Edition #4: How to Set Realistic Goals for Your Content

Effective content marketing is more crucial than ever in today's fast-paced digital world. For your content to be effective, you must first define what success looks like.?

How do you know if a content piece works if no goals are associated with it? How does your content strategy fit into the bigger picture of your business? These are just some of the questions I’ll cover in today’s newsletter.

Let’s take a look at some key steps you should take to establish impactful content marketing goals.

1. Consider Your Starting Point

Assess where you are currently before setting any goals. If you're just starting out with content marketing, your goals should be more modest compared to a team with an established strategy. Conduct a content audit to understand your existing assets and performance.

2. Understand Your Audience

First and foremost, who are you making content for? You must understand who your audience is and what makes them tick so that you can tailor your content to address their challenges and needs. I covered this topic in more detail in edition #2 of this newsletter, where I shared some ways to gather audience insights to ensure your content resonates.

If you’re not sure where to start, the “TOFU, MOFU, BOFU framework” can help you create the right type of content for each phase of the buyer’s journey.

3. Align with Business Objectives

This ensures that your content efforts directly contribute to your company's success. For example, if the business goal is to establish thought leadership, focus on creating in-depth industry reports, whitepapers, and expert opinion pieces. If the business goal is to increase customer retention, focus on content that nurtures existing customers rather than just top-of-funnel content. Understanding where your content fits in with these overarching goals will drive decisions for your content strategy and the formats you focus on.

4. Choose Key Metrics

Select which metrics to track. Prioritise objectives that align with important content marketing metrics, such as driving traffic growth, generating leads, and boosting engagement (measured by KPIs like time-on-page and social shares). Linking content with more advanced metrics, such as revenue attribution, can reflect how your content directly impacts conversions and your bottom line.

5. Use the SMART Framework

Set clear and quantifiable goals for content production. The SMART framework guides you to set specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound goals that align with your overall strategy.

Here’s an example of a SMART goal for increasing blog engagement:

• Specific: Increase the average time on our blog posts by 30 seconds.
• Measurable: Monitor time-on-page metrics in Google Analytics.
• Achievable: Enhance content quality, add interactive elements, and improve readability.
• Relevant: Longer engagement times indicate more valuable content and can improve SEO rankings.
• Time-bound: Reach this goal within the next six months.

6. Set Short & Long-Term Goals

Breaking down larger goals into smaller, actionable tasks keeps them manageable and allows you to track progress more effectively. Tangible and more immediate targets that feed into long-term goals are a huge boost for team motivation too. Setting targets to produce a specific number of articles per month, for example, is one way to keep your team on track.

A simple way to transmit goals into actionable steps is to create a content calendar or editorial schedule. This way, you can plan out content topics in advance and execute larger campaigns with time upfront. This organised approach gives your team space for creativity and ensures deadlines can be met. Consistency in publishing also helps maintain audience engagement.

7. Analyse Competitor Strategies

Many content marketers often forget this important step (I’ve certainly been guilty of it in the past when I’ve been swamped). Keeping an eye on what your competitors are up to helps you set realistic benchmarks and can trigger new ideas. Don’t just copy and paste what others are doing well; be creative and repurpose those approaches to resonate with your brand voice. Regularly reviewing the competitive landscape can also reveal gaps in the market and help you identify opportunities to position your content, as well as your brand, in a way that stands out.

8. Engage Your Team

Involving your team in goal setting is crucial for quality output and employee happiness. I've seen the difference between motivated, aligned team members and those who are disconnected. As a leader, it’s important to ensure your team understands their roles, how their work fits into the bigger picture, and its impact on the business. Motivation plummets without clear goals and buy-in. Schedule regular feedback and retrospectives to determine what works and what needs adjustment. Most of all, practice gratitude, celebrate success and give credit where credit is due.

In summary, with these steps, you'll be well on your way to creating an impactful content strategy that resonates and drives success.

Do you follow the same process when setting content goals? What is your approach to ensuring successful outcomes for your content marketing efforts? Let me know in the comments.

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Until next time,

Claire