There is an extensive array of metrics that can be used to assess the performance of your advertising and public relations efforts. We are fond of this article which investigates 17 metrics to evaluate your content marketing efforts. Keep this post in mind as you build a successful content plan.
The success of your content marketing initiative is impacted by numerous elements – your target market, the tone you employ, the degree of detail in your work, who you are up against, and how you spread the word – the options are almost endless. What are the indicators that you are recording the appropriate data? How can you determine the errors that you are making and how can you remedy them if you are engaging in inappropriate activities?
Use these 17 metrics to measure the success of your content marketing campaign:
1. Organic Search Traffic
First, we have organic search traffic. There are four critical areas of traffic to be examined and each of these has a significant bearing on your content promotion. The Acquisition tab in Google Analytics should be used to find this information; this will be stated multiple times through this article.
Content is essential when it comes to how your site is viewed by search engines; generating more useful content can give a boost to your domain authority, which is a sign that your site has a greater possibility of ranking well when it is found on a search engine, and making content that is relevant to specific search terms can enable your site to be seen more when those particular keywords are searched.
The merger of these repercussions will result in an upsurge of web visitors who discovered your site by means of a search. Organic search traffic is the term used to describe this. If your content is successful in raising your ranking in search results, this figure should increase gradually.
2. Referral Traffic
The following portion of website visitors to concentrate on is referral traffic, primarily used for your external content actions. For your guest blogging and other external content initiatives, you will be putting out written material on a variety of external sources. Inclusion of links aimed at your website should be present within the main area of your content posts or in the biography section of you as the author.
Using this metric, it is possible to see how many visitors arrived at the website through referrals, and where those referrals were coming from. The data can differentiate between the sources of the referrals. You can use it to figure out how effective your external content strategies have been.
3. Social Traffic
The third segment to look at is social traffic. This can be used to assess two pieces of your content marketing initiative; first, it can be used to measure the efficacy of your on-platform material. If you notice that the overall traffic is low, it might mean that you are not frequently posting or the content you are putting out is not attractive.
You can figure out how successful your syndicated material is at bringing people to your website. If the performance is unsatisfactory, it implies that it is necessary to select more stimulating topics or create more striking titles.
4. Direct Traffic
Direct traffic is comprised of several different potential sources (excerpt below is from AudienceBloom.com):
- Typing in your website address in the URL bar
- Clicking a link from an email
- Clicking a link from a chat software
- Clicking a link from a shortened URL (such as bit.ly)
- Clicking a link from a mobile social media app such as Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn (phone apps usually don’t pass referrer information).
- Clicking a link from a secure site (https) that leads to a non-secure site (http). Watch out for this, because some major publications, such as Entrepreneur.com, use https. So, if your site isn’t secure (http), then any referral traffic you get from it will actually show up in the “direct traffic” bucket in Google Analytics.
- Organic search (some of it, anyway). A study by Groupon found that up to 60% of traffic being reported as “direct” was actually organic search traffic. It’s not yet known why some organic search traffic is dumped into the wrong bucket, but it’s worth knowing about.
The other three parts of traffic have a more tangible connection to your content activities than direct traffic does. Nevertheless, it can be a helpful measure of how much your brand is recognized over a set period. Do not anticipate this sector increasing as fast or as consistently as the others.
5. New Visitors
You can use filters or segments to distinguish between new and returning visitors for virtually any type of site traffic report in Google Analytics. You should have a clear picture of both how your content attracts and engages people who visit your website. A way to measure the success of social or referral traffic that is aiming to reach a broader audience is by looking at the amount of new people it attracts. If the number of “new” people to your website is not increasing, it could mean that you need to do more to reach out to potential customers.
6. Returning Visitors
Returning visitors are also useful. It is important to have an increase in visitors in all areas, yet this is especially vital when referring to direct traffic. People are clearly fascinated with the brand if they come to you not being prompted, meaning the content was truly impressive to them. You should examine the repeat visitors in particular subsections of your referral user base, particularly in email-based referrals, which suggest a sustained attentiveness.
7. Behavior Flow
Google Analytics’ behavior flow chart is one of my top picks for comprehending website traffic patterns. Even at first sight, it might seem a bit complex, yet it’s actually rather straightforward. You can see the typical pathway users take on your website by looking at the Behavior section and clicking on the Behavior Flow feature. On the extreme left hand side of the table, you will see a set of “entry” pages, which are probably the starting points for your site visitors.
This is often the main page of a website or a potent blog post. You will discover what pages customers usually click on next and how many customers abandon the page. The chart can be accessed multiple times, aiding you in comprehending how users interact with your website. This can be useful in evaluating how successful you are at ensuring visitors remain on your website, plus pointing out areas that need to be adjusted to increase user loyalty.
8. User Demographics
In the Audience -> Demographics section, you may gain some insight into the ages, genders, and other characterisitcs of your users. This data could aid you in gauging how accurately you are targeting the demographic you desire. If you notice unusual numbers of people here, you should consider if the material you are providing is applicable to the people you are aiming for.
9. User Location
It is advisable to examine the regions where your customers are located. Do they tend to be concentrated in one spot? This may suggest that your campaign is concentrating too heavily on one publisher or broadcasting outlet. Conversely, if you receive a great response from a certain geographical area, you can realign your plan to focus on them more.
10. Search Rankings (by keyword)
I have already discussed the use of organic traffic to estimate if your content is suited to improve your search engine rankings, but it is also sensible to get the information from the source and measure your rankings precisely.
It is hoped that you presently have a few keywords that you are concentrating on in your program. If that is not the case, then take a look at this manual about keyword research. Although Google will not give you the information you need, there are a plethora of websites (such as SERPs, AgencyAnalytics, and AuthorityLabs) that can assist you in locating and supervising your search rankings throughout time. The point of this is to measure your growth and change your plans depending on how fast or sluggish you are advancing.
11. Conversion Rate
The Conversion Rate is the percentage of individuals who respond to your marketing campaigns by taking a designated action. Making contact with your organization or buying something could be an option. To figure it out, take the amount of conversions and divide it by the overall amount of interactions.
The proportion of conversions relative to interactions is calculated by dividing the sum of conversions by the number of interactions multiplied by 100.
If you desire better results with your conversion rate, analyze your content more carefully and confirm that it accurately matches up with what a customer can obtain if they select your advertisement. Ensure your arrival page is straightforward, dependable, and approachable for customers.
12. Upsell Rate
The Upsell Rate is the proportion of customers that bought more products or services beyond their first purchase out of the entire number of customers.
The Upsell Rate is equal to the number of Upsells divided by the total number of Customers multiplied by one hundred.
If you wish to boost your upsell rate, the initial step is to be sure you are offering something customers are interested in. Then revisit your sales process. Ensure that your customers are made aware of the possibilities and can easily access them.
13. Customer Retention Rate (CRR)
This metric gauges how often current customers continue to transact with you. It can demonstrate how much approval and faithfulness your customers have for you – and, on the contrary, work as an alert when there is an abrupt decrease. To figure out your CRR, take the customer count at the end of the timeframe you are studying and subtract the number of new customers that were acquired. Divide the total number of customers by the original number of customers and then multiply the answer by 100.
The Customer Retention Rate is determined by taking the number of customers at the end of a period and subtracting the amount of new customers acquired during that period, then dividing the result by the amount of customers at the start of the period and multiplying by 100.
To get better results from your CRR, the initial action should be to examine customers who did not stay with you more closely, and attempt to work out why. Have you modified your product, service, or processes recently or have you received any feedback related to these activities? A few other smart approaches could be creating a strong client feedback network to take care of any potential concerns in advance, investing in educating customers more, providing loyalty rewards and staying in touch frequently with customers.
14. Average Time on Page and Session Duration
The length of time a person spends on a single page, such as a blog post, is termed the average time on the page. On the other hand, the session duration is the amount of time an individual spends on a website in general, visiting multiple pages but not including the entrance and last page.
If either of these measurements are unsatisfactory, investigate your content further. Take time to contemplate the kind of details a visitor might anticipate when visiting the page, and be sure that the content is appropriate and substantial enough to maintain their attention.
15. Click-through Rate (CTR)
The percentage of people clicking on a link that directs them to a different page is known as the Click-Through-Rate (CTR). Consequently, you can figure out the CTR for organic searches, online advertisements, or even connections within your own website. Find out what percentage the number of clicks is of the number of impressions by dividing them and multiplying the answer by 100.
Click-through rate (CTR) = Clicks / Impressions * 100
Examine the context more thoroughly to increase your click-through rate. Is it easy for the user to identify the links? Do you supply enough information that people comprehend what will happen when they press the button—and does the page that they arrive at conform to their expectations? Do the connections pertain to the mentioned page, and do they supply enough worth to the visitor?
16. Pages Per Visit
This measure is usually portrayed as an average of all visitors and relates to how many pages each user usually visits when they enter your website in one session. This can be worked out by dividing the amount of page views by the amount of visits over a specific period. By combining the usage of average time spent on a page and the length of a session, one can gain a thorough understanding of how visitors interact with your webpages.
17. Utilization Rate
The Utilization Rate is a measure of how much time an employee spends on activities that they can charge the client for, such as tasks that are applicable to the specific project. The utilization rate is a useful tool to assess how successful and productive your staff is, detect any problems that may be present, and to properly evaluate the cost of the job being done for clients. To figure out the utilization rate, take the total billable hours and divide it by the total working hours. Then, multiply the answer by 100 to get the rate.
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