Content marketing has gone from a niche field to an essential part of the digital marketer’s arsenal in a very short space of time. Now, for brands and companies of all sizes, producing content that can drive interest and generate leads is a key element (often the key element) of a brand’s online marketing strategy.
Forward thinking companies have quickly seen the difference that good content can have on lead generation and creating upsell opportunities. So understanding exactly what kinds of content appeal to your target audience on each channel and tracking the performance of your own content is vital to developing a robust and coherent content marketing strategy across all channels.
To track and analyze content performance effectively, you need good data and that’s where our unique Content Analytics IQ App comes in. Split into three categories, we use powerful social listening technology to analyze owned content, industry trends and benchmark performance against competitors. This new social data dashboard gives you all the data you need in a matter of seconds to create content that appeals to prospective clients and customers on every media channel.
All screenshots were created using the Talkwalker Content Analytics IQ App.
Get To Know Your Community
The first step to improving your content strategy is understanding your community. The 5 W’s are a good starting point:
- Where is your audience?
- Who are they?
- What are their interests?
- When are they active?
- Which kinds of content do they engage with?
The below screenshot shows the most discussed themes on Uber’s Twitter and Facebook channels as well as the types of posts on both channels that are generating the most engagement.
(Top themes and content types show text only content working well for Uber)
By understanding your community better using social media analytics, you can refine your content so it matches audience interests and concerns and gives them valuable information they can use to reach their business goals. This can help turn casual interest into a stronger, more trusting relationship and ultimately deliver higher quality leads.
Become The Voice Of The Industry
Once you’ve identified what your current audience like and dislike and how your current content is performing, it’s time to set your sights a little broader. To make sure your content is reaching a wide relevant, audience it’s important to understand the issues that are trending in your industry or field. What are the top themes, the top hashtags being used, who are the top influencers and on what media channels are trends being discussed?
In the below screenshot you can see the posts that have delivered the most engagement and the top influencers around virtual reality technology over the last month.
(Online news sites are driving the most engagement when it comes to virtual reality)
Getting to know the news, comments and opinions that are moving your industry helps you orient your content marketing so it makes a greater impact. Using this kind of social intelligence, brands can refine the topics, channels and tone of voice used to make sure their content rises to the top and is noticed by the industry. Once in this position, brands can start to drive the direction of the conversation and be considered thought leaders rather than followers.
Identify Best Practices
New industry trends, content ideas and even media channels are cropping up all the time meaning there are always new things to learn when it comes to creating the best content for your needs. Whether you’re creating content to build brand awareness, drive traffic, improve SEO or generate leads, having accurate social media analytics to understand exactly how competitors are creating content is a great way to discover best practices and find new content ideas.
The charts below show that Gucci has had a slightly higher level of engagement and more reach than luxury brand competitor Louis Vuitton over the last month. The Italian fashion giant has used a greater proportion of posts with images which may have helped drive engagement.
(Gucci’s Twitter feed is out performing their rival Louis Vuitton)
Data and visualizations help you quickly and intuitively understand and compare key content marketing KPIs. Using this kind of data, marketing and social media teams can quickly refine strategies and make adjustments to ensure that their posts are reaching the right audience.
Content marketing is here to stay but the way in which it will be executed will no doubt continue to evolve. Being able to understand which kinds of content are engaging your audience, impacting the industry and pushing the boundaries, helps you become a more powerful industry voice. Using our one of a kind Content Analytics IQ App you can make sure your content marketing continues to drive traffic, improve lead quality and ultimately, improve the bottom line.
