If you are investing time and resources in creating content, you sure want to know that the effort is worthwhile. The benefits of content marketing are clear, but it is convenient to specify them in numbers indicating whether you are getting closer to your goals.
But, how can you know if your contents are producing results?
The measurement of content marketing must be in relation to the objectives of the company. If you did not raise a few clear intentions, this is the moment.
The objectives must meet the SMART methodology: that is, it should be specific, measurable, realistic and adjusted within a period of time. Obtain a certain number of likes or RTs is not a goal in itself, you have to put these metrics always in relation to the nature of the business.
If you problem is not the determination of objectives, but the measurement itself, here are some metrics that you can take into account.
Visibility and use of your content
In a first phase we are going to take into account the extent to which the contents reach to target audience. To do this we will take all the data that show us its consumption, such as:
- Number of visits to our blog.
- Number of visits to a particular post.
- Number of downloads of material in pdf.
- Number of viewings of a video.
- Average playing time of a video.
- Number of reproductions of a podcast.
You can put these metrics in relation to your global audience figures, i.e. the number of visitors to your website, your followers on social networks or subscribers to your newsletter.
Engage in blog
At this point it is to consider to what extent the content moved to action to the audience, by reference to:
- Time of visits to the blog or to that particular post.
- Number of times that particular content was shared.
- Number of readers who ended up performing an action, such as signup for a newsletter or join an event.
See also: Essential Ways to Add More Personality to Your Blog Posts
Lead Generation
Depending on the business model, an important metric is how much of those visitors who came to the site attracted by the contents finally ended turn into leads.
Generating sales
If you also offer an online store on your website, you can check the origin of buyers to know how many of them came for some type of content.
Other data
Finally, there are other metrics that you can take into account, as traffic growth (organic, social or references) or increasing brand mentions.