The Importance of Data in Content Marketing for Small Businesses

As the world becomes increasingly digital, so also is content marketing, tilting towards becoming one of the most important things businesses can utilize to grow their online presence and drive traffic to their websites.

But achieving those objectives requires having the right data. Data plays a pivotal role in the foundations of a good marketing campaign.

While content marketing may evolve around emotions and the brand story, without data, it’s impossible to determine whether your content is reaching your target audience, influencing their actions, or even driving sales.

Making informed decisions about what strategies to adopt next becomes impossible without accurate data.

Small businesses looking to beat the odds of failing have to understand the importance of data and how it can be used to improve their content strategy.

Numbers don’t lie, which is why data is a key component of an effective content marketing strategy, as they provide hard evidence of what’s working and what isn’t. They are even closer to you than you can imagine.

From your social media engagements to visits to your websites and buy/conversion rates, there is enough data to shape and sharpen your content marketing strategy.

Business owners not using data to inform their content strategy are missing out on a huge opportunity to improve their results.

Here's why:

1. Data can be used to understand your audience better.

Who is your audience? What pain points do they have? What do they care about? What kind of content do they engage with the most?

Answering these questions can be difficult without data. But once you have a firm understanding of your target audience, you can create content that resonates with them and drives results.

2. Data can help you optimize your content for better performance.

Are there certain types of content performing better than others? Are there certain topics getting more engagement than others?

These are some questions that data provides answers to.

By looking at the data, you can start to answer these questions and make adjustments to your content strategy accordingly.

3. It helps you measure your success

Are you meeting your content marketing goals? It’s important to track your progress over time to see if you’re on the right track. The right data can give you a clear picture of your successes and failures, so you can start making adjustments as needed.

4. Data can help you make a case for more resources.

If you can show that your content marketing efforts are paying off, you’ll be in a much better position to ask for more resources—whether that’s more money, workforce, or both. Data is the key to proving the ROI of your content marketing strategy.

5. Data can be used to improve your processes.

If you’re constantly looking at your data and trying to find ways to improve your results, you’ll naturally start to develop more efficient processes. This will save you time and money in the long run, making your content marketing efforts even more successful.

There’s no denying that data is critical to content marketing success. If you’re not using the right data to inform your decisions, you’re missing out on a huge opportunity to improve your results, ultimately leaving money on the table.

Got a question on how data can improve your content marketing?

DM us and we’ll be happy to help.