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Data drives all kinds of decisions, whether you know it or not. To do anything in this digital age, even if it’s just sending an email, you need data.
How can data drive content? There are many ways. Such as using quantitative analysis and research to find out what type of content your audience is interested in and then creating that specific type of content for them (content planning).
This article shows how data can help optimize your marketing efforts on both a macro level and a micro level (i.e., individual branch).
The Benefits of a Data-Driven Approach
Over the last decade, companies have been using data and analytics to both optimize and drive their marketing efforts.
When you use a data-driven approach, you can:
- Find out what your audience is looking for in terms of content.
- Find out what types of content your audience loves the most.
- Create new content that matches those preferences.
- Monitor how your company is performing on various tasks (what are our customers doing? What kind of offers are they taking advantage of?) to determine if you’re meeting expectations.
Improving Your Content Strategy With Real Data
Content marketing and SEO go hand in hand, but the ultimate goal is to drive organic traffic to your website. A strong content marketing strategy can help you achieve this goal, but it can also help you reach your company’s long-term goals.
You can use data from your website analytics – top referrers, top keywords, and user sessions – to create custom content that drives your business’s organic traffic and conversion rates.
Working with an SEO company like Click Intelligence that can get in work with your analytics to help you set up custom URLs and create content that goes beyond what you’re doing already.
If you’re not happy with the number of clicks your various pages receive, take it a step further – set up a Google AdWords campaign that targets those pages to improve their click-through rates. You can also use other digital advertising networks (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn) to drive traffic to these pages.
The Right Tools for the Job
You can use an analytics dashboard to gain a better understanding of:
- Behavior – where your audience is coming from, what they’re doing on your website, and how they’re using it.
- Using this data to implement different types of content can help you optimize the user experience.
- What types of content are being used most? Then match this data with analytics data to figure out why certain content is being used more than others. For example, if you notice that your “how-to” articles are receiving more clicks and social shares, it’s likely because they’re more in-depth and “actionable.” You then know that you need to create more of these types of articles in order to generate traffic and engagement.
Using data capture tools like Google Analytics and NetBase, you can start tracking user engagement (click-through rates, exit rates, etc.) and find out where the clicks are coming from. This data can then be used to create content that will attract more of your target demographic.
You can also use data collected from social media to determine the type of content your audience wants and like. For example, if you notice that a lot of people share your posts related to motivational quotes, see how you can create related content around this. You could create more motivational quotes-related articles or other business-related content, which would help you improve your SEO.
Getting Started with Data-Driven Content
To get started, you must first figure out where your audience is talking about your business. Do they do this on Twitter? Facebook? Instagram? LinkedIn? Asking questions on Quora or Reddit?
Then, dive into each of these networks and start listening to what people are saying. Some may be related to your business, while others will not, but it’s important that you keep track of everything as you begin analyzing site data.
As you continue listening to your audience, use the same tools they’re using to ask questions and join in on conversations relevant to the topics they’re interested in discussing (i.e., the best blogs in their industry).
Conclusion: Why Data Is Essential For Content Success
Once you start analyzing the data that you’re gathering, you can start creating content that matches your audience’s needs. In other words, you’re not just creating content to drive traffic but to match the data on your website and other social media.
That said, data is only as good as the analysis you put into it. Make sure you do the research and analysis to ensure accuracy. You don’t want to waste your time creating irrelevant content that doesn’t actually drive results or increase your brand’s credibility.
