Content analytics for product-led growth
Content analytics is vital in product-led growth (PLG). By analyzing user engagement with in-product content, businesses identify user preferences and improvement areas. This insight refines content, driving organic growth. In PLG, where the product shines, content analytics ensures each piece advances the user journey.
Introduction
Content analytics isn't just data and numbers. It's the strategic compass that empowers businesses to soar higher in the digital landscape. In this post, we'll dive into the world of content analytics – what it is, how it helps businesses succeed, and the transformative insights it offers. Buckle up as we explore the art of harnessing data-driven strategies to achieve remarkable outcomes in your content marketing journey. Get ready to pinpoint the right audience for your product and craft compelling content based on your insights and learnings.
What is content analytics?
Content analytics paints the picture of your users’ online journey – from web traffic patterns to audience engagement with your blogs, documentation, and informative articles. But it's not just about numbers; it's the key to unlocking the strategy of successful content creation. Think of content analytics as your creative compass, guiding you to curate content that resonates, converts, and sparks user action.
Content analytics guides you in finding the right subjects and methods to connect with your target audience. It's like a map that uncovers fresh strategies by showing you what topics and styles really click with readers. Armed with this information, you can refine your content strategy to focus on the winning approaches that truly engage your core audience.
What’s the difference between content analytics and web analytics?
Content analytics and web analytics, two sides of the same coin, serve distinct purposes, While web analytics zooms in on website usage and traffic, content analytics delves into how your content resonates across user personas. It's like a tandem dance – content analytics focuses on content performance, revealing popular content types and engagement tweaks, while web analytics deciphers website traffic patterns.
It is essential that you have access to one tool that seamlessly orchestrates both these insights, simplifying your journey to insightful analytics. Flywheel is one example of such a tool. With Flywheel, you dictate which content and web analytics metrics to monitor, setting event goals and alerts to keep you in the loop. It's a symphony of insights orchestrated for your success.
By uniting content analytics and web analytics, you not only gain a clearer grasp of content performance but also uncover strategies to enhance website engagement. Armed with the right tools and strategies, this duo empowers you to craft impactful content strategies while optimizing your website's prowess for unmatched performance.
What are the benefits of tracking content data?
Tracking content data is an under-valued aspect of marketing analytics. Most companies stop after looking at the number of page views on an article or blog post. What should be evaluated, though, is how that content resonated with users and what occurred after the content was read. Here are a few benefits of tracking content-related data:
Showcasing data-driven decisions
Imagine sculpting your content strategy based on tangible data, not speculation. Content analytics empowers you with the wisdom of informed decision-making. For instance, by analyzing session recordings, you can see exactly where users spend the most time on your website, revealing what topics or sections interest them the most. This precision-crafts your content approach. No more shots in the dark – each move is a calculated step toward improved engagement and conversion.
Benchmarking against competition
Content analytics can act as your guiding light, showing you industry standards and best practices. With the power to measure your performance against others – for example, by comparing your content's reach and engagement to the top performers in your field – you gain a competitive advantage. These insights can fuel ambitious goals and pave the way to top-notch content.
Providing and maximizing ROI
Content analytics isn't just about creation; it's about validation. By leveraging this tool, you can substantiate and enhance your Return on Investment (ROI). For instance, you can examine how specific articles directly contribute to platform sign-ups, allowing you to create more content of that nature to attract similar results. Uncover the correlation between content efforts and tangible outcomes. Showcase how content is the driving force behind the flywheel's spin, illuminating the path to quantifiable success.
What types of content should I be analyzing?
Now that we're familiar with the power and perks of content analytics, let's explore the range of content possibilities waiting for your insightful analysis. Remember, the types of content you analyze might vary based on the industry you’re in, but we've compiled a list of the most common content assets.
It’s a good idea to analyze all of the content types by audience, intention, and goal.
Documentation
Content type: Documentation
Audience: Developers and Product Managers
Intention: Drive successful product activation and feature adoption
Goal: Successfully perform the task the documentation references
Blog articles
Content type: Blog articles
Audience: Specific target personas
Intention: Educate and inform about product features, use cases, and industry trends
Goal: Increase brand awareness, drive traffic to the website, and generate leads
Solutions pages
Content type: Solutions pages
Audience: Target personas and existing users seeking specific solutions
Intention: Showcase how the product solves specific problems or addresses pain points
Goal: Convince visitors to explore the product further and convert them into users or customers
Landing pages
Content type: Landing pages
Audience: Target personas
Intention: Capture user's attention, convey value proposition, and encourage action (e.g., sign up, request a demo)
Goal: Drive conversions and generate leads
Email content
Content type: Emails
Audience: Existing users, trial users, or leads
Intention: Nurture customer relationships, provide product updates, share relevant content, and promote new features
Goal: Increase user engagement, encourage product usage, and drive conversions or upsells
Help articles
Content type: Help articles
Audience: Current users seeking assistance or troubleshooting
Intention: Provide detailed instructions, guidelines, and troubleshooting information
Goal: Enable users to successfully perform tasks, resolve issues, and increase product satisfaction and adoption.
Social media
Content type: Social media
Audience: Target personas
Intention: Engage, inform, and entertain through social platforms
Goal: Amplify brand reach, foster community, and drive traffic to your website
Starting metrics for content analytics
Now that you know what types of content you want to analyze, let's explore the key metrics that are essential to track with content analytics. Once you’ve identified your metrics, you need to establish a baseline to track your progress over time.
Some metrics you should track for website content include:
Total page views: Represents the total number of times a particular page or piece of content has been viewed by users. It provides a broad overview of content popularity and the level of traffic attracted to a specific page.
Session duration: Measures the length of time users spend on your website or a specific page during a single visit. It helps gauge user engagement and indicates how effectively your content is holding users' attention.
Bounce rate: Measures the percentage of users who land on a page and then leave your website without further interaction or navigating to other pages. A high bounce rate can indicate that users did not find the content engaging or relevant to their needs.
Click-through Rate (CTR): Measures the percentage of users who clicked on a specific link or call-to-action within your content. It helps assess the effectiveness of your content in driving user engagement and conversions.
Conversion Rate: Calculates the percentage of users who completed a desired action, such as making a purchase, filling out a form, or subscribing to a newsletter. It reflects the effectiveness of your content in driving desired outcomes.
Social shares: Tracks the number of times your content is shared on social media platforms. It indicates the level of engagement and interest your content generates, as well as its potential reach through social networks.
Scroll depth: Measures how far users scroll down a page to assess their engagement with your content. It provides insights into which sections of your content are capturing users' attention and helps optimize content placement and length.
Some metrics you should track for social media content include:
Follower growth: Monitors the increase in your social media followers over time, reflecting the growth of your audience.
Engagement rate: Calculates the overall interaction rate on your social media content, providing a holistic view of its effectiveness.
Click-through Rate (CTR): Similar to web content, measures the percentage of users who click on links or calls-to-action in your social media posts.
To establish a baseline, you’ll need to set up a tracking system. Flywheel is a great tool for tracking metrics such as page views, the people and companies who view your content, and which industries or departments your readers belong to. Once you have a tracking system in place, you can start to analyze the data. Look for patterns and insights that can help you understand how your content is performing. Leverage the accumulated data to drive enhancements to your content. We’ll show you how!
Making content decisions based on analytics
You have an arsenal of metrics you're tracking. Great! Now what? Well, this is where you begin your analysis and decision-making processes. Let’s dive into it.
By tracking key metrics such as engagement, reach, likes, comments, and shares, you can evaluate the success of their content and identify content gaps. The metrics explored above help identify which content pieces are performing well and which ones may need improvement. Here are some specific use cases for some of those metrics.
Analyzing specific content elements
Click-through rate (CTR) and conversion rate provide insights into the success of specific calls-to-action and content elements. A high click-through rate (CTR) on a call-to-action button in your email newsletter can indicate that your audience finds the content enticing and is motivated to explore further. Similarly, a low conversion rate on a landing page might signal that the page's content or design needs adjustments to better resonate with visitors and encourage them to take the desired action.
Analyzing audience engagement
Analyzing social shares and scroll depth further reveals audience engagement and interest. For instance, if you notice that a blog post on your website has a high scroll depth, indicating that readers are scrolling through the entire article, and it has been shared extensively on social media platforms, this suggests that the content has captured the readers' attention and resonated strongly with them. This combination of metrics indicates a successful piece of content that effectively engages your audience and encourages them to share it with others, potentially leading to increased brand visibility and a broader reach.
Identifying content gaps
By examining metrics such as engagement, reach, likes, comments, and shares, you can pinpoint areas where your content might be falling short. For instance, if you notice a blog post with low engagement and a limited number of shares, it could indicate that the topic or approach didn't resonate with your audience as expected. Similarly, tracking bounce rates and time spent on certain pages can reveal whether users are quickly leaving your site without engaging with your content. These insights highlight content gaps that require your attention, allowing you to create more relevant and compelling content that addresses your audience's needs and preferences, ultimately improving user engagement and conversions.
Brand Alignment
When leveraging content analytics, maintaining alignment with your brand's values, mission, and goals is paramount. For instance, consider a fashion brand aiming to promote sustainability and ethical practices. By analyzing content performance, they might find that blog articles discussing sustainable fashion trends receive higher engagement and social shares compared to other topics. Armed with this data, the brand can confidently create more content in line with their values, resonating with their eco-conscious audience and further establishing their position as a leader in sustainable fashion. With content analytics guiding their decisions, the brand ensures that their content remains impactful and consistent with their core message.
The examples explored above offer just a glimpse into the range of insights you can receive and the strategic decisions you can make based on them. Remember, the key lies in tracking the right metrics, understanding what they mean, and taking purposeful actions based on the revelations.
Content analytics best practices
Content strategy isn't a one-size-fits-all affair. It's a bespoke approach tailored to your industry and customer journey stage. This is where content analytics comes into play, guiding your strategy with precision and insight.
Collect well-rounded data
To open the doors to content analytics, deploy tracking snippets, such as Flywheel.js that grant access to your website's inner workings. But it doesn't stop there. When adopting an analytics tool, the true magic happens when you integrate this data with your other operational tools. The key is data synergy – collecting information from diverse sources into a harmonious narrative, empowering your content strategy with well-rounded intelligence.
Repurpose your content
Content analytics also plays a significant role in content repurposing. Often, it's smarter to use content you already have in different ways rather than creating new content from scratch. This saves time and helps your content reach more people. For example, a blog post that's doing well can be turned into an engaging video script for YouTube. To do this, you just need to identify your best-performing content using analytics and plan how to share it in new ways.
Analyze metrics from multiple angles
It's important not to track the exact same metrics for everything you do. Instead, stay open-minded and look at your data in different ways. This is where having a complete analytics tool really matters. It gives you various ways to understand your data and see the bigger picture.
Think of it like looking at a painting. If you only focus on one corner, you might miss the whole picture. But if you step back and see the whole canvas, you'll understand what's happening. For example, you might notice a decrease in traffic to a particular piece of content and assume it's not doing well. However, the actual reason could be a technical issue on the page that's affecting its performance. This is why it's crucial to examine your data from different angles.
Experiment and iterate
Keep trying new things and learning from them to make your content strategy better. Test things like button texts or certain keywords on your landing pages. You can do this by conducting A/B tests, analyzing the results and iterating based on your learnings. For example, try two landing pages with different button texts, show them to your audience by placing ads on them, and see which one they like more. Remember, the key is to keep experimenting, pay attention to the results, and use what you learn to make your strategy even better.
Fin
The essence of product-led growth lies in understanding and acting upon user behavior and preferences. With the right content analytics approach, businesses can unlock profound insights, refining their strategy to deliver maximum value. While the landscape may appear complex, with persistent evaluation and adjustment, it's possible to foster a product experience that resonates authentically with users. As we chart the future of PLG, leveraging data-driven insights will be the north star guiding successful endeavors.
Published on
Oct 9, 2023
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