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November 15, 2021 Content Chat Recap: How to Audit Your 2021 Content Strategy to Drive Your 2022 Strategic Content Marketing Planning

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Have you started your 2022 content marketing planning? Before you start to put pen to paper for your plan, it’s crucial to audit your 2021 content and uplevel key insights that can boost your team’s success next year.

In this #ContentChat we explain how to lead an effective content audit with Amy Higgins (@AmyWHiggins), director of content strategy at Salesforce for its Service Cloud. Read the full recap below, where we explain how to structure a content audit, the channels to prioritize during an audit, how to turn your data into insights, and more.

Q1: Why is an annual content audit essential for effective content marketing planning?

A content audit should not be a one-and-done exercise. An annual audit is necessary to understand how to best allocate your marketing budget and resources to meet your community needs.

Most readily available marketing data is just one piece of the puzzle. An audit helps piece everything together.

An audit can also uncover how your customer content needs have shifted over the last year.

Q2: How do you structure your content audit? Do you have a template you can share?

Erika shares her blog content audit template below for you to download.

At Salesforce, Amy structures her content audits in two ways. One as an overall content performance to identify trends, and another by program or initiative.

It’s important to focus on actionable data. You need to understand how your content is performing by topic, length, SEO, location, and author.

Reaching the right audience, getting them to engage with your content, and ideally advancing them to the next stage of the journey is the ultimate marker of success with content.

Amy tags all content based on its stage in the audience journey.

Erika starts her audit by exporting the website’s analytics data and appending it with BuzzSumo social sharing data. Then, she tags each row with the topic and audience persona, and she reviews and flags each piece of content for archiving, updating, or repurposing.

Amy recommends Kapost and Tableau in addition to BuzzSumo.

Q3: What channels should marketers audit as part of their 2022 content marketing planning? Do you include distribution channels in addition to publishing channels?

As Joe Pulizzi says, don’t build your content house on rented land. So, we recommend you start your content audit with your owned content channels.

However, it’s important to look at all your active channels. This will help you understand how and where your content has been most effective so you can identify content gaps to fill or channel strategies you need to refine.

Urchin Tracking Module (UTM) parameters can help you track how your content is performing. Download Tod’s URL builder here, and Amy shares hers below.

Q4: What do you look for in a content audit? What data and metrics do you assess?

Before starting your content audit, review your previous content strategy document and the KPIs you set.

For each piece of content, assess the total views, engagement rate and types, what drove people to the content, and what page they went after.

Find which content performs well through organic search, and assess where you can further distribute that content.

For low-performing content, check if there is a way to rework or salvage the piece.

Amy’s team reserves time specifically for optimizing older assets.

Finally, Erika uses a multi-touch attribution strategy to understand how the content helped to win deals.

We previously shared a step-by-step walkthrough of how to audit and refresh your blog content in this post.

Q5: After conducting the initial content audit, how can marketers turn their insights into action? What are some examples of taking a data insight and applying it to the planning process?

A content audit can uncover plenty of ways that your team can optimize its content. First, look at your SEO and address any missing keywords.

Assess the UX of your site and content. Consider rewriting your blog intros if page visitors quickly bounce.

Review your blog post authors. Whose content consistently performs well? What learnings can you apply? If an author consistently does not share their content on their social channels, it could make sense to prioritize other authors for content opportunities.

Ultimately, your audit should give you the data you need to understand whether your team should shift its content marketing strategy.

Q6: What questions should teams ask themselves throughout the audit process to ensure they uncover the right content marketing opportunities for their team?

Align your audit back to your business goals. How can content help drive the business forward?

Challenge your expectations. Did you deliver on your last content strategy goals? Is there something you learned that you can apply to your new strategy?

Q7: What tools do you use during a content audit to improve or accelerate the process?

Erika and Amy both use spreadsheets to organize their audits, and they both recommend Agorapulse, BuzzSumo, Google Analytics, Kapost, Brightegde, Semrush, and TrackMaven to assist in the process.

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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