How can you set realistic content performance goals?

If you're entering a tough situation in terms of content marketing, if can be hard to show objectively great results right away, because it can take a long time to overcome your organization's various internal dysfunctions. Which is why it pays to know your baseline. It can be a lot easier to show improvement relative to that.

Before you start setting goals, it's important to know where you're at right now. Think of it like checking your starting point on a map before planning your journey. This means understanding how things are currently going, looking at your performance, and checking out the numbers. It's a bit like knowing where you stand before deciding where you want to head.

Figure out and describe the folks you want to talk to with your message. Consider who would be really into what you're sharing, selling, or offering. Defining your target audience helps you tailor your communication to connect better with the right people and makes sure you're reaching those who are most likely to be interested in what you have to offer.

There are published benchmarks for almost any content-related metric you can think of. And most are not unrealistically challenging for a content professional (because a lot of content is created by total amateurs). Leverage them when you're setting goals and you'll usually do alright.

When you're setting goals, make sure they're clear (so you know exactly what you're aiming for), measurable (you can track your progress), achievable (something you can actually pull off), relevant (it connects to your bigger goals), and time-bound (you've got a deadline). This way, your goals are practical, meaningful, and you can stay on track to get them done.

SMART is one of the most important elements of any project when it comes to goal setting and measuring results. Agree these goals with clients and colleagues, ensure they match the marketing and business strategy.

Some ways to start thinking about this and begin categorizing your goals: - break each goal down into individual components, such as how many visits you need to drive, what the conversion rate needs to be, and if this piece of content has already been covered. - estimate the amount of effort it's going to take to execute on each component - it's likely that your goals are related. Sometimes achieving one goal should be considered a blocker to beginning on another - consider if the achievement of any goals already has a head start. Does a YouTube channel already have subscribers? Does your blog already have repeat readers? Calculating the value already inherent in an audience allows you to deduct that advantage from effort required

Organize your goals by putting the most important ones at the top and sorting them out based on how crucial they are. This way, you can concentrate on what's really important and make sure you're dealing with the most critical stuff first. It's like making a to-do list but making sure the big, important tasks are right up front.

Keep an eye on your goals and adjust them whenever necessary. Take a look at how things are going, and if you need to, make some changes to your goals. This way, you can stay flexible and make sure your objectives always match up with what you're aiming for.

Don't ignore qualitative results! It's easy to get caught up in hard numbers, but qualitative evidence of success is valuable too. A few qualitative things I look for: - Discussion/comments on social media posts (Focusing on the quality/depth of discussion versus the number of comments) - Relevant discussions in discords/forums - Shoutouts on social or in newsletters - Feedback from customers or readers Think of it this way — you might not get a surge of traffic from an inspiring customer story about how your product helped them change their career. But if someone switches to your product and cites that customer story as one of the reasons, that's a very successful story.