Content marketing is the perfect mix of creativity and data. Mining the insights and numbers of analytics can make a real impact on what you create, and how. So, let’s talk about how analytics can be one of your most powerful tools for content creation.

Analytics Are Powerful Tools For Content Creation

You can find plenty of clues in your analytics data about your content, like …

  • Does it convert?
  • Where does it fit in your customer’s journey?
  • Does it engage customers and entice them to take action?

Yep – believe it or not, the answers to these questions can all be found within that data. So, recommend that you make data your friend and let it help shape how you create your content going forward.

And to show you what we mean, let’s dive into more detail about why analytics are so very important to content creation.

#1 – Analytics Help You Create Content That Converts

Your analytics can show you whether your content converts in the way you want it to.

Ultimately, your content must provide value to your audience. Whether that’s through answering their questions, educating them, or entertaining them, it’s important to remember it needs to be useful.

How useful is your content? The metrics tell the story

To see how your content performs over time, dive into your Google Analytics metrics. Note, remember that data about your website content (pages and posts) takes time to build up as both Google and your audience organically discover it.

But once you have a good amount, you can analyse the data to determine:

  • Is your content attracting traffic to the site?
  • Do people convert when they land on your content (eg, click on the call to action or download the freebie)?
  • Is there is a high bounce rate (i.e., are visitors landing and then promptly leaving your site)?
  • How long do people stay on each page?
  • Where do your visitors go after they land on particular pages?

You will begin to understand where people come to see the content, what they do on-page, and then where they go afterwards.

Mapping this out to understand the exact journey your visitors take on your site will provide a gold mine of information for you as a content creator.

Tweak your content once you know how your visitors respond to it

For example, if there is a trend where your visitors are exiting on a particular page, consider reviewing the content on that page. Use a critical eye to assess how the copy, images, and calls to action (aka “CTAs“) are presented. Ensure visitors can easily find what they need.

It’s true that tracking traffic and sales as the final outcome is important. However, there are other metrics that are arguably even more important, such as brand awareness, loyalty and retention, and engagement.

Content is so much more than just a sales tool. It’s an amazing tool to build trust and form connections with your audience (which, conveniently, is also a crucial part of the sales process!).

#2 Analytics Help You Create Content That Matches The Customer’s Journey

Do you know the journey your customer takes to engage with your content?

If not, you may need to set aside some time to gather data and perform a content audit. This helps you see how your content fits into your overall content funnel.

Start by mapping out all the content you have on your website, social channels, and anywhere else. Ensure each piece fits into one of the content funnel segments, usually awareness, consideration, or decision.

Sounds like effort? It definitely is. But it’s worth the time because the average person engages with 3-5 pieces of content before talking to you, and 87% of shoppers now begin their search on digital channels. People do their research before making a purchasing decision.

Content types for each stage of the content funnel

The awareness stage of the content funnel is when someone discovers your business. From there, they move into the consideration stage as they learn more about your product or services. Finally, they enter the decision stage, when they become a customer by purchasing from you.

If you create the following types of content, consider how each aligns with the customer’s journey through your funnel:

  • Awareness: blog posts, videos, infographics, social media posts.
  • Consideration: white papers, ebooks, guides, case studies, resources, webinars, reports
  • Decision: testimonials, consultations, free trials, promo codes, customer stories, specifications/details

You might find you have content types missing or that your content is concentrated mostly in one particular area while others are lacking.

Mapping it out will show you where you need to create additional content to help your customers along their journey.

Now it’s time to use data from Google Analytics to see how effective each content piece actually is within the overall funnel. What do the numbers say?

# 3 Analytics Helps You Discover Content That Compels Action

Google Analytics can show you which content pieces drive high amounts of traffic to your site.

It can also show you which of these don’t perform as well as they should. If the call to action isn’t being taken, it’s time to look at how the page is set up.

Things to consider:

  • Should the call to action buttons be higher up the page?
  • Is there a clear direction for the next steps?
  • Are the call to action buttons visible?
  • Is the content format easy to read?
  • Does it look good?

Believe it or not, subtle on-page changes can actually have a big impact on the success of your content.

Also, don’t forget to review how the content is distributed – where and how. Make sure the language and any associated social posts reflect the actual content so people know what to expect when they get there.

Your visitors are only human and don’t like surprises. Give them what they expect to receive when they click a link to read your website content.

Consistently check your analytics to gain more insights

Checking your data every day will show you how people are engaging with content at that time.

It’s also good to check how the content performs over time, so you can see how it has increased traffic or downloads. Consider switching to 3 and 6 months, then year-on-year for established websites.

And remember that while any changes you make will take time to implement, you can expect to see organic results in around three to six months.

Analytics – One Of Our Favorite Tools for Content Creation

As you can see, learning how to use your analytics data to guide you can be a very powerful tool for content creation. Instead of just guessing what your audience wants to see, what they like and don’t like, and what works or doesn’t – use your analytics to determine exactly what your next move should be.

Next steps

If you’re still unsure how to use data to inform your content creation, we would love to help you. We’re not kidding when we say mining data and assessing analytics are our thing! There’s nothing we love more than a good assessment of traffic and conversions figures to determine a strategy forward to create better content.

If that sounds good, book a strategy call and let’s discuss your next steps.

Or, if you’d rather give it a go on your own, download our free Beginners Guide to Google Analytics here to get you started.