Content Marketing is a hot topic. Everyone wants to know how they can deliver and amplify great content that their customers will engage with. Here at ComBlu, we’ve analyzed why marketers need to act like publishers, develop systemized approach to content ideation, creation, management and measurement. In short, brands need content a supply chain. Recently, we’ve flipped the problem on its head and begun to parse it in a new way. How would you measure the quality and engagement level of your content? This will be part one of a two part series that explains how to approach a content dashboard.
Know your assets
All content is not created equally. Before we can really begin to accurately measure content, it’s key to understand what content is being delivered to your customers at each step of the decision journey. Content that is created by the brand or its customers for the awareness, consideration, preference, purchase and post purchase audiences will each have different metrics associated with them. Make sure to get organized before you begin to build your dashboard.
Align your tools
A common mistake that we’ve seen over the past eight months is that brands jump to an analytics or dashboard planning phase before inventorying the tools that are available to them. Be sure that you review what data points are available to you. I know this sounds obvious but it is a very, very important step. Frequently, the awareness and consideration content is created and maintained by a marketing team, purchase content by IT or e-commerce and the post purchase content by the customer satisfaction teams. Just because the content is on a branded website doesn’t mean that all of the content owners are using a like toolset to measure or track the content. As the old saying goes … Measure twice and cut once!
Select your metrics
Once you have verified the tools and data points that are available to you, you can begin selecting which metrics align with content depending on where it applies to the decision journey. Your dashboard needs to provide insights further than the number of impressions that you’re generating.
Here’s a preview of what’s to come on May 8th, when Kathy Baughman will reveal part two of the series which will dive into detail on aligning your metrics.
| Awareness | Consideration | Preference | Purchase | Post Purchase |
| · Volume of social content· … | · E-newsletter subscription· …. | · Reviews or stories created· ….. | · Average order size· …. | · Participation in forums and discussion boards· …… |
How far along are you in creating a content analytics dashboard? What are some of the struggles that you have faced?
Principal
Engaging your customers is at the heart of successful marketing programs. For more than 20 years, Cheryl has been building and executing content and thought leadership strategies designed to do just that. She is excited to be applying that well-honed skill to a help companies like Microsoft, Cisco, 3M, Intel, Capital One and Barclaycard tap into their stakeholder communities and build sophisticated content strategies.
Her experience base spans a range of industries – from technology and financial services to retail, travel, consumer products and healthcare. Cheryl has served as an integral member of her clients’ marketing teams, providing counsel on marketing and brand strategy, thought leadership, media relations, product introductions, and event management.
Prior to joining ComBlu, Cheryl spent 10 years leading corporate marketing for large, complex organizations.