It's no secret that having a solid content marketing strategy can help to grow your brand. Unfortunately, if you don't know how well your content is performing, it's hard to say whether your marketing plan is working.
By having a plan in place for measuring the success of any given content marketing campaign, you and your team can figure out what's working and what could use some improvement. Plus, measuring your content marketing performance can help you determine your return on investment (ROI), which is key in optimizing your marketing budget.
So, what steps do you need to follow to start tracking your content marketing performance? We've got you covered!
Define Your Objectives and KPIs
Before launching any new content marketing campaign, it's important to sit down with your marketing team and clearly define the goals and key performance indicators (KPIs) of the campaign itself. These could be anything from generating more leads and boosting website traffic to improving your brand recognition and increasing customer loyalty.
Even if you think the goals and KPIs of your campaign seem obvious, it is imperative that your entire team be on the same page. From there, you'll have an easier time tackling the next step.
Decide on Metrics to Track
No matter what your goals and KPIs of any given content marketing campaign may be, there are specific metrics you'll need to track in order to accurately measure performance. Ultimately, the metrics you should focus on will depend on the goals you already set for the campaign. However, some of the most common metrics to track are as follows.
Website Traffic:
If you notice a sudden increase in website traffic, this is a good indicator that something about your marketing strategy is working. If you're going to use web traffic as an indicator of your campaign's success, however, you may also want to look at related metrics, such as:
- on-site time
- bounce rates
- page views
- unique page views
- returning visitors
Looking at these metrics as a whole can give you a better feel for how well your campaign is getting people to visit your website and how engaging your website is once visitors arrive there.
Conversions:
Conversions are another popular metric worth tracking as part of your content marketing strategy. Specifically, conversions refer to the number or percentage of your audience that does the thing you wanted them to do. For example, if you published a blog post with a call-to-action for readers to sign up for your email list, your conversion rate would refer to the percentage of blog readers who clicked on that link and subscribed.
Social Shares:
Tracking how many times your content has been shared on social media platforms is another effective way to understand its overall performance. After all, content that is shared can boost your brand's reputation, drive traffic to your website, and potentially bring in quality leads in the process.
Fortunately, tracking this metric is easy — and when you're able to identify content that is getting the most shares, you can use this knowledge to inform your content marketing strategy moving forward. For example, if a particular blog topic seems to be getting the most shares on social media, you might consider expanding your content marketing on this topic to include an eBook, a podcast, or some other form of coverage.
Make Changes as Needed
No matter which metrics you use to measure your content marketing performance, you'll need to be prepared to adapt and change your strategy as needed. Ultimately, these metrics can be used to tell you what's working well and what's not working from a content marketing standpoint. From there, it's up to you and your marketing team to use this information to improve your content performance. One of the biggest mistakes you can make is to put all this time and effort into tracking these metrics — only to continue doing the same things.
Still Looking for Help With Your Content Marketing?
As you can see, there's a lot that goes into developing and refining a content marketing strategy. If you feel you could use a strategic partner through this whole process, get in touch with the Tobe Agency team today!
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