Why you can’t measure content success without crystal-clear aims
Is your brand paying enough attention to how your content is measured? Here’s why effective metrics rely on clearly outlined goals – and how your comms team can make your data count
Delving into the world of metrics might feel overwhelmingly complicated and time-consuming. With an internet-wide wealth of channels and tools at a comms team’s fingertips, it can be tempting to choose a generic data measurement template and stick with it.
We recognise this thought process. Using similar evaluation methods for the content you publish will save you from getting lost in a convoluted maze of different analytics systems. After all, successful content is simply seen, liked and shared by the most people possible, right?
Wrong. By using a one-size-fits-all approach, your brand could be neglecting a crucial question: what are you really trying to achieve through what you publish?
Consider your objective
Before collecting any data – or producing any content, for that matter – it’s essential for your comms team to establish crystal clear ambitions.
Carefully consider what you want this particular article, video or social asset to accomplish as part of your wider strategy. Are you trying to increase brand awareness for a client? Are your stakeholders looking to see increases in traffic to certain areas of your website? Or are you targeting a very specific audience?
No two pieces of work will have the same objective behind them – so it follows that their success should not be measured in the same way. And this consideration should be given to more than just standalone assets.
Let’s say your post about a colleague event smashed the charts in terms of shares. The more important question to ask is how this supports your brand’s overall strategy. If your approach involves highlighting company culture, great. But if your key focus is on establishing your brand as a trailblazing thought leader in a specific field, the number of shares on an unrelated post will play a limited role in backing your company’s wider strategic goals.
Once you’ve set out your aims, you’ll have a stronger idea of the data you should be tracking for individual pieces of content. Then, you can get into the more nitty-gritty side of measurement.
Modifying your metrics
To make your metrics really count, it’s important to consider the different measurement approaches that each asset might require.
Say you publish a LinkedIn post prompting people to sign up for a company newsletter. Rather than measure the post’s success by the number of impressions it received, you’ll want to know how many viewers signed up.
Perhaps in your newsletter, you invite subscribers to read your brand’s new blog articles. You don’t want to simply measure how many people opened the email but how many viewers clicked through to your on-site content.
And when these viewers land on a 10-minute long-form article that’s aimed at a specific group, the most useful metric isn’t necessarily page views but rather dwell time – this will establish whether audiences read the piece all the way to the end.
By considering the context and purpose of each format when establishing your parameters of success, you’ll not only save time by not wading through unnecessary data but also ensure that the metrics you gather are actually useful to your teams and stakeholders.
This, in turn, will inform your content strategies going forward – which is the ultimate goal of measuring metrics in the first place.
Want to find out how to implement a best-in-class editorial strategy that connects your organisation to your always-on audience?
Contact Gabrielle from our client services team at gabriellebridle@speakmedia.co.uk or on LinkedIn.