A UK content marketing and copywriting agency’s guide on how to measure the success of content marketing.  

Make no bones about it. Content marketing and digital marketing campaigns are useless without metrics. Do you think ASDA put Buddy the Elf in their 2022 Christmas Advert hoping that no one would interact with it? Of course not.

The most successful content marketing campaigns keep a beady eye on their content’s success and measure it with purpose.  

Creating successful content marketing campaigns is done to get people talking, sharing and reacting. It’s the best way to boost brand recognition, generate leads and deliver a high return on investment.

The question is, where do you start? Well, look no further, as we reveal the recipefor measuring content success.

What makes content successful?

The best content is compelling, fulfilling, convenient and efficient. But most importantly, it’s intentional and conveys what you set out to convey.

Successful content often:

• Tells a story
• Informs your readers about your products and services
• Stays consistent and on-brand
• Adds credibility to your business
• Solves queries and adds value

How to measure the success of content marketing?

The way we measure content has evolved over the years. You only have to log into Instagram to see built-in insights for social media or use bitly to shorten and track the origins of your visitors. Measuring your social content on a basic level has never been easier.

However, we recommend delving in deeper by utilising specialised content marketing analytics tools. Here’s a quick checklist you should be using to gauge content marketing success.

Content marketing analytics tools

• ‍Google Analytics – Track everything from website bounce rates to origin and demographics. You can even set up conversion goals to see how certain content marketing campaigns are performing. ‍
• Hotjar – An excellent tool for monitoring the user behaviours of your website visitors. It uses the same principle as a body heat map, showcasing where most of your visitors linger. (Creepy.) ‍
• Semrush – For all your SEO needs, look no further. Conduct competitor keyword analysis, find keyword gaps and monitor your website’s organic performance. ‍
• Kissmetrics – Another brilliant tool for discovering how your audience interacts with your site. It’s particularly useful for showing you behavioural analytics.
• ‍Quintly – Don’t forget your socials. Quintly is a social media analytics tool enabling you to track, benchmark and compare how well your social strategy is working compared to your competitors. (Sneaky.)‍
• Google Alerts – This audience listening tool might have been launched in 2003, but it’s still regarded as a must-have in measuring content marketing success. It isn’t like other listening tools, as it focuses on monitoring any mentions of certain search terms on the internet, not on social. Ideal if you’re trying to stay up to date with trends.

Set content marketing goals

Getting the data is one thing. But it’s also essential to consider content marketing metrics and benchmarking.

KPIs

Set your KPIs (key performance indicators), have a plan and a deadline and keep on top of the competition.

KPIs are used to measure your content marketing goals. For example, set yourself a target of 50 mailing subscriptions in the next quarter.

Keep it realistic but ambitious and attainable. Measure the good and the not so good, both are equally as important.

Return on Investments (ROI)

“Show me the money”. Look at how much profit you are making once you’ve put your plan into action.

Don’t just do marketing. Make it intentional. Every campaign, post and piece of content needs to be purposeful and be driven by ROI. Granted, content marketing is all about the long game. But as long as you’re doing things with an end goal in mind, that’s ok.

Engagement

Next up, engagement levels. In other words, how many people are interacting with you and what you are putting out? Here are some things to keep an eye on:

• Likes
• Comments
• Shares
• Click-throughs
• Bounce rates

Keepyour brand top of mind with your target audience. This means, being consistent, repurposing content for every marketing channel, measuring success and making adjustments.  

Ultimately, you need to be present. But you also want your audience to enjoy or get value from what they are seeing.

For instance, if your bounce rates are high (not good) but your average read time on a blog article is impressive, it shows your content is compelling.

However, it also means you need to consider how you keep people on your site. That’s where suggested articles, incentives and free downloads play a role.

Share of voice

People talk. But are people talking about your content? Tracking your shares will determine whether people are wanting to spread the word about you and increase your reach.

If you are sitting there thinking you are a small business that doesn’t get many shares, why not think outside the box? Think guerrilla marketing. Be bold. Sometimes it doesn’t take a lot of money to go viral or boost your share of voice.

Just take the Prince Harry book incident, for example.

Build your community, and slowly you will see an increase in your content’s success.

Brand exposure

If more people are coming to your brand, you’re doing something right with the content you are putting out.

Reach and impressions will be key here for telling you if your brand exposure has increased.

It can be as simple as counting page views (hopefully seeing an increase, of course).

Video metrics

Keep track of your video views, shares and completion rates. Video is a key player in the game right now, so don’t sleep on it.

According to Explain Ninja, video is 1200% more successful than other content.

Let’s full circle back to that ASDA Advert we mentioned at the start. It generated 1.8 million views in four days. Now, that’s a successful piece of content with mega metrics.

Need a hand measuring content success?

Did that feel like a lot of information? Don’t sweat. When broken down, and taken step-by-step, our guide is easy.

Simply put, it is important to stay on top of your content’s success to understand if your strategy is serving your overall business goals.

Our step-by-step guide on how to measure your content marketing success should help you kick-start your journey in measuring your content’s performance, even if you’re a small startup.

However, if you don’t know where to start, you can always call in the experts. At Content Chef, we specialise in copywriting and content marketing services. Our team of experts can help you build ROI-driven campaigns and measure content success. Get in touch today to find out more.

Written by Holly Ostle