How Do You Measure Content Success?
Marketer Focus
How Do You Measure Content Success?
Determining the effectiveness of content is crucial, so we've gathered insights from industry experts including a Copywriter & Content Strategist and a Digital Marketing Manager. From assessing content beyond short-term metrics to using depth and feedback to increase engagement, explore the six diverse strategies these professionals use to measure success and their personal triumphs in content strategy.
- Assess Content Beyond Short-Term Metrics
- Track Conversions and Demonstrate ROI
- Boost Domain Authority with Targeted Content
- Blend Quantitative and Qualitative Success Metrics
- Monitor Engagement for Content Strategy
- Use Depth and Feedback to Increase Engagement
Assess Content Beyond Short-Term Metrics
Great marketing content should accomplish at least one of three goals: creating product awareness, building brand reputation, or leading to conversions. Success may not always be measured by traditional metrics. Sure, engagement and reach are important, but those are short-term measures of how well your content ‘broke through the noise.’ They don’t give much insight into how you can improve the longevity of your content. A stronger measure of success might be determining how your content is being consumed and whether that aligns with your content strategy.
What happens to your content once it reaches your audience? If they see it, skim it, or skip it, the chances are that the content is not very valuable. Unless you’re in the business of fake news or breaking news, ubiquity doesn’t always equal success.
As marketers, we want our audience to value the time they spent engaging with the content. For website and long-form content, I look at the average time spent on the page and the bounce rate as key metrics. These can indicate audience focus and satiety for your content.
Time spent on the page is akin to a seed being planted; you can put the seed in the soil, but it relies on other factors in order to grow. Think of your content in the same way. If you have a focused audience that reads your content but doesn’t take action, something in the equation is missing. That data provides more actionable insight than knowing that the content reached them at all. Find out which factors are missing, and from there, you can begin to produce the types of content that better align with your audience’s expectations and your overall goals.
Track Conversions and Demonstrate ROI
There are a few ways to measure content success; however, I generally tend to prefer tracking content performance through metrics that are based on actual conversions. For example, how many people who saw my content then completed a "conversion action" like signing up for a trial or booking a demo.
The main benefit of this method is that you can easily demonstrate the ROI of your content and show how it is contributing to the bottom line and helping fill the sales pipeline. It can also be useful in changing the narrative within your company from seeing content as strictly a cost center and help you make the case for it being seen as a revenue driver instead.
This isn't a completely foolproof method, though, particularly if you have long sales cycles, so I suggest tracking additional success metrics such as organic traffic, bounce rate, and time spent on page, to get a more holistic view of your content performance.
Boost Domain Authority with Targeted Content
As a Content Strategist, success is measured by how well content achieves its intended goals, which often extend beyond mere click metrics. For instance, one of our UK clients, a care-at-home specialist, needed to enhance their authority on dementia care. We crafted a detailed series on various types of dementia, with a focus not on clicks, but on boosting their domain authority to strengthen their local competitiveness.
To measure the impact, we used tools like SEMrush for tracking domain authority, Google Search Console for post performance, and Microsoft Clarity to analyze visitor behavior on the site. This multifaceted approach allowed us to see the real difference our content made.
A standout success was when we identified and focused on 'Lewy body dementia'—a less covered topic. This strategy led to a significant increase in traffic and quadrupled their backlinks within two years, vastly growing their online authority, and proving the power of targeted, informative content in driving meaningful results.
Blend Quantitative and Qualitative Success Metrics
Measuring the success of content involves a blend of quantitative and qualitative metrics to assess both engagement and impact. Key performance indicators (KPIs) typically include web traffic, time spent on page, conversion rates, and social media engagement metrics such as likes, shares, and comments. Additionally, customer feedback and content's ability to improve brand perception are equally crucial qualitative measures.
A specific success story from our work at SpectUp involved a targeted content campaign designed to promote a new service offering. We developed a series of blog posts, infographics, and tutorial videos explaining the benefits of our service, tailored to different segments of our audience. To measure success, we tracked a variety of metrics including page views, average watch time on videos, and the number of leads generated directly from the content.
The campaign was a remarkable success. One blog post alone resulted in a 50% increase in page views compared to the monthly average and contributed to a 30% increase in service inquiries that month.
Monitor Engagement for Content Strategy
When measuring the success of my content, I look at several things. First, I keep an eye on the key metrics, such as the traffic to our website, the number of comments we get on specific posts, and the actual conversion. Getting views on your page does nothing for you if followers bounce from your content without engaging with it. By closely examining what they interact with, you can create a good strategy. For example, I posted a series of blogs covering unique business ideas for young entrepreneurs and some things they should know when going on this path. After focusing on SEO optimization and social media, I noticed that the traffic to our website increased by 30% over the past two months.
Use Depth and Feedback to Increase Engagement
To evaluate my content, I use both qualitative and quantitative metrics. Hence, I look at engagement, conversion rates, and user satisfaction. One specific metric I track is time spent on a page, which shows how involved the audience is with a particular piece of content. Once, I was assigned to modernize a company’s blog for better user interaction. While reviewing the content, I saw that many articles were too short and lacked depth, which caused low time-on-page metrics.
I developed longer articles with more depth and helpful tips to improve this. Besides monitoring bounce rates, time on page, and social shares, I inserted online response forms to receive feedback from readers about the new posts. It created a huge difference. The average time increased by 40%, indicating the readers' engagement level had risen. Furthermore, social shares increased twofold, suggesting that individuals were reading and sharing information.
