In a study released by Contently, one key finding was that 90% of marketing respondents were not confident in how they measured content. They expressed uncertainty that their content metrics were effective in measuring business results.
As claimed by Think with Google, “Choose the right metrics and you encourage the creation of the most profitable and brilliant digital experiences, acquisition campaigns, and customer service channels. Choose the wrong metrics and you might get the kind of self-serving, sub-optimal work that can slowly bleed your business.”
Many content marketers, while being skilled at their trade, often struggle with measuring results. After putting in masses of effort into improving word of mouse and creating great content, it would all seem wasted if it couldn’t properly be measured and analysed.
It isn’t as clear cut as accountants and sales representatives who have clear stats to base their progress on. The worst mistake a content marketer could make is measuring by intuition or instinct. But with many current content measurements, intuition is almost as effective.
Other key findings from the research include:
- 73 percent of marketers identified brand awareness as a goal of their content.
- 69 percent of marketers said that they were using pageviews/unique visitors to measure the success of their content, while less than half are examining time on site. Yet 50 percent of respondents expressed a desire to be able to measure how much real attention people are paying to their content.
- 7 percent of respondents are not measuring the success of their content in any way.