These 3 tips come from Jesse Noyes from Kapost in a video you can view below (of course we expand on each point below as well). Much of what discusses talks about how to measure content marketing but ultimately what he covers is about execution.
There’s 3 key pivot points he mentions that are often overlooked:
- The production of your content
- The reach of your content
- The conversion of your content
One of the best points made in this video is it’s not just about whether or not your content is creating engagement or traffic it’s also about if your content is producing the conversions and moving people through your overall funnel.
Some good questions:
- How long does it take to produce that content?
- How often does your team meet the deadlines that you set to produce that content?
Measuring Your Pipeline
You really need to benchmark those things. If content is what fills your pipeline then you really need to benchmark what fills that pipeline and measure that as well.
This is a really good point made as well. If you think about it similar to the gas tank in your car. You have a gas guage and you probably even know how much miles/kilometers per gallon your car has. Do you have a similar gauge for your content marketing? Do you know how much gas you need to put into your over all strategy to accomplish your marketing goals? Just as with a car it’s not enough to just fill up your tank once- you have to consistently keep your fuel tank full.
Understanding Reach
The next point covers your overall reach and which channels are driving to our content.
You really want to track how your content is getting amplified and what kind of engagement you are seeing.
Those are important but ultimately that is top of funnel type of tracking. This is where most people do shine though. Most people do look at the amount of social engagements, traffic, bounce rate, etc. While those are important and they do play into your overall success I really agree with the nuiance in his final point…
Beyond Your Conversions
This is where most marketers don’t go deep enough. Sure you can track a one step conversion but the point made is to go deeper.
- Is my content driving buyers from stage to stage?
- Are they becoming from leads to qualified leads?
- Are qualified leads moving towards closed deals?
- Is your content resulting in better retention?
It’s this last step of tracking your conversions that is the glue that holds your whole plan together. When you answer questions like those posed above then you really are tracking your content. This type of tracking is relevant for both created and curated content. There really shouldn’t be a distinction between the two because ultimately your publishing content and the way you track that content should be the same.
