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January 13, 2020 Content Chat Recap: Best Practices for Content Marketing Reporting and Measurement

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Planning season is in full swing for many content marketers, so the #ContentChat community traded tips on how to best approach reporting and measurement cycles. Read the full conversation below, which explores how to quantify content marketing success, best practices for presenting the data, and the tools you should adopt to support ongoing measurement of your activities.

Q1: Are you working on a 2019 year-in-review content marketing analysis or another reporting project right now? If so, what do you hope to learn? If not, why not?

Many marketers start the new year by analyzing the success of the previous year’s content. Typically, they’re looking to see what types of content performed best, how different channels stacked up, and what topics they should explore next.

That said, annual content audits are not conducted by all marketers, or they are just one piece of the measurement puzzle. We’ll explore some different reporting cadences in Q8.

Q2: When you compare your 2019 marketing metrics to your goals, how do you quantify success? And how do you present your results versus plan to your leadership team?

It’s best to define success metrics before the start of any project. A few ways that marketers define success include:

Be conscious of how ambitious your goals are, and take that into consideration when evaluating your success.

When reviewing your data, layer any relevant context that could have influenced the numbers. This can also help identify any anomalies that could have shifted your results.

When sharing your results with your leadership team, tailor your approach based on their needs. There is no single “correct” approach, but you should generally use charts and graphs to highlight your data and keep your information primarily high-level, with more detailed information available in case the executives are interested. This process is much more efficient if you take the time to properly set goals at the start of any year or project, and identify your executive team’s top priorities so you can focus on those when delivering results.

Q3: When you see that you have far exceeded one of your goals, how do you determine how to adjust your next year’s goal accordingly?

As explained above, you need to understand the context of any metrics before setting goals for the next year.

With all your background in place, next assess what might be realistic for ongoing growth. Remember that certain KPIs like share of voice are heavily influenced by your competitors and other factors you cannot control, and some KPIs may hit a plateau that will take a significant investment to improve from.

When reviewing your exceeded goals, think about how you can apply those tactics or learnings to help achieve your other goals. Or, see if you can rework that exceeded goal to make it more of a challenge but still

Q4: Of course, we don’t always meet our goals. When your metrics show you did not meet one of your goals, how do you determine why the goal wasn’t met, and report this information to the larger team?

Understand why a goal was missed so you can best communicate that to the team and chart a new path to success.

When delivering bad news, Erika recommends doing so face-to-face. It’s best to be transparent in the process and explain the previously explored reasons why the goal was missed. When communicating with your executive team especially, keep the details high level and only focus on the KPIs they view as important.

Q5: What tools and resources do you use for analyzing your content marketing metrics?

Check out the community recommendations below. Are we missing your favorite(s)? Let us know in the comments.

Q6: What format does your content marketing reporting take? And does this vary by your audience for the reporting?

PowerPoint and Google Slides presentations are most common for reports—especially since they work well with charts and graphics—but this can vary by team.

You should always include a summary of the findings, or top-level details so that stakeholders can quickly distill the main information.

You can include a range of information in your reports, including your goals, KPIs, insights, and proposed next steps.

The key is to tailor your report for your intended audience, with a focus on where to go next. Following any executive meetings, we recommend meeting with your core team of content creators to further explore the results and action items.

Jen shared a couple examples to give you some direction.

Q7: Do you include distribution channel performance in your content marketing reporting? Or, is that left up to individual channel owners? For example, social media is often a key distribution channel; are you including social performance in your content reporting?

Most marketers agree that understanding channel performance is critical for guiding a successful content marketing strategy.

However, silos can add hurdles for data gathering.

Q8: How frequently will you engage in #contentmarketing measurement and reporting in 2020?

Content marketing reporting typically happens on a monthly, quarterly, or annual basis, as well as after specific campaigns. With the right tools and processes in place, though, some teams are able to track KPIs on a daily or weekly basis.

It’s important to find a cadence that works best for your team’s resources. You’ll want to gauge your content’s success early enough to change course as needed, but overanalyzing your data will limit your ability to actually execute on your ideas. Read below to see how the #ContentChat community tackles their measurement:

About Alek Irvin

Alek Irvin is a content marketing professional with a rich history in social media management, executive thought leadership development, and media relations. As a consultant at Erika Heald Marketing Consulting, he creates human-focused content and thought leadership platforms that help brand leaders connect and engage with their communities. Alek has worked with a range of startups and Fortune 500 companies across the B2B technology and consumer spaces, including IBM, Dell Technologies, Hitch Works, Emtrain, Integrate, and Frameable. Connect with him on Twitter @AlekIrvin.

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