How do you know if your content strategy is working?

1 Define your goals and metrics

The first step to measure your content strategy is to define your goals and metrics. What are you trying to achieve with your content? Who are you trying to reach? How will you track and quantify your results? Depending on your goals, you may focus on different metrics, such as traffic, engagement, conversion, retention, or revenue. For example, if your goal is to increase brand awareness, you might measure metrics like impressions, reach, and social shares. If your goal is to generate leads, you can measure metrics like downloads, sign-ups, and email open rates.

2 Use the right tools and platforms

Many tools and platforms are available to help you measure content performance, including Google Analytics, social media analytics, email marketing software, content management systems, and more. Each can provide you with different insights and reports, like traffic sources, bounce rates, keyword rankings, audience demographics, and click-through rates. So use the tools and platforms that are most relevant to your goals and metrics, and can help you understand your content performance in relation to your competitors and industry benchmarks.

3 Segment and compare your data

Segmenting your data means breaking it into smaller categories based on criteria like content type, topic, channel, format, audience, or time period. Comparing your data means looking at how your segments perform against each other, or against your goals. For instance, if you segment your data by content type, you can compare how your blog posts perform versus your videos. Or you may want to segment your data by topic, and compare how your content on product features performs versus your content on customer stories.

4 Identify your strengths and weaknesses

Based on your data analysis, you should be able to see what is and isn't working well in your content strategy. So identify your best-performing and worst-performing content, channels, and topics. Also identify the factors that contribute to your success or failure, such as relevance, frequency, distribution, or quality. For example, you may find that your content on product features is generating more traffic and conversions than your content on customer stories because it is more relevant to your audience.

5 Optimize and experiment with your content

Based on your strengths and weaknesses, you can make informed decisions to improve your content performance. Optimize your existing content by making changes to enhance the qualities you previously identified as lacking. It's also important to experiment with new content by testing different formats, topics, channels, or audiences that can expand your reach. For example, you could optimize your content on customer stories by adding more testimonials and case studies, or experiment with new content on industry trends or best practices.

6 Review and adjust your content strategy

Measuring your content strategy is not a one-time event, but an ongoing process that requires constant monitoring and evaluation. Review your data and results regularly, and adjust your goals, metrics, and tools accordingly. Then communicate your findings to your stakeholders and team members, and solicit their feedback. This can ensure that your strategy is always aligned with your business goals and audience needs, and is always working for you.

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?