measuring and evaluating content strategies

Measuring & Evaluating Content Strategies

August 2015

Matthew Edgar Elementive Marketing Solutions

Before we get started… Matthew Edgar • Web Consultant at Elementive • Specialize in…

• Usability • Conversion optimization • Search Marketing • Data Analysis

• 15+ years developing websites

Contact information 303-897-8707 matthew@elementive.com @MatthewEdgarCO www.Elementive.com

How Do You Measure Content Marketing?

There is a lot to content…

• Strategy formation • Defining goals & objectives • Competitive research • Personas • Content inventory • Information architecture • Customer journeys • Gap analysis

How do you measure the content you already have?

• Analyze existing content

• Prove the worth of your content

• Find new opportunities & problems

Why did we spend all this money on that content in the first place? Why do we want to spend more?

Content is just A typical business view:

“It’s about conversions more

than usability.”

It’s about conversions AND usability.

We need to find new ways to:

• Measure content success

• View content (it’s part of the entire sales process and business strategy)

• Show the direct and indirect ways content

impacts business

How to Think About Content

Content Framework

ENGAGEMENT Moves people from being

interested to ready to buy.

RETENTION Making meaningful

connections with current customers.

Measuring Content

WHAT TO MEASURE

What to measure

How many people know about you? Visits, views, impressions

What to measure

How many people want to learn more? Read rate, watch videos, email opens

What to measure

How many people interacted? Shares, links, comments, connections, clicks

What to measure

Are people convinced? Mental state? Content paths understood?

What to measure

Are people converting? Purchases, leads

What to measure

How are repeat & referral levels? Churn rate, retention rate, referral volume

HOW TO MEASURE

AWARENESS How many people know

about you?

Google Analytics

Analytics: Audience Overview

Analytics: Audience Overview

Analytics: Traffic Sources

Analytics: Landing Pages

Google Search Console

Console: Search Analytics

Console: Search Queries

List of keywords (hidden for privacy)

Console: Pages

List of URLs (hidden for privacy)

INTEREST How many people want to

learn more?

Google Analytics

Analytics: All Pages Report

Analytics: Average Time on Page

Analytics: Exit Rate

Analytics: Event Tracking

Crazy Egg

Scroll Map

The scroll map shows which parts of the page are viewed most often by your visitors.

ENGAGEMENT How many people

interacted?

Google Analytics

Pages: Navigation Summary

Pages: Navigation Summary

Crazy Egg

Heatmap

The heat map is a visualization of where your visitors are clicking.

Add This

Track Shares

DESIRE Are people convinced?

Usability Testing

What is usability testing?

• Observe real people interacting with your content.

What is usability testing?

• Observe real people interacting with your content.

• Observe performance of tasks & measure related to desire.

What is usability testing?

• Observe real people interacting with your content.

• Observe performance of tasks & measure related to desire.

• Not just people’s opinions; feedback on actual usage.

To Measure Desire What convinced users

enough to buy?

To Measure Desire Where are user pain

points?

Usability: Task Completions

Usability: Task Completion Time

Usability Test: Understanding

Usability Test: Reading Ease

Perception Testing

What is Perception Testing?

• A perception test measures an individual’s understanding or reaction to different aspects of your business, including content.

Perception test can measure…

• Whether or not customers are perceiving your content in the right way

Perception test can measure…

• Whether or not customers are perceiving your content in the right way

• Whether or not you are meeting people’s expectations regarding the sales process.

Perception test results

15%

15%

70%

Question Asked: What Product Do You Think This Company Sells?

Correct

Partial

Incorrect

Perception test results

45%

25%

30%

Question Asked: Did the Website Appear Trustworthy?

Positive

Nuetral

Negative

Action Are people converting?

Google Analytics

Goals Overview

Goals Attribution

Goals Attribution

Retention How are repeat & referral

levels?

Google Analytics

Direct Traffic

Other Ways To Measure Retention

Measuring Retention • How many current customers follow you on social

media? • How many current customers are on an email

newsletter? • How many current customers share your newsletter? • How many current customers comment on blog posts or

social shares? • How many referrals do you have over the year? • For offline outreach, how many current customers did

you reach & how many responded?

Tracking Everything

Tracking Sheet

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

Product Literature

Expert Guies

Research Reports

Webinars

Ebooks Blog Posts

Whitepapers

Infographics

Videos

Case studies

Download at: http://bit.ly/1Nxp2zP

Questions

Matthew Edgar www.elementive.com

matthew@elementive.com 720.897.8707