What's the best way to test content distribution channels for user engagement and conversion?

1 Define your objectives

Before you start testing, you need to know what you want to achieve with your content marketing. What are your specific and measurable goals? Who are your ideal customers and what are their pain points, needs, and preferences? How do you align your content with your value proposition and your customer journey? These questions will help you define your objectives and your key performance indicators (KPIs).

2 Choose your channels

Based on your objectives and your audience research, you need to select the content distribution channels that are most relevant and effective for your strategy. You can choose from a variety of channels, such as email, social media, blog, podcast, video, webinar, or paid ads. However, you don't need to use all of them. Focus on the ones that match your content type, format, tone, and style.

3 Design your experiments

Once you have your channels, you need to design your experiments to test them. The most common method is A/B testing, where you compare two versions of the same content with one variable changed, such as the headline, the image, the call to action, or the landing page. You can also use multivariate testing, where you test multiple variables at once, or split testing, where you test different content altogether. The key is to have a clear hypothesis and a control group for each experiment.

4 Run your tests

After you design your experiments, you need to run them. You need to set up your tools and platforms to track and measure your results. You also need to determine your sample size and duration for each test. You want to have enough data and time to reach statistical significance and validity. You also want to avoid external factors that could affect your results, such as seasonality, holidays, or events.

5 Analyze your results

When you run your tests, you need to analyze your results. You need to compare the performance of each version of your content across your chosen channels and KPIs. You need to look for patterns, trends, and insights that can help you understand what works and what doesn't. You also need to test your hypothesis and see if it is confirmed or rejected by the data.

6 Optimize your strategy

Finally, you need to optimize your strategy based on your results. You need to implement the changes that improve your user engagement and conversion. You also need to discard the changes that have no effect or a negative effect. You need to document your findings and learnings and share them with your team. You also need to keep testing and experimenting to find new ways to optimize your content distribution channels.

Testing content distribution channels is a crucial part of content marketing. It can help you increase your reach, relevance, and results. By following these steps, you can test your channels effectively and efficiently.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?