If you are a regular reader of our blog, you know how much we love actionable data and insights here at Movéo. So it should come as no surprise that we believe that measuring and acting on metrics is key to improving content targeting.
But which metrics should you watch? Here are three we use to measure how our content targeting is working.
What share of your readers or viewers respond to your call-to-action (CTA)? Every piece of content should include a CTA, and it’s essential for your marketing team to calculate the conversion rate of each one. Not only does this help you to determine how much of an impact your content is making, it also lets you know how well you’re promoting it. Are you finding that leads are clicking on the CTA but exiting the landing page without downloading the content? It’s time to take another look at that landing page and determine what’s driving people away. Conversely, a high conversion rate can indicate that content is reaching and engaging its target audience.
To ensure that your content is well-targeted and converting as well as it possibly can, A/B test a few CTAs for each of your target audiences. The data you collect should give you insights into who the content is reaching and converting. The CTAs that work well for one audience may fail for another, and vice versa.
Social sharing is an excellent measure of how much people are getting from your content. If they value it enough to share it, you are doing something right (and reaching more people through your new brand advocates).
Measure and encourage social sharing by installing the ShareThis plugin and tracking analytics through it. Use your ShareThis data to determine what types of readers are most likely to share and then use this data to improve your content, learn more about your audience’s needs and interests and amplify your own voice.
Are you tracking how people interact with your content? When someone downloads a piece of content, they don’t just stare at it blankly. They may click links or exit out of it halfway through, or they may spend two hours with it open in their web browser. Make sure you have a process in place for both quantitative and qualitative content engagement analysis.
For example, you should monitor not only links clicked and time spent with a piece of content, but also the social engagement that arises around that content. What are people saying about your piece? Are they asking questions? Sharing specific stats? Using it to build their own arguments? This can show you if your content is reaching the right people, and give you new insights into what engages them most.
In what other ways do you assess your content targeting? Now that so much of the B2B buying process is completed before a buyer speaks directly to a company representative, it’s more important than ever to get the right information to the right leads at the right time. For more information, read our white paper, Engaging B2B buyers before the buying process: 4 key steps.
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