What are the best ways to use data to inform your content marketing strategy?

Using data for content marketing involves learning about your target audience, what they like, and what works for them. You may discover more about your target audience by using tools like Google Analytics, which shows you who visits your website, and surveys to find out what they want. You may also look at what your competitors are doing, see which of your present material is popular, and experiment with other things to discover what customers like. This data assists you in creating content that your audience will enjoy and share. You may also use it to plan when and what to post, as well as to improve your material. It's similar to using hints to generate content that your audience will appreciate.

A fantastic way to gain a deeper understanding of your target customer *and* fuel your content marketing is through original research. Using audience panels with a survey you can gather new insights about your audience within a matter of a couple days. Then by publishing that content via social posts, blog article, or a downloadable report you create a totally authentic way to demonstrate thought leadership and expertise in your industry...and the insights benefit your own sales and marketing going forward.

Thorough Insights about your clients is the treasure you're seeking. With help of tools like Google Analytics, Search Console, Ahrefs, SEMRush, you can get deeper insights about what your existing clients are searching, liking, engaging with, reacting to, the type of format, the particular keywords they use in search bar. It also gives insights about what your competitors are doing, which short-tail and long-tail keywords they're using, how your clients are liking and engaging with their content. Using all that data, you can formulate & inform your content marketing strategy accordingly, to communicate in the language your clients talk, and overcome your competitors.

In the last two years we've invested in mobile-data mining programs like Buxton or Placer.ai. For brick-and-mortar businesses or experiential businesses, this software can be incredibly helpful for understanding who is attending your event or coming in to your shop - as well as where they are going before and after, their place of origination, and dwell time. If you're looking to develop community or brand partnerships, this information can be key in identifying consumer behavior.

Marketing strategy is created due to challenges the company experience. If my company needs more employees to be hired, I will use employee-oriented data in those sources where people seeking vacancy are mainly gathered. If my company needs more clients, I will create client-oriented strategy, build my buyer's journey and may path to attracting clients.

The Audience's Mirror: One thing I’ve found helpful is to treat data as a mirror that reflects your audience's true desires. Instead of guessing what they want, just look into the mirror and let their actions guide your content creation. Data Isn't the Destination: Remember, data is just a tool, not the end goal. Think of it as a compass that points you in the right direction, but you're the captain steering the ship. The seas might be unpredictable, but with data in hand, you can navigate through any storm.

Absolutely agree. Clearly defined objectives, underpinned by SMART goals and KPIs, are crucial for a data-driven content marketing approach. This not only ensures alignment with brand objectives but also provides measurable outcomes for continuous improvement.

Absolutely, on point to using data to outline what you want to achieve. I've noticed that when you align your data closely with your strategy, it works like a roadmap - helps to guide your efforts more efficiently. And when you regularly check these against your outcomes, it's easier to see where you need to tweak things for better results.

Data's Hidden Narrative: Actually, I disagree with those who claim that numbers lack creativity. Hidden within data is a narrative waiting to be unveiled. It's up to content creators to uncover and tell that tale.

One thing I have found helpful in 'moment marketing' especially for capturing trends and topicality is the possibility of setting up a dashboard which integrates to the social media web and showcases the trends, what's being most talked about. Marketers are them able to pick up relevant busy # and develop content that can sometimes be even served in real time. This can also help monitor what the competitiors are doing around topics that are trending.

One tactic is the use of A/B testing for content topics and headlines. This data can reveal what really grabs your audience’s attention. You can then refine your approach and craft more impactful messages that directly speaks to your audience.

Less is Often More: An example I've seen is a company drowning in data points, analyzing every minute detail, and missing the bigger picture. Sometimes, it's not about collecting more data but understanding the essentials and acting upon them.

This can be categorized as Content Calendar and Planning where one use the insights of audience analysis to draw out a content Calendar and plan content around themes specific to your audience interests.

The Human Behind the Click: Always remember, behind every data point is a real person with emotions, needs, and aspirations. When crafting your content strategy, think beyond clicks and impressions; think about the humans you're aiming to connect with.

To truly nail your distribution, you really need to keep tabs on how your audience interacts with your content. - Are they watching videos? - reading long-form articles, or - favoring quick reads? Based on this data, then tailor your content format to your audience's preferences, not just their location online.

Yes, you want to make sure you're not just gathering data, but interpreting it in a way that directly ties back to your content goals. Seeing how each piece of content moves the needle will tell you what works and what doesn't.

When you start analyzing your data, this is a good time to revisit your customer journey and match your KPI's to steps in the journey. Reviewing those individual KPI's by channel is important, but zooming out and understanding how your customer is interacting with your content from first touch to finali purchase will help you get a clearer picture of the effectivity of your marketing funnel (or if you're a Hubspot user you might be using the flywheel framework).

There are many misconceptions about data, especially in content writing. I've noticed that many content writers only focus on optimizing keywords. However, it's important to think broadly about data. First, you need to analyze where your content fits into your content journey and what you want your audience to do with your content. This lets you define the right KPIs, format, and content storytelling. Remember, data isn't just the basic data that shows the number of clicks, time, bounce rate, and views etc. It would be best if you also analyzed heat maps, eye tracking, competition, market research, devices type, user interactions, exit pages, entry pages, top-of-the-funnel, internal linking, and more.

Storytelling Over Statistics: You can have all the data in the world, but it's the story you weave from it that truly resonates. One time at work, I saw a campaign perform 300% better simply because it tapped into the emotions and aspirations of the target audience rather than bombarding them with numbers.