Monitoring With Reports
What Is a Content Marketing Report?
A content marketing report is simply a report that brings together the useful metrics about the content in question. It allows for an understanding of performance, what is and is not working, and can even give some context as to why.
Tracking metrics is extremely important if successful content marketing is the goal. Having a good understanding of how a piece of content performs can include the use of several tools. A single content marketing report can make the process much easier.
Why Should I Create a Content Marketing Report?
What Should I Be Measuring?
The very first metric to monitor is traffic. This gives an overall report of how many times the piece was viewed. Traffic serves as the basis for performance, as more eyes seeing a piece of content is exactly what you want. Also think behavior as well, think in terms of who they are, how they get here, and what they do.
Social shares are another of the vital statistics to keep up to date on. Since almost all users and readers of content also use social media, keep up to date with the presence that the content generated is creating. This can also help to narrow down and identify new target audiences that have already been exposed to content.
Conversions are also an important metric to track. Having content and seeing that it is being read is great, but what else are your readers doing? Do they click on your other links, or perhaps even purchase something from you? That is all tracked via conversions.
If the strategy being employed revolves around advertisements, make sure to continually monitor the click-through rate. The CTR is how often users see your advertisement vs. how often they click on it and explore the content held within the advertisement.
Comments and engagement are also important metrics to track as they help to identify what pieces are resonating with users. If a person reads a piece of content and then leaves behind a comment, make sure to read these. It is also helpful once your number of pieces increases to know which pieces are getting the most comments.
As always, make sure that any content metrics are also tied together with SEO performance. While results in this area will fluctuate, the most important metric here is the SERP or Search Engine Result Page. Find out where the content is landing when searched for because this alone will also help bring a lot more eyes to the website and content in general.
There are other metrics that may be useful depending on the strategy and goals that the content is created for. However, these six metrics will bring essential understanding to how content performs, and they are in order here:
- Traffic
- Social Shares
- Conversions
- Click-Through Rate (CTR)
- Engagement
- SEO Performance
What Are SMART Goals
SMART is a framework used in marketing that helps make goals achievable and trackable. Each one of the letters stands for a different element which together make up a successful goal-setting template. What does all this mean? Well, to understand better, we must go through and take a look at what each concept means.
Specific
Nebulous or unspecific goals do no one any good. For a goal to be reachable, it must be specific and understood. If an increase in traffic is the goal, what is the exact amount that traffic should be increased? If sales are the goal, how much should sales improve? A good goal is not just about concept, but about specificity.
Measurable
For a goal to be measurable it must be tangible and trackable. Do not pursue an existential goal, make it something that can be tracked, with metrics that can be analyzed. This way progress is tracked and the goal can be measured in realistic terms.
Attainable
There’s no point in making a goal that can’t be reached. A good goal must be something that is specific, can be measured, and is realistically attainable. Make sure that goals are set and can be achieved with reasonable time and commitment. Having lofty goals can set the bar high, but having a goal that isn’t attainable will do little good for you, and could even kill the morale of your team or company.
Relevant
A goal must be relevant to the work and marketing that is being used. A relevant goal is something that will offer a tangible benefit that reflects directly back to the marketing campaign and the strategy that is being used. This is why a goal to increase sales by 5% is understandable and something to work towards, while doubling sales sounds more like wishful thinking.
Timely
A goal isn’t relevant if it can’t be achieved within some kind of acceptable timetable. Don’t set goals that will take years to reach. A lot of short-term goals are more motivating than a single or small set of long-term goals. They can also work hand in hand, with the short-term goals being the most important in order to achieve longer-term interests.
Monitor Performance and Set SMART Goals to Achieve Victory
It is imperative to have a goal if a winning strategy is to be used. Strategic planning can’t begin or end until metrics and tracking are established and a SMART goal is put in place. This is what forms the boundaries and essential nature of a goal-driven strategy. Stop hoping for success, plan to succeed, and track progress to reach the goals of the campaign.
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