How to Take Your Content Performance Report to The Next Level
Vahag Aydinyan
Helping early and mid-stage B2B startups grow through demand generation and content marketing.
To effectively communicate the performance of your content marketing to your client or leadership, it is crucial to have a well-structured report that presents the data clearly and concisely.
Quantitative metrics, such as website traffic, engagement, and conversions, provide a good starting point for evaluating the success of your content marketing campaigns. But remember, these metrics are just a piece of the whole picture. A comprehensive report should also include qualitative data, such as audience testimonials, mentions in sales communications, partnerships, and existing customers sharing and talking about your content.
Before we start looking into the report components, let's take a look at the entire funnel and where content marketing has an influence.?
Full Funnel Overview?
Although this example is relevant to the SaaS industry, it can help with the thinking process if you are in a B2C or another type of B2B business.
The funnel visualizes the stages at which content makes an impact, which can range from a major impact to a less significant, supporting role.
One important takeaway from this type of funnel is that content marketing doesn’t end at the marketing side of the funnel. One way or another, it impacts the entire funnel.?
This is one of many reasons the report should include more than just basic marketing metrics on awareness and acquisition.
Content type by Funnel Stage
Different funnel stages are supported through different content formats, angels, and narratives. Here is an illustration to help you visualize it.
Now let's look at each KPI that needs to be in your report to fully communicate the content performance with your teammates and the leadership.
Basic Performance KPIs?
If your blog generates most of its traffic via organic search, invites users to download templates, and follows up with emails and calls to convert, you will need the following KPIs tracked and reported.
A report built based on the combination of these metrics will help you to understand the following:
Now let's examine the qualitative information you need to add t your report.?
Audience Feedback
Audience testimonials provide valuable insight into how your target audience perceives your content. These are statements from your target audience that give feedback on your content and how it's impacting them. They can include things like comments on social media, feedback from surveys, and email or phone conversations with customers.
For example, suppose a customer writes a testimonial saying that a particular piece of content helped them to understand a complex concept or solve a problem. In that case, it indicates that the content was valuable and practical.
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Mentions in sales communications
Mentions in sales communications, such as emails and phone calls, can also provide valuable insight into the impact of your content marketing efforts. Suppose your sales team frequently references your content in their communications with potential customers. In that case, it's a good indication that it's making an impact and helping to move leads further down the sales funnel.
A sales call is not one-way communication. If the lead mentions content when communicating with sales, that indicates that content helped warm up the lead and take them to the next stage of the marketing funnel.?
Ask the sales team to share this type of mention by explaining the importance of qualitative data and how you will use it. As sales are one of the busiest departments, you may need to create an automation or process that extracts this information minimizing manual work.?
Actions and Words from Existing Customers
Existing customers sharing your content is an essential indicator of the effectiveness of your content marketing efforts. It demonstrates that your content is strong enough to help customers solve problems.
When existing customers share your content, they are essentially endorsing your brand and helping to promote it to their networks. This can be especially powerful if they have a large following or are seen as thought leaders in your industry. Their sharing of your content can increase your credibility and authority in the eyes of their followers, potentially attracting new customers to your brand.
It is also a sign of customer loyalty. If your customers are willing to share your content, it's a good indication that they are satisfied with your products or services and are happy to recommend them to others.
It's important to share this information with the leadership because it helps to show the content's influence on retention and advocacy.
Industry Recognition
Your content doesn't perform through your channels only. Partners, industry experts, and industry blogs may review your content to use any original insights you shared.
Original insights include content pieces featuring data, interviews you released, qualitative data, and opinion pieces.
The recognition usually comes in the form of backlinks to your posts. Track them down, add those to your slides and provide context on the important ones.
Use ahrefs or SEMRush to track the backlinks to specific posts.
Recommendations
The report communicates only what happened, and it only helps if there are proper analyses, conclusions, and recommendations at the end of your report.?
Together, these form a complete picture of the content marketing performance and guide future decisions. It also helps to ensure that the data is utilized effectively to keep your team and leaders informed and improve performance over time.
Report Structure
Keep In Mind
Overall, a good report will help you understand how your content impacts your business, identify areas for improvement and give you a sense of your return on investment.
It is important to remember that data and reports are only adequate when they inform the decisions and actions; it's crucial to have a data-driven approach to your content marketing strategy that enables you to improve your performance over time.