How To Audit Your Content Marketing Plan
While researching the importance of performing an audit for content marketing strategies, I came across many creative approaches and one comment in particular that really stuck in my craw. An online advisor suggested a “quick audit” as the solution, and I thought to myself, what good is an audit if it is done quickly? With synonyms like, examine, inspect and scrutinize, an audit needs to be thorough, to improve processes, lose unnecessary items and become more efficient.
Contently.com, a website specifically dedicated to helping improve online content, revealed some pretty frightening statistics in regards to material on the internet. When it comes to overlooked data on the world wide web, even the mighty Microsoft lost ground with 30% of their content being ignored. B2B’s content goes largely unused, somewhere between 60-70% of it remaining unpublished. Reasons like these and many others are why it is important to examine our content more thoroughly.
A woman vastly ahead of her time, the great Mae West, broadway star and black-and-white film screen sensation during the golden age of Hollywood, once said, “It’s better to be looked over, than overlooked.” Let’s take some advice from Mae on how to review and overhaul our marketing strategy to keep our content in the spotlight.
Mae West was “a woman of very little words and a lot of action,” so let’s get right down to it and take these six auditing steps towards more successful content marketing:
#1 - WORTHY CONTENT: “It’s not the men in your life that counts, it’s the life in your men.”
For our purposes, first look at the content itself; the lesson here is that it should not only be worthy, but also appealing, visually stunning and attractive, but not so much that it destroys the message. It should also be relevant and not outdated. While it may be stylish, ultimately it won’t get the job done if it lacks any real substance. Think of it this way, Miss West captured a great deal of attention with her stunning beauty, but she truly captivated her audience with her outspoken wit, humor and charm.
#2 - IMPORTANT ACCESSORIES: “The only carrots that interest me are the number you get in a diamond.”
Be sure to examine more than obvious content when it comes to the other operative elements on your website:
Make this list and keep in in front of you while you are auditing to remain focused on all aspects of your examination.
#3 - A THOROUGH HIERARCHY: “Anything worth doing, is worth doing slowly.”
It is important to establish a hierarchy to properly assess and analyse the success or failure of content. Carefully review the material and develop a grading system of your pages that can be examined using analytics to help guide you. The top scoring pages can be left alone, while the ones receiving mediocre marks, need a little more love and attention.
#4 - USE IT OR LOSE IT: “His mother should have thrown him away and kept the stork.”
Don’t be afraid to drop pages when duplicate material is found or the pages come in with a very low ranking. Pages that have nothing relevant to offer, are out of date or simply don’t have anything important to say, should be dropped.
#5 - BRANDING AND PERSONA: “Personality is the most important thing for success.”
Branding should also be evaluated in auditing our content marketing plan. Ensure that your logo is consistent throughout your website, make sure your color schemes are being effectively utilized and that your brand flows throughout the pages. While branding is a whole different topic all by itself, it still deserves consideration in your review.
#6 - THE COMPETITION: “Ten men waiting for me at the door? Send one home, I’m tired.”
When examining your competitors, don’t focus on what they are doing at the same level as your brand or industry, but rather on what they are doing more successfully. This is an age-old marketing tool that should be included in our audit.
There is no such thing as being overly successful or operating too well, especially when considering the performance of our online content. Examine what is working, what should be changed and/or what needs to be eliminated in auditing your content marketing plan for greater online success in 2015.
One last bit of advice from the bold, immortal and rapacious Mae West, “You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.”
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Nick Rojas is a business consultant and writer who lives in Los Angeles and Chicago. He has consulted small and medium-sized enterprises for over twenty years. He has contributed articles to Visual.ly, Entrepreneur, and TechCrunch. You can follow him on Twitter @NickARojas.
Contently.com, a website specifically dedicated to helping improve online content, revealed some pretty frightening statistics in regards to material on the internet. When it comes to overlooked data on the world wide web, even the mighty Microsoft lost ground with 30% of their content being ignored. B2B’s content goes largely unused, somewhere between 60-70% of it remaining unpublished. Reasons like these and many others are why it is important to examine our content more thoroughly.
A woman vastly ahead of her time, the great Mae West, broadway star and black-and-white film screen sensation during the golden age of Hollywood, once said, “It’s better to be looked over, than overlooked.” Let’s take some advice from Mae on how to review and overhaul our marketing strategy to keep our content in the spotlight.
Mae West was “a woman of very little words and a lot of action,” so let’s get right down to it and take these six auditing steps towards more successful content marketing:
#1 - WORTHY CONTENT: “It’s not the men in your life that counts, it’s the life in your men.”
For our purposes, first look at the content itself; the lesson here is that it should not only be worthy, but also appealing, visually stunning and attractive, but not so much that it destroys the message. It should also be relevant and not outdated. While it may be stylish, ultimately it won’t get the job done if it lacks any real substance. Think of it this way, Miss West captured a great deal of attention with her stunning beauty, but she truly captivated her audience with her outspoken wit, humor and charm.
#2 - IMPORTANT ACCESSORIES: “The only carrots that interest me are the number you get in a diamond.”
Be sure to examine more than obvious content when it comes to the other operative elements on your website:
- URLs
- Page Names
- Videos and Images
- Internal and External links
- Comments
- Meta-page titles, descriptions and keywords
- Navigation details
- User experience concerns
- Social buttons and badges
Make this list and keep in in front of you while you are auditing to remain focused on all aspects of your examination.
#3 - A THOROUGH HIERARCHY: “Anything worth doing, is worth doing slowly.”
It is important to establish a hierarchy to properly assess and analyse the success or failure of content. Carefully review the material and develop a grading system of your pages that can be examined using analytics to help guide you. The top scoring pages can be left alone, while the ones receiving mediocre marks, need a little more love and attention.
#4 - USE IT OR LOSE IT: “His mother should have thrown him away and kept the stork.”
Don’t be afraid to drop pages when duplicate material is found or the pages come in with a very low ranking. Pages that have nothing relevant to offer, are out of date or simply don’t have anything important to say, should be dropped.
#5 - BRANDING AND PERSONA: “Personality is the most important thing for success.”
Branding should also be evaluated in auditing our content marketing plan. Ensure that your logo is consistent throughout your website, make sure your color schemes are being effectively utilized and that your brand flows throughout the pages. While branding is a whole different topic all by itself, it still deserves consideration in your review.
#6 - THE COMPETITION: “Ten men waiting for me at the door? Send one home, I’m tired.”
When examining your competitors, don’t focus on what they are doing at the same level as your brand or industry, but rather on what they are doing more successfully. This is an age-old marketing tool that should be included in our audit.
There is no such thing as being overly successful or operating too well, especially when considering the performance of our online content. Examine what is working, what should be changed and/or what needs to be eliminated in auditing your content marketing plan for greater online success in 2015.
One last bit of advice from the bold, immortal and rapacious Mae West, “You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.”
______________________________________________________________________________
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