Build Data-Driven Content

More and more content is being produced but that doesn’t mean even more people are engaging with it. The people consuming content has plateaued while content creation keeps rising.

So what does these mean for your content strategy?

It’s time for you to evolve and check in on your content’s performance. It has become more important than ever to create content marketing with intent. Therefore content marketing can’t be successful without data. It’s time build data-driven content.

Where To Start

You first have to think of why you have content. Is it too…

  • Add value
  • Make your audience better at their job
  • Provide proof
  • Explain how to use your product
  • Announce product updates and upgrades

Hopefully, it’s a little bit of everything listed above with the main objective of making your audience the hero- giving them the tools they need to do their job better.

Then you have to think about how you measure that.

  • Google Analytics: Learn how traffic behaves on your website
  • Social Listening: Are there conversations happening that you can become a part of by creating a blog post
  • Automation Platforms: Use these to send emails and newsletters to see what people are clicking on (or not) and when.
  • Social Analytics: What content is getting shared? And commented on? You would want something more than a Like.

When you have the right tools in place, and all these tools work together you can pull in leads from your automation platforms that are tied to a CRM and link back to your blog post performance. Identifying data is just half the work, using it to pull data and share metrics to showcase strength and opportunity in your content performance is where it matters. When all your systems are working together you can start identifying what content is relating to your audience. 

Click Here To Subscribe To Our Blog

Your Audience Has Changed

First and foremost you have to understand your audience.

When you first created your content you might have done so in hopes of growing an audience by creating credibility and value through your blog, emails, and newsletter. But when is the last time you took the time to understand who these people are now? Just like you, they have changed and you want to gain an understanding of how, why, and when they are consuming your content.

Data can provide useful answers to questions like these:

  • Who is currently reading your content?
  • How are the reading it?
  • Are they sharing the content after they read it?
  • When are they unsubscribing and why (if sending in an email)
  • When are they reading it? Opening the email?
  • How are they finding the content? Via direct link? Facebook Post? Retweet?
  • How long are they staying on the page? Are they reading everything?

Things like their demographics, job title and employer may not have changed but when and how they are consuming your content might have and this the data you need to pay attention to. When you look into these questions it will help guide where you need to take your content which is how you turn insight into action.

Click Here To Learn More About Converge

It’s Not Always What You Say

Sometimes more important than what you are talking about in your content is when, where and why you are saying it. Technology not only allows marketers to create messages that resonate with their audience but ensures they get it when they need it the most.

For example, more and more retailers are adopting technology that allows them to send notifications when their customers are entering the store and even when they are in a certain aisle. Let’s say you’re walking down the skincare aisle and you get a message from their app about a 20% off coupon for a specific product or $5 gift card if you spend $20 or more in that department. That could alter just what and how much you buy, not to mention keep your consumer from forgetting their coupons and therefore not making a purchase altogether. 

That is content the customer wants and it’s delivered when they need to know it. Understanding what is relevant content is just half the equation, knowing when to send it is what can make the purchase happen. Data makes this possible and is why it’s important to not only use it but stay aware of new trends and technology that enable you to take content marketing and personalization to the next level.

Wrap It Up

Now it’s time for your content team to act! What is one area you need to spend more time in? 

Put these three steps into place and set up monthly meetings to determine whats working and what needs to change. A data-driven strategy will push your content and brand in the right direction.

Click Here To Learn More About Converge

Click Here To Subscribe To Our Blog

How To identify Influencers With Converge

As brands are learning more and more about their audience, they are learning that their consumers may not trust them, which makes getting information and marketing out about their products and services tricky!

If your audience doesn’t trust your message how are you going to convince them to make a purchase?

giphy.com

This is when you have to go outside the boardroom and the brand and find people who your consumer relates to, that’s when influencers come into the picture, and this is why they have become so popular. Continue reading “How To identify Influencers With Converge”

PR Needs A Dashboard

Does PR even work…

Can you imagine a bigger punch in the gut than that question? But this is probably a question you are getting more and more, especially when your company is faced with the decision to invest more money in public relations.

PR can be difficult to track but that doesn’t mean you should skip measurement in your PR practices. In fact, this might mean it’s more important than ever.  Below, we will walk you through the steps that allow you to qualify and quantify your results and ensure clients (and budget) keep coming back. Continue reading “PR Needs A Dashboard”

Give Dark Social Some Light

Have you ever found the perfect BuzzFeed quiz, Which Bachelor Contestant Would You Most Likely End Up With? but decided that not all your Facebook friends needed to know your results, so you messaged the quiz to your co-worker through G-chat?

If that is something you have done, then you have participated in dark social. Dark social is a private conversation, a lot of times happening through email, text and social apps and involves sharing a link to a piece of content from a social channel through one of these platforms. What makes it dark is that the referral can’t be tracked. It looks like people are heading straight to your website and reading content there but that may not be the case, they are getting there in a way most analytics platforms can’t track.  Continue reading “Give Dark Social Some Light”

5 Things Every Marketer Should Do Every Day

We thought this would be the perfect time to refresh your memory, as well as ours, on what we should be doing every day as marketers.

We promise these fives things are  MUST DO’s and could bring you the results you are looking for!

Continue reading “5 Things Every Marketer Should Do Every Day”

What Does Data Have To Do With PR?

PR is more than crisis control. It’s about storytelling, specifically, telling the right story at the right time. And thanks to powerful marketing intelligence tools you have the ability to analyze large sets of data that actually make it easier to do just that.

Yet many PR professionals are hesitant about embracing data as a part of their toolkit. “Data can’t drive headlines,” or “Data kills creativity,” can often be heard from PR pros. Continue reading “What Does Data Have To Do With PR?”

Creating An Analytics Culture: The Benefits

This is part 2 of our 2 part blog series, Creating An Analytics Culture. In part 1 (you can read it here) we identified the real problem with creating an analytics culture within your marketing teamexcellent you don’t have the right marketing technology in place.

In your organization, how long does it typically take an analyst to answer a data-centric question? Three days? A week? More than tough? If you are using a method that does not allow you to receive timely, flexible and accurate analytics, then it may be normal for it to take that long or longer. However, this is not helping your team or helping to drive an analytics culture within your team. 

Continue reading “Creating An Analytics Culture: The Benefits”

Creating An Analytics Culture: The Problem

As we have seen marketing evolve, we have also watched it become very complex. The combination and addition of channels, platforms, and new technologies have created a deluge of data that actually makes it harder for someone to get a clear picture of their marketing performance. Continue reading “Creating An Analytics Culture: The Problem”

4 Mistakes To Avoid When Using Data-Driven Marketing

Have you ever spent a lot of time analyzing your marketing data- only to realize you were doing it wrong? Or is not knowing what to analyze keeping you from looking at data in the first place?

Using data to steer marketing decisions, strategies and goals is not easy. 91% of senior corporate marketers believe that successful brands use customer data to drive marketing decisions. Yet, 39% say their own company’s data is collected too infrequently or not real-time enough. See, we all know we need to be doing but we aren’t always doing it right. Continue reading “4 Mistakes To Avoid When Using Data-Driven Marketing”