Those who understand content measurement can market well
If you cant explain it to a six year old, you dont understand it yourself Albert Einstein
What would someone who understood content measurement tell us?
People who want to get better know three things
World-class athletes, sales people, and marketers make incremental improvements throughout their careers by knowing three things:
What they did today that worked
What they did today that didnt work
What they should change or try tomorrow
The answers to these questions provide the basis for which we can make intelligent decisions on how to be better. If were to be better content marketers next week, and even better the week after, we must learn what does and doesnt work in the meantime.
So how do we know what worked or didnt work?
What gets measured, gets managed
Simply put, you will get better at whatever you decide to measure. So measure the things that matter the most to you.
Vilfredo Pareto told us that 20% of our input typically drives 80% of the results. Apply this to your content measurement. Measure the small number of metrics that will have the biggest impact on getting what you want.
For me, these three things are 1) enquiries 2) links and 3) email subscribers. Therefore, all of my content measurement is based on increasing these three things.
Your goals are different to mine. You may prefer to increase ad impressions, or to drive ecommerce sales. The Content Marketing Institute released this chart showing the variety of measurement criteria for content marketing among organisations. Theres a lot. Dont measure them all just what makes the biggest impact for you.
How should we measure this?
There is a plethora of content analytics tools available to you. Most of them are excellently comprehensive. Frankly, though, we often dont need comprehensive. Einstein taught us simplicity is the ultimate form of sophistication.
Ive worked on the digital marketing strategies of some of the worlds largest brands and smallest startups. Ive used analytics tools with price tags comparable to that of Lamborghinis.
These tools charge a premium for delivering more and better answers; more accurate answers, more segmented answers, prettier graphs. Many sell their solutions as more actionable, which is usually true, but the actionable-ness of data is only a good thing if the action is aligned with what we want in the first place.
Our time is a zero-sum game, so there is an opportunity cost associated with where we dedicate our action taking.
All this to say, without the right question to begin with, the tool is irrelevant to a large degree. What matters is starting with the right questions, and then finding the tool or data that provides you with the best answers to your questions. No amount of answers will ever suffice, without a good question to begin with.
For me personally, everything that I need to know to measure the content marketing performance across all of my clients can be done in Google Analytics, Open Site Explorer, and Social Crawlytics (all free).
Any outcome such as downloads, enquiries, or subscriptions can be measured using event tracking or goal tracking. Below is a screenshot showing how I measure contact form enquiries from my content marketing. At a glance, I know that this post has generated the most leads this month, whereas this one hasnt performed nearly as well.
If I wanted to get into the depths of content ROI and the quality of enquiries generated from my content marketing, I can merge my analytics data with my CRM system. In doing so, it becomes clear that the content that has driven the most enquiries through the Venture Harbour website is not our most profitable content.
For measuring the link generation performance of my content, I can look at the top pages report on OSE.
For many sites I worked on, social engagement is very important. For measuring the best performing content across social media channels, we can use Social Crawlytics.
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication
There is nothing complicated about measuring content. Remember, this all boils down to you as a marketer understanding what you did today that worked, what didnt work, and what to try tomorrow.
Once youve defined what worked and didnt work mean for you, you can find the tools that allow you to evaluate the performance of your content and make improvements - and thats all there is to it.
Do not underestimate simple solutions; theyre usually the most sophisticated.
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