All this month #ContentChat is doing deep-dives into the elements that go into creating an effective content strategy. For our first session, Carmen Hill (@carmenhill) walks us through how to conduct a content audit.
A1: What is a content audit, and where does it fit into the process of defining and documenting a #contentstrategy?
A content audit can be a simple inventory or can assess the quality of your content.
A1: Simply put, a content audit captures details about the content you have. It could just be an inventory or it could include an assessment of the quality of the content. #ContentChat
— Carmen Hill (@carmenhill) May 7, 2018
Great definition of a #Content Audit. The way I’d approach it is phase 1: an objective listing of existing content. Phase 2: subjective quality assessment. #ContentChat https://t.co/1gNateblXE
— Tod Cordill (@todcordill) May 7, 2018
A1: Audits can also help bring transparency to the organization. In addition to auditing the content, you may also be creating traceability to the organization that created it. #contentchat
— Carlos Abler (@Carlos_Abler) May 7, 2018
A #content audit is the process of assessing your content’s “lay of the land.” It enables you to answer questions such as: what do we have, what’s working, and where are the gaps? This should be the very 1st step in defining and documenting a #contentstrategy #contentchat
— Tatiana Beale (@tatianabeale) May 7, 2018
To be most effective, a content audit needs to take place AFTER you’ve decided on your content marketing goals.
A1: A content audit is one of the first, most important tasks involved in a content strategy, but I believe it’s best to do it in the context of your broader content goals. #ContentChat
— Carmen Hill (@carmenhill) May 7, 2018
A1: I like to begin a content audit with at least a baseline understanding of how the content audit will be used and what you need to document and/or assess. #ContentChat
— Carmen Hill (@carmenhill) May 7, 2018
The only step (half step?) we take first is assessing what our key topics/metrics/etc. are. There’s nothing worse than doing an audit and realizing you should have collected one more piece of data while pulling info. #contentchat pic.twitter.com/731Mq9UqOT
— Rebekah Meyer (@RebekahLMeyer) May 7, 2018
A1: Critical point, know where you’re trying to get to before you start… strategy can have a huge impact on what you are evaluating or how you evaluate it during your content audit! #ContentChat https://t.co/zJYk04IK6b
— Derek Pillie (@dpillie) May 7, 2018
You can go into your content audit seeking the answer to a specific question, or to acquire data to identify the right content next steps.
A1: Mine are a little more forensic. What are doing causing engagement rates to spike? What are your followers demanding and responding from you? Learn about the purpose of the content first. #ContentChat
— Shawn Paul Wood (@ShawnPaulWood) May 7, 2018
A1: Content audit is understanding where you’ve come from in order to know where to go. A map of past and current content. #ContentChat pic.twitter.com/0xbGNcLkkX
— Amy Higgins (@amywhiggins) May 7, 2018
A1: Content audits are super important when implementing a strategy. You have to know what you have before you can tell if it’s successful. It’s also the starting point for deciding repurpose vs. create net-new further down the road. #contentchat
— Dominic Garcia (@dominicgarcia) May 7, 2018
A2: It could be a lot of work to catalog all of my company’s content in an inventory. Why is this an important step to take?
You need to know what content you have before you can identify gaps and plan your content creation map.
A2: It IS a lot of work! But if you don’t know what content you have, how do you know what you need? And how can you successfully create, deliver and manage your content? #ContentChat
— Carmen Hill (@carmenhill) May 7, 2018
A2: Having a content inventory helps you keep track of everything you’ve done to fill in gaps within your marketing funnel and keep from repeating content. #contentchat
— CHARGE (@CHARGEgoforward) May 7, 2018
A2 A content audit not only tells you what you have to work with and what worked well in the past, but also where you have addressable gaps to fill. That should help you prioritize, by sales funnel, audience, objectives, etc. #contentchat
— Bill Skowronski (@BillSkowronski) May 7, 2018
An effective content audit can more than recoup its cost in resources with the content reuse opportunities it uncovers.
So many audits I have done have lead to opportunities to reuse content; saving on costs and increasing the ROI for assets created in the past. There may be plenty of gold in them there hard drives to offset the cost of effort based on re-use alone. #contentchat
— Carlos Abler (@Carlos_Abler) May 7, 2018
You can always start small and focused with your audit to conserve resources.
A2: Depending on the scope of your content audit and your available resources, you may choose to start with a core sample. #ContentChat
— Carmen Hill (@carmenhill) May 7, 2018
Agree! Web analytics can help you prioritize which content to audit first. Which pages or assets are getting the most traffic or providing the most value? #ContentChat https://t.co/kWLnOEwfmc
— Carmen Hill (@carmenhill) May 7, 2018
Also, you don’t always need to audit everything. While in a perfect universe you would; often a sampling is what is needed. But really depends on the purpose. E.g., if auditing to set an information architecture for a website, may only need sampling #contentchat
— Carlos Abler (@Carlos_Abler) May 7, 2018
Content audits are a core part of your content hygiene, including what needs to be retired or reworked.
A2: Content audits are a ton of work, especially when judging quality. Beyond identifying content that’s performing well, they also help you determine content that needs to be retired (off message/brand/not relevant anymore) and what should be updated. #contentchat
— Dominic Garcia (@dominicgarcia) May 7, 2018
Q3: OK I’m sold on the value of a content audit. What do I need to get started?
To start your content audit, you need to gather a list of your content.
A3: If you don’t have a CMS system that can export all your content (such as @HubSpot), you can use something like @screamingfrog… or an intern. #contentchat pic.twitter.com/UxDe8vmXYh
— CHARGE (@CHARGEgoforward) May 7, 2018
It can help to start with a template that includes fields for all the information you need to collect for each piece of content.
A3: In the words of @karenmcgrane, a content audit usually starts with a “giant spreadsheet of terror.” #ContentChat pic.twitter.com/fJoWq1b9fv
— Carmen Hill (@carmenhill) May 7, 2018
A3: I start with a template that includes all the attributes I might need and then delete those that aren’t relevant. I organize them around basic identification, performance data, marketing-related info, and general quality assessments. #ContentChat
— Carmen Hill (@carmenhill) May 7, 2018
A3: Your audit spreadsheet should include columns for key attributes such as title, URL, content type, owner, publish date, etc. It may also include audience, purpose, journey stage and more. #ContentChat
— Carmen Hill (@carmenhill) May 7, 2018
A3: If you’re just getting started (or even if you’re not), this is a super informative article from @curata about how to conduct a content audit: https://t.co/5xkO9JDqH3 #ContentChat
— Carmen Hill (@carmenhill) May 7, 2018
Start with a question you need you audit to answer.
A3: Start a content audie with what question you are trying to answer? For example: Do I have content all along the buyer’s journey that addresses a specific pain point? Or my blog is only gaining awareness, not closing leads – Why? #contentchat https://t.co/edKCR2njX7
— Amy Higgins (@amywhiggins) May 7, 2018
You also need to have a block of time set aside to do the legwork of auditing your content.
A3: Time 😂- Seriously though, there needs to be enough time set aside to go over a site and gain insights. #contentchat
— Alex Crump (@alcrump12) May 7, 2018
A3: You really only need three things: A spreadsheet, knowledge of your goals, and time! It doesn’t have to be overly complex. Knowing your goals (and being able to track them!) is critical to making decisions on each piece of content you have. #contentchat
— Dominic Garcia (@dominicgarcia) May 7, 2018
A3: you’ll need committed time to build a map of your content, match it with metrics, age/freshness & ownership and analyse your entire content footprint. You also need a standard method for assessing content quality, readability/usability, durability, reusability #ContentChat
— Craig Thomler (@craigthomler) May 7, 2018
Tools can automate some, but not all, aspects of a content audit, such as the inventory. To name a few: Screamingfrog, CAT, Moz Open Site Explorer… #ContentChat
— Carmen Hill (@carmenhill) May 7, 2018
Q4: What are the different kinds of content audits you can conduct? i.e. what are the different kinds of goals and how would they change your approach to a content audit?
Content audits can be qualitative or quantitative.
A4: As we’ve mentioned, there are two main types of content audit: quantitative, which focuses on identifiers such as metadata, and qualitative, which assesses things like relevance, quality and value. #ContentChat
— Carmen Hill (@carmenhill) May 7, 2018
Content audits can focus on specific content channels, content types, or even specific marketing campaigns to name a few variations.
A4: You can audit against your marketing funnel, sales funnel or other distributions (such as social or email). #contentchat
— CHARGE (@CHARGEgoforward) May 7, 2018
A4: There are a lot of variations on the kind of content audit you can conduct. For example: a comprehensive inventory, core sample, website migration, program- or campaign-specific, etc. #ContentChat
— Carmen Hill (@carmenhill) May 7, 2018
A4: A comprehensive audit would include every page & asset. A migration audit would indicate whether to “move, lose or improve.” A content marketing audit would assess how content fits into your marketing program or campaign. #ContentChat
— Carmen Hill (@carmenhill) May 7, 2018
The type of audit you are conducting will determine the right data fields to include in your content audit template.
A4: A comprehensive audit would include every page & asset. A migration audit would indicate whether to “move, lose or improve.” A content marketing audit would assess how content fits into your marketing program or campaign. #ContentChat
— Carmen Hill (@carmenhill) May 7, 2018
A4 I’m auditing content on results vs. goals for downloads, clicks, sign-ups, RTs, shares, comments, conversions and so on. #ContentChat
— Shannon Mouton Gray (@ShannonRenee) May 7, 2018
A4. Nobody’s answering what are the goals for a #content audit. How about find:
1) content that is an opportunity to improve
2) that should be repurposed
3) content our audience likes
4) gaps in the Awareness > Purchase process #ContentChat— Tod Cordill (@todcordill) May 7, 2018
A4: The type of content audit depends on your overarching content goals. For example, the metrics vary if you are looking towards awareness TOFU metrics vs MOFU etc #ContentChat. https://t.co/53wWGS9Apf
— Tatiana Beale (@tatianabeale) May 7, 2018
A4 I’m also comparing it to other content in the campaign. What kind of content performed best: written, audio, video or graphic? I’m also seeing which combos of content got the biggest bang for my bucks. #ContentChat
— Shannon Mouton Gray (@ShannonRenee) May 7, 2018
Be clear on if you are conducting a content audit or compiling a content library or inventory. They’re not the same things.
A4: I think the terms “Audit” and “Inventory” get said interchangeably a lot, when really I see them as very different. I see an audit as something that asses qualitative things, like quality of content. #ContentChat
— Alex Crump (@alcrump12) May 7, 2018
BIG believer in the “content library” vs “content audit.” Keeping that data all updated all the time (as much as humanly possible) means you can break it down into all of those component parts (sales vs. marketing, etc.) with 90% less muss and fuss.#ContentChat
— Rebekah Meyer (@RebekahLMeyer) May 7, 2018
That’s why I always create a content audit brief, which spells out the purpose, requirements and expectations for the audit (whether inventory only or inventory + analysis or whatever). Can save a ton of time and heartache. #ContentChat https://t.co/55bH082WdO
— Carmen Hill (@carmenhill) May 7, 2018
Q5: What fields should my content marketing program or campaign focused content audit spreadsheet include?
There are some basic pieces of information all content audits should include:
A5: In addition to the basics, a content marketing audit would indicate things like keywords, persona, buyer’s journey stage, channel and how the content might be repurposed. #ContentChat
— Carmen Hill (@carmenhill) May 7, 2018
A5: In a content audit sheet, you might want to include: publish date, a note if there is time-sensitive/technology information, content type, author, backup author, product or service it applies to, a 1-10 rating of current popularity #ContentChat
— Maureen Jann (@SuperDeluxeMo) May 7, 2018
A5 I would have these
1. Date of publishing
2. Traffic estimate
3. Social shares
4. Engagement score
5. Backlinks#contentchat— Krishna Rg🚀 (@krishnarg22) May 7, 2018
A5: A campaign-focused content audit should focus on journey stage, targeted persona, pain points, scenarios, use case, industry, product value prop #ContentChat
— Tatiana Beale (@tatianabeale) May 7, 2018
A5: For campaign-focused audits, include your CTAs – did your content drive people alony the journey. If not, why? Traffic source, user flow, views, unique views, downloads, open rates, places shared and other deliverables can help you map your content. #contentchat https://t.co/xHtX9Z5jrz
— Amy Higgins (@amywhiggins) May 7, 2018
Consider organizing your audit by buyer persona or buyer’s journey to make it more easily digested.
A5: I think it’s especially useful to spell out opportunities for optimization or repurposing. It’s often easier to update or improve content than to start from scratch. #ContentChat
— Carmen Hill (@carmenhill) May 7, 2018
A5: Some specific areas we like to focus on are which persona our content is geared towards and tracking against the time of day for reporting purposes. #contentchat
— CHARGE (@CHARGEgoforward) May 7, 2018
Identify opportunities for content updates or repurposing in your content audit.
A5: I think it’s especially useful to spell out opportunities for optimization or repurposing. It’s often easier to update or improve content than to start from scratch. #ContentChat
— Carmen Hill (@carmenhill) May 7, 2018
Content audits should also include fields that support governance, such as content expiration date.
A5. I’d also make sure your audit includes expiration dates. Helps with governance, and we all need all the help we can get with that! #ContentChat
— Carmen Hill (@carmenhill) May 7, 2018
Consider your content strategy’s audience. You may need more than one version.
A5 The internal–marketing team–content audit should be as thorough as possible with as much detail as possible for learning and planning purposes. The external–client and C-suite–audits need to contain summaries w/ few examples, not too much detail. #ContentChat
— Shannon Mouton Gray (@ShannonRenee) May 7, 2018
A5 Giving the client and C-suite your content audit details is like giving them survey cross-tabs = a waste of time. #ContentChat
— Shannon Mouton Gray (@ShannonRenee) May 7, 2018
Q6: What content should I include or not include in my audit? What about content on third-party sites or PR placements?
A content audit covers content you control, while a content inventory can include third-party content.
A6: I think you need to audit those pieces of content you have control over and inventory those you don’t. #ContentChat
— Maureen Jann (@SuperDeluxeMo) May 7, 2018
A6 For content audits, I include content we created (in-house or via vendor) and control. Content created by others that refers to us is not included. #ContentChat
— Shannon Mouton Gray (@ShannonRenee) May 7, 2018
It can be helpful to conduct separate audits for your PR and content marketing efforts.
A6: As a company, we track our PR and content marketing efforts separately and also recommend this for our clients. #contentchat
— CHARGE (@CHARGEgoforward) May 7, 2018
I like the idea of having PR in a more comprehensive inventory, versus in the audit. After all, it’s not something we own and can measure with the exact same metrics as our owned content. #ContentChat
— Erika Heald | Marketing Consultant (@SFerika) May 7, 2018
If you are measuring the success of a campaign, you’ll want to include all the relevant content in your content audit.
A6: You should include all the content that is part of your overall content strategy, whether that is an entire website or a specific campaign. #ContentChat
— Carmen Hill (@carmenhill) May 7, 2018
A6: And if you are including third-party content or PR placements in your content marketing strategy, then yes! You should definitely include that content in your audit. #ContentChat
— Carmen Hill (@carmenhill) May 7, 2018
I think there are ways to reconcile these needs. I often use multiple tabs: one for straight inventory, others for each persona, etc. Then you can map all kinds of content (owned, earned, paid) into a content marketing matrix or map. #ContentChat https://t.co/3NBzGEGr4x
— Carmen Hill (@carmenhill) May 7, 2018
And don’t forget about offline content!
Great point. All #sales & #marketing collateral should be included in a #content audit. Also tag where it is used in the funnel. #contentchat #print https://t.co/ZoU6YeeyfU
— Tod Cordill (@todcordill) May 7, 2018
Q7: I’ve completed my content audit. Now what?
Look at each individual piece of content and ask yourself a few questions:
A7: You’re finished with your content audit, Yipee! Now you need to ask yourself:
* which pieces need to be updated?
* which are no longer relevant?
* which have opportunity for spin off?
* which need new meta info?
.. and that’s just a starting place. #ContentChat— Maureen Jann (@SuperDeluxeMo) May 7, 2018
Look at your content as a whole, then ask yourself a few questions:
A7b: Then you ask…
* What have been the most popular content types over the last 3 months, 6 months, 1 year?
* What content topics have been popular over the last 3 months, 6 months, 1 year?
* Who are the audiences reading them? Do they align with personas? #ContentChat— Maureen Jann (@SuperDeluxeMo) May 7, 2018
Learn from your audit—don’t just file it in a folder until next time.
A7 LEARN FROM IT. Don’t perform a content audit as an exercise, use the information to make informed decision about future content creation. #ContentChat
— Shannon Mouton Gray (@ShannonRenee) May 7, 2018
Look at filling your gaps, repurposing your content or redoing your deliverables to meet your strategy. But…are you REALLY ever done with a content audit? #contentchat pic.twitter.com/EEGb9e5Qiv
— Amy Higgins (@amywhiggins) May 7, 2018
Q8: How often should I revisit my content audit? Does it make sense to add new content to it as it’s created?
Treat your content audit as a living document.
A8: Yes! A content audit should be a living document that is updated (and added to) on a regular basis. How often you do that depends on the volume, frequency and typical lifecycle of your content. #ContentChat
— Carmen Hill (@carmenhill) May 7, 2018
A8: Of course! Every time you post new content, add it to your library. #contentchat
— CHARGE (@CHARGEgoforward) May 7, 2018
A8 Keep that audit up to date, so you don’t have to go back very far whenever you have a need for one. #contentchat
— Martin Lieberman (@martinlieberman) May 7, 2018
Conduct audits on a regular, recurring basis.
A8: One approach is to conduct rolling content audits on a regular cadence, so it’s part of your regular workflow. Over time, this allows you to revisit all of your content on at least a semi-frequent basis. #ContentChat
— Carmen Hill (@carmenhill) May 7, 2018
A8: Also, the frequency of content audits should be part of any workflow and governance plan. #ContentChat
— Carmen Hill (@carmenhill) May 7, 2018
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