As a content writer, your job doesn’t end after writing a great article and hitting publish. After all, you need to measure how your content is performing in order to ensure it’s consistently resonating with your target audience and actively contributing to the goals of the business.
Understanding the impact of your content marketing strategy is essential for identifying what’s working and what’s not, and more importantly, why it’s the case either way. When measured properly, results can inform future decisions more effectively, leading to better outcomes over time.
So, with all that in mind, here’s how to measure the effects of your content marketing strategy in a more meaningful way.
Before casting an eye over your metrics, you need to be clear about what it is you’re trying to achieve. Different goals require different measurements, so it’s important to establish your goals first.
Some of the most common content marketing goals include:
When measuring the effectiveness of your content marketing efforts, you should always tie results back to the original purpose of the content.
Reach tells you how many people had the opportunity to see your content.
Key metrics include:
These figures help you understand whether or not your content is being discovered. If reach is low, this may signal an issue with how you've distributed or promoted your content, rather than the content itself.
High levels of traffic mean very little if people aren’t interacting with your content. Engagement metrics can be used to tell you whether your audience finds the content useful or interesting.
Important engagement metrics to look out for include:
Keep an eye out for patterns here. A lengthy article that keeps readers on the page suggests the content is engaging and valuable. On the flip side, a high bounce rate may indicate a mismatch between the headline and the content, or a poor user experience.
If your content is designed to bring people one step closer to becoming a customer, monitoring conversion metrics is essential.
Relevant measurements include:
Content often leads to conversions indirectly, but tracking which pieces of content are contributing is important.
Not everything that matters can be measured solely by numbers. Qualitative feedback is just as important.
Pay attention to:
If people are regularly referencing a particular article, that piece of content is clearly doing its job, even if it doesn’t have the highest traffic.
Content marketing is a long-term strategy, one that requires a fair bit of patience. It's important to review trends rather than isolated results. Look at how your traffic, engagement rates, and conversion rates are performing month on month. One strong month doesn’t automatically equal success. Likewise, one underperforming post doesn't equal failure. Focus on consistency and progression to get a clearer picture of the effect of your content marketing.
Platforms like Google Analytics and Google Search Console are ideal for measuring your content’s effectiveness. However, if you find them overwhelming or confusing, you may want to track success using something a little more beginner friendly, such as Ahrefs or Semrush.
Using the right tool for the job is important, but don't get too hung up on which tool is best to use. What's more important is that performance is reviewed regularly. This way you can spot trends early on, prioritise the content that does well and put less time and effort into content that doesn’t contribute to the goals of the business.
Measuring the effectiveness of your content marketing efforts isn’t about proving that everything you write works perfectly. Some content will outperform others, but the content that doesn’t do well can tell you a lot about what your customers want and what works for your business.
Use your findings to improve poor-performing content, refine topics based on audience interest, adjust which channels you share your content on, and repurpose high-performing content to get the most you can out of it.
Armed with this information, you can focus on a content marketing strategy that’s based on evidence, not wild assumptions.
If you need expert help measuring the success of your content marketing strategy. Feel free to get in touch with us today!
