Skip to content
Firstly, do make sure you have a solid understanding of your content strategy and how you drive ROI. These can dictate your needs in this area. Six consideration you should make when selecting a platform.
- The best tool is the one you use
- Third-party measurement is vital
- Benchmarks
- Time to insight
- Distribution impacts success too, so make sure it is measured effectively
- A good tool will help improve your old content too
1. The best tool is the one you use
Very very valid. In picking a tool, are you using it, do you think you will use it? Can you do a trial to play with it? How hard is it to use? Can anyone on the team use it?
Think of it like you would say a step tracker or health watch. Pick something you want to use each day if you have to. And reliable enough to get the job done in the background whilst your busy.
At Nudge, we see that users use us up to 6 hours/week.
2. Third-party measurement is vital
Some of the bigger platforms include their own measurements. A third-party tool is built with you, the end-user in mind. So it tends to be more user-friendly, simplifies usage and builds features based on your needs.
Also, external measurement helps keep other platforms in check. i.e. Facebook has had measurement issues before.
Finally, when you use external tools, you are making sure you are competing against the market. Not just that specific platform.
3. Benchmarks
Benchmarks are an exceedingly brilliant invention. These help keep you in check – and ensure you know how you are positioned in the market. Consider tools that help you benchmark against yourself and the market. Contextualize your performance and figure out how your content can work even better.
4. Time to insight
Ensure that the data you are going to get is actionable. What business decisions do you need to make? What do you need to communicate with stakeholders? i.e.
- Did our content work?
- Is it delivering ROI?
- Should we spend more money? Or not?
- Where should we invest more money?
Data for data sake doesn’t help anyone.
5. Distribution impacts success too, so make sure it is measured effectively
We had a finance client who just wasn’t hitting their goals. We looked at the data and saw that all of their content was promoted in areas that meant that 60% of users left the content within 5 seconds.
So the content had ZERO chance of delivering any impact. Poor team!
In picking a tool, think about how you will measure your distribution, and use that to make your overall campaign a success. Content analytics has to go beyond the content and go to how it is shared, seen and distributed. See more in our Content ROI post and our post on the Factors which drive content ROI.
6. A good tool will help improve your old content too
This is often forgotten, but in calculating the return on investment consider what you have invested in content in the last three years. A new system should help improve that content too. Copy our snazzy ROI calculator here.
To recap,
- The best tool is the one you use
- Third-party measurement is vital
- Benchmarks
- Time to insight
- Distribution impacts success too, so make sure it is measured effectively
- A good tool will help improve your old content too
This is part of our Guide to Content Marketing Analytics.
|
|---|