6 simple steps to convert site analytics data into valuable audience personasAnd how to build content strategies to service them.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/09/weekinreview/09lohr.html?pagewanted=all

“5 years ago we were writing for robots (for Google).

Now we are writing for people.”

Kevin DelaneyEditor-in-chief & presidentQuartz

Site-as-a-service“Journalists need to understand and interact with people as individuals and communities, rather than as a mass.

Journalism needs to shift from creating content to providing service, helping the people we serve better meet their goals and needs.”

Jeff JarvisMedia blogger, adviser and professor

PART 1 |

6 simple steps to convert site analytics data into valuable audience personas

A persona is a way to model, summarise and communicate research about people who have been observed in some way. It depicts a specific person but is not a real individual.

Smashing Magazinehttps://www.smashingmagazine.com/2014/08/a-closer-look-at-personas-part-1/

The purpose of personas is to create reliable and realistic representations of your key audience segments for reference. These representations should be based on qualitative and some quantitative user research and web analytics.Usability.orghttp://www.usability.gov/how-to-and-tools/methods/personas.html

They help you define your key digital audiences to create an understanding of their characteristics and needs.

They establish data informed insights that enable you to create content strategies that engage, retain, and serve your digital audiences.

PURPOSE OF DEVELOPING AUDIENCE PERSONAS:

Capture what you’d like to know about your audience.Filter down to 5 to 10 key questions. These will give you initial focus when you start looking at your data.

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1 How many people come to our site each month?

2 What content interests them most?

3 How long do they spend reading? What type of content has the longest / shortest read time?

4 Do people consume different types of content on different days?

5 What are people doing at different times of the day?

6 What are people consuming when they visit us on a mobile device?

7 How does that mobile behaviour differ from desktop audiences?

8 What content or sections have the lowest bounce rates? Which have the highest?

A few starter questions

Explore your site analytics to identify trends & behaviours.You’ll have a lot of data. Use your questions to help filter down. Start looking for patterns that you can explore.

You may need to look at your how you use content tags to help you collect meaningful data.

2

Area of focus Observations

Content interests (themes, topics, sections)Format of content consumed (style, length, type)Time of day most active

Days of the week most active

Frequency of visit each month

Length of visit each session

Mobile consumption

Desktop consumption

Other characteristics

A framework to capture your observations

Segment your audience into frequency of visit.You can focus in on those that you want tounderstand more.

3

Flybyaudience

Loyalaudience

Poweraudience

1 - 3 4 - 20 21+pieces of contentconsumed on oursites each month.

pieces of contentconsumed on oursites each month.

pieces of contentconsumed on oursites each month.

How we define our audiences

Flybyaudience

Loyalaudience

Poweraudience

1 - 3 4 - 20 21+pieces of contentconsumed on oursites each month.

pieces of contentconsumed on oursites each month.

pieces of contentconsumed on oursites each month.

Focusing in on our loyal audience

Explore building segments of audiences to help develop understanding.

Examples are by business size or mobile device consumption.

*personas are meant to depict an individual person. But if you are unable to do this initially, this can be a useful approach.

Develop 3 key personas from the data.Start simple. Develop early personas as a presentation. Evolve later.

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Area of focus Audience 1 Audience 2 Audience 3Content interests (themes, topics, sections)Format of content consumed (style, length, type)

Time of day most active

Days of the week most active

Frequency of visit each month

Length of visit each session

Mobile consumption

Desktop consumption

Other characteristics

Identifying your audience groupings

WHO ARE THEYJob title or profession (1st party data)

Industry

Location

BROWSING HABITSFrequency of visit per monthMost popular time of day

Pages consumed per month

Time spent reading

Sites they are active on

Social sharing

AREAS OF INTERESTType of content consumed

Popular topics / sections

Favourite reads

Format of content consumed

DEVICES USEDWhat devices do they use

What do they read on each deviceLength of visit by device

Format of content consumed

Name your

persona

Gathering the data to develop your personas

Engage editors and other interested teams.Encourage conversations about your personas. How do they compare with what other teams might have? What surprises are there? What else would people like to know? How could they use them within their work? How will you use them?

5

Tell the stories withinthe data.Find the stories within your data and personas andshare them internally. See how you can evolve thesewith different teams to embed the value of personas.

6

Bring your audiencesalive internally.Publish your personas internally, somewhere visible. Help people understand who your audiences are. Keep asking for feedback. Keep evolving.

Analytics is just the start to developing personas.

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PART 2 |

12 steps to creating effective content strategies to service your audiences.

1 CURRENT CONTENT APPROACH

2 CONTENT VISION

3 ROADMAP

4 CONTENT PURPOSE

5 STRATEGY

6 GOALS

7 KEY ACTIVITIES

8 CONTENT STRUCTURE

9 PUBLISHING STRATEGY

10 KEY RESOURCES

11 ACTIONABLE METRICS

12 TESTING AND ITERATIONS

Content strategy framework

CURRENT CONTENT APPROACH

Where are you now?1

CONTENT VISION

Where do you want you content to be?

2

CONTENT ROADMAP

How will you turn your vision and goals into a quarterly roadmap?

3

CONTENT PURPOSE

What’s the purposeof your content?

4

STRATEGY

What are your key strategies for creating valuable content?

5

GOALS

What do you want to achieve with your content for this audience?

6

KEY ACTIVITIES

What are the key activities you need to deliver your goals?

7

CONTENT STRUCTURE

What content structureis needed?

8

PUBLISHING STRATEGY

What will be your publishing strategy?

9

KEY RESOURCES

What resources do you need to support the strategy?

10

ACTIONABLE METRICS

What measures should be in place to help you take actions to improve?

11

TESTING AND ITERATIONS

How will you test your strategy, apply your learning, and evolve your approach?

12

AUDIENCE PERSONA: Name of your persona

CURRENT CONTENT APPROACH What’s your current approach for this audience?

CONTENT VISION How might you need to develop the content you create for this audience now you have insights?

ROADMAP The key milestones or steps you need to take over the next 3, 6, 12, 18 months to move towards your vision?

CONTENT PURPOSE Describe the purpose of your content aligned to the insights you have on your persona.

STRATEGY What’s your key strategies for creating value for your audiences through your content?

GOALS What do you want to achieve with your content for this audience? How will it engage, retain, and grow your audience?

KEY ACTIVITIES What are the key activities you need to deliver your goals?

CONTENT STRUCTURE What content formats are needed? What are your style guidelines? How will you structure your content?

PUBLISHING STRATEGY How often will you publish? Where will you publish? What time(s) of day will you publish? What day(s) of the week?

KEY RESOURCES What resources are needed to support the implementation of this strategy?

ACTIONABLE METRICS How are you going to measure the impact and performance of your content? What actions will you take from these metrics?

Developing your content strategy

AUDIENCE PERSONA: Name of your persona

CURRENT CONTENT APPROACH

CONTENT VISION

ROADMAP

CONTENT PURPOSE

STRATEGY

GOALS

KEY ACTIVITIES

CONTENT STRUCTURE

PUBLISHING STRATEGY

KEY RESOURCES

ACTIONABLE METRICS

Content strategy - TEMPLATE

Thanks for listening.

I’d love to hear your ideas, approaches, and advice.

ian.robins@siftmedia.co.uk@ianrobins