance, disease awareness articles aimed at the patients may focus more on the symptoms and treatment options available whereas those aimed at clinicians will focus on the treatment's evidence base. Ultimately, the idea is to rise above the clutter and offer something of value to the audience you are trying to engage.
Content governance is the system of roles, responsibilities, policies, and standards that guide and regulate your content strategy and operations. Content governance can help you ensure that your content is consistent, compliant, and coherent across your organization and your channels. Content governance can also help you monitor and evaluate your content performance and impact by using tools such as content dashboards, content reports, content audits, and content reviews.
Having a system for consistency is key in content governance, especially for large organizations. Having a content strategy with included steps for editing and approving the content are key here.