{"id":1871,"date":"2020-01-20T22:51:11","date_gmt":"2020-01-20T22:51:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/michaelleander.me\/?p=1871"},"modified":"2023-10-02T14:06:54","modified_gmt":"2023-10-02T14:06:54","slug":"the-importance-of-data-in-content-marketing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michaelleander.me\/the-importance-of-data-in-content-marketing\/","title":{"rendered":"The Importance of Data in Content Marketing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Content marketing is one of the most effective techniques in digital marketing<\/a> and search engine optimization. <\/p>\n\n\n\n While the Internet can be used to your advantage, if you\u2019re not careful enough, it can also pull you lower against the competition. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Content marketing is very important, given that you have so much room to expound on and talk about your various products and services. <\/p>\n\n\n\n You can prove to your audience and target buyers that your business is one that\u2019s worth patronizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But how do you decide which piece of content to create? <\/p>\n\n\n\n What\u2019s your strategy in choosing the type of approach to implement with each piece of content? <\/p>\n\n\n\n How do you make sure your content marketing strategy<\/a> is a success?<\/p>\n\n\n\n If these questions keep you up at night, you\u2019re in the right place. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In today\u2019s article, we\u2019re going to discuss the one major factor that can provide all the answers and more: data.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n We\u2019ll talk about the impact data has on content marketing strategies and why it\u2019s crucial that you start using it today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There\u2019s no denying that marketers need the data provided by specialized platforms, such as Google Analytics (GA). <\/p>\n\n\n\n However, most content creators fail to see its capabilities because they\u2019re more inclined to believe that the creative side doesn\u2019t mix well with the analytical side. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This notion is false. Analytics can serve as a strong foundation in determining what types of content you can put out on your website. <\/p>\n\n\n\n You can liken this to the process of creating an effective marketing resume<\/a>, wherein you must determine which information to include. <\/p>\n\n\n\n With the right analytics, you\u2019ll have insights as to which posts work best for your site\u2019s visitors, and which were read less. <\/p>\n\n\n\n That way, you can tweak your future campaigns to include content that\u2019s now proven by your data analytics to be well-accepted by your audience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Furthermore, when marketers do use the platform, they don\u2019t exploit its full potential. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The data is mostly used to measure content effectiveness after it\u2019s been created, published, and promoted via a campaign. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But the reports, graphs, and other tools offered by the platform can also be used to understand the type of content that should be created for a specific audience.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n This means that, with the right data, you have the chance to create laser-focused content strategies that will deliver the expected results. <\/p>\n\n\n\n There was a time when the idea of content strategy was foreign to both creators and marketers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n For creators, the idea of documenting and planning their content ideas throughout a time interval based on data analysis was outrageous. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Instead, they would rather base their content creation decisions on \u201cgut instinct\u201d, current trends, and what they thought the audience might like.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While being in constant contact with a certain audience and overall experience do factor in and add value, there\u2019s no way of knowing which piece of content will bring the most traffic and engagement. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Furthermore, without data, it\u2019s difficult to know why the audience is reacting to a specific piece, so you can replicate the success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Data helps creators focus on specific audiences, creating content that attracts and engages readers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Without it, most content is created with the intent of reaching the largest possible audience, which is never successful and leads to a waste of time and resources. <\/p>\n\n\n\n So, a data-driven approach<\/a> can have a powerful impact on the type of content you create, how you create it, and how you promote it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Among others, the right data will:<\/p>\n\n\n\n But let\u2019s take a closer look at how and why data is essential for the best content strategy<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Analytics offer valuable insight into what your audience is thinking and how they feel about your content (expressed through metrics such as traffic, time on page, bounce rate, and so on). <\/p>\n\n\n\n Furthermore, if you analyze the trends set by pre-existing customers, you get access to information such as location, age, profession, needs and wants, pain points, and more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Once you get a hold of these data points, it\u2019s easy to understand what the people consuming your content want and like. <\/p>\n\n\n\n You can also learn where they hang out online and who they\u2019re most likely to be influenced by.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Quick note<\/strong>: this information alone provides plenty of content ideas that are relevant to your audience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It also offers collaboration ideas by providing you with a list of influencers that may become your campaign supporters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Another aspect you need to follow is social media effectiveness. <\/p>\n\n\n\n GA can pinpoint the best channel to use by analyzing income traffic from social media and whether the audience is converting into customers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The same goes for general traffic, where the data can tell you who is leaving your site and why, how many people are actually engaged by the content, and what people prefer doing when they visit your pages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What would you do if you knew for sure which pages are less engaging for the audience? <\/p>\n\n\n\n You would probably work on bringing them up to speed by comparing them with the successful pages and improving the content they deliver.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Well, a data-driven content marketing strategy<\/a> can give you exactly that. By analyzing metrics such as time spent on page and setting conversion goals, GA lets you know the level of engagement generated by each page on your site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The best advantage of using data to shape your content strategy stands in the fact that you know the impact of each decision you make. <\/p>\n\n\n\n If you want to drop an underperforming social media channel in order to focus your efforts on the most engaging ones, you can do so without wondering, \u201cWhat if?\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n On the other hand, if you want to boost engagement on a page that\u2019s lagging, you will know the steps to take and in what order.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Data-driven content marketing is the best way to make sure you\u2019re making the right decisions, without involving any guesswork or \u201cgut feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Google Analytics can only offer a prescriptive analysis because it collects data based on past events. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This means that you need to have a base of users or customers and existing content in order to receive insight. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Once received, it\u2019s your job to make predictions and try to understand what works.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But there are predictive platforms that can reduce the marketer\u2019s or creator\u2019s brain effort by forecasting future results. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This means that platforms such as 40Nuggets and Parse.ly can help you know the content that is most likely to work even before you decide to write it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Data from different tools or metrics will also show you the demographics of your readers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It will also give you insights as to which kinds of content work best for a specific demographic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Therefore, with data on hand, you can be more effective at mapping channels to specific content that you\u2019re going to post.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This can help you create a better schedule of your content topics. <\/p>\n\n\n\n For instance, this week you\u2019re trying to reach out to Group A of your demographics, which comprise of millennials. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The data provided by analytics will show you what millennials were most interested to read about on your blog or website. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This can help you become more effective in mapping your content\u2019s topics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The main purpose of content marketing is to get people to spend time and\/or money on your creation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n If this doesn\u2019t happen, the content doesn\u2019t convert, and you don\u2019t achieve your marketing goals. But how can you know the status of your goals?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Luckily, GA has an entire section dedicated to goal tracking that lets users know if the audience is engaged enough to take action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As you know, goals can be anything from driving awareness to increasing sales, which means they can be quite tricky to define. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Still, due to GA\u2019s ingenuity, you have the possibility to not only define goals but also identify the steps a user needs to take in order to consider the goal completed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This way, you can easily identify bottleneck areas or steps that make the process more difficult. In the future, any content or problem areas that you\u2019ve previously met can now be avoided. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In doing so, you also become more practical with the budget that you allocate for content marketing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Finally, all this work on understanding the audience, setting goals, and creating content that converts is for the final purpose of lifting ROI<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\nHow Does Data Fit With Content Marketing?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Creating the Best Content Strategy<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Goal Achievement and Content Marketing ROI<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n