Want to better understand your audience? Look beyond analytics
Measuring editorial performance is a crucial part of any brand’s content processes – but is there something valuable missing in your ongoing data report? Here’s why your content review should look beyond numbers
As every good comms leader knows, reviewing data from analytics tools can help teams identify what’s working and what’s not when it comes to their content output.
Depending on which metrics are most valuable to a given brand, these platforms can produce reports that neatly capture data ranging from monthly site visits to audience profiles to social post impressions. They can provide figures capturing average dwell time on any given article, or a list of traffic sources indicating how people are navigating to their stories.
These analytics reports are, of course, tried and tested ways for brands to measure content performance. But what about information that goes beyond numbers? By fixating on generated stats with tunnel vision, brands may be missing out on essential insights into how readers are engaging with their output – and what content they really want to see.
From scouring comments and responses to exploring which topics resonate with target audiences, here are three additional tactics comms teams can use to better understand their readers and guide future content.
1. Take note of feedback
Whether it’s good, bad or ugly, feedback is an extremely useful way for brands to determine how audiences are responding to their content.
Comms teams should have a keen eye on social media comments, email responses and any other avenues used to share feedback. Surveys are also an active and effective way to dig into what audiences want. Hearing directly from readers can help creators better understand how their audience thinks, which will lead to better and more tailored editorial output.
Here at Speak, we regularly explore how audiences are responding to the content we develop for our clients. In one instance, a reader of Parkinson’s Life – the magazine created on behalf of charity Parkinson’s Europe – got in touch to highlight the need for more information about a specific topic. Taking this feedback on board, we seized the opportunity to share the reader’s own story in the magazine.
Our metrics review told us how the resulting article performed, but without a keen eye on feedback from our readers to spot potential content opportunities, the piece would not have come to fruition in the first place.
2. Review stakeholder engagement
So you’ve published an article featuring several senior colleagues and your metrics report has provided an overview of how the piece performed. You know how many views it received, where in the world those readers came from and how long they stayed on the page.
But what the data-driven report won’t tell you is how stakeholders and interviewees are actually engaging with the piece. You may have a figure for the number of social likes, comments and shares received, but to take the review a step further, have a look at the channels of those involved in the content.
Did the interviewees share the article on their own social channels? Did any other noteworthy stakeholders add commentary to the piece? How did their posts perform? And how do these findings fit with the figures in your dashboard?
These observations can indicate which topics resonate with key stakeholders, provide jumping-off points for potential follow-up stories – and even highlight which interviewees can best support future pieces by sharing them with their own followers.
3. Explore target audience output
When planning future content, you don’t have to focus exclusively on your own output performance. To understand where there may be gaps in your editorial strategy and how to appeal to new readers, it may be worth exploring what your desired target audience is engaging with online.
You might be interested in earning positive sentiment from a specific subgroup or capturing the attention of a certain readership. Instead of guessing which topics and formats succeed in doing so, it’s worth investigating exactly what resonates with those people.
We’ve taken this approach to help optimise one client’s LinkedIn assets. After outlining a target audience list, we delved into the channels of several relevant industry leaders and influencers. The resulting report, which we now create on an ongoing basis, highlights the topics, themes and formats they are talking about – providing useful findings around possible focus areas for our content.
Going beyond analytics
All this is not to say that brands should ignore the usual metrics measurement methods to track performance. On the contrary, crunching the numbers is an essential part of developing great content.
But these tactics can take those numbers a step further. By delving deeper into reader feedback, stakeholder engagement and the activity of target groups, brands will be able to better understand their audiences – and deliver content that truly excites them. So, while it’s no replacement for data, a keener focus on insights that extend beyond analytics may be just what you need to optimise your output.
Want to find out how to implement best-in-class approaches to content and measure editorial success?
Contact Gabrielle from our client services team at gabriellebridle@speakmedia.co.uk or on LinkedIn.