How To Avoid Getting Asked If The Content Worked
“Did the content work?”, the dreaded question you’ve probably been asked if you’ve run any sort of content campaign or content led marketing initiative. The reason you get asked this question is because content can be bloody hard to measure, especially when we’ve been spoiled in an age of digital marketing that is tracked, traced, predictive, personalised, targeting and charted all to deliver an ROI figure of cents on the dollar.
But when we say avoid getting asked, we don’t mean literally ghosting your boss and hoping they don’t mention it, but laying some groundwork before you get started so that the question isn’t as daunting when it comes up.
Define success before you get started
Defining what success looks like before you get started can often be overlooked and can create all kinds of headaches later on. Failing to understand what success will look like for a campaign not only makes it hard to establish if it worked, but it makes it difficult to share your successes internally, create a strong narrative around what achieved and take clear learnings.
Start with clear objectives and outcomes, here’s what we mean: objectives are what we must do in order to succeed, and outcomes are what will indicate that we’ve achieved that success.
Think of your objective-setting like asking a question. Vague questions will get vague answers, so the ability to get specific with the objective you set, means you’ll give specific answers, and hopefully avoid ‘did the content work?’
Set SMART objectives
A simple way to get started is by applying SMART objectives. SMART means Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time based. Consider the difference between “we want this campaign to drive website traffic” and “we’re aiming to drive 1,000 unique website visits via branded content articles promoting our new product, across the first month of the product launch.” The second approach is SMART. Not only is there going to be a story to share with the business, you’ll also be super clear on whether or not you reach your goal and can call the campaign a success. This is how you can also calculate a legitimate ROI on your marketing.
Additional considerations when setting SMART objectives are things like the amplification that’s supporting your content. To use the example of 1,000 website visits again, by understanding what industry benchmarks are for click through rates, we can work backwards and calculate the number of impressions that might be required to drive that 1,000 clicks. This keeps our objectives both ATTAINABLE and RELEVANT. You don’t want to be setting unrealistic expectations for yourself.
Clear objectives help you share a successful narrative
SMART objectives means you’ll avoid getting asked questions like ‘did that content work?’ Without a SMART objective, you have to answer those questions with performance metrics like clicks or views which don’t always tell the whole story. This makes success subjective to each person’s understanding of the activity. SMART objectives help you define success before you’ve even started, so you’re not scrambling to explain it later.
What are the best objectives?
The best objectives have a measure of quality as well as a measure of quantity, for example, don’t just look at a reach goal – consider working with a view to increase the average time spent consuming content (dwell time), or building up your engagement/action rate. Shift away from just delivering clicks, and look at the average time someone spends on your site after they consume the content you’ve created. Clicks alone are no use if you have a high bounce rate. By looking beyond just clicks you can develop a full picture of how and what the content is performing.
Don’t try to do too much
It’ll be death by a thousand cuts, or a thousand rounds of approval.Trying to do too many things simultaneously will mean you do nothing great. A huge mistake is setting too many objectives, instead get crystal clear on what you’re trying to do and figure out the simplest way to serve that objective and serve your audience along the way.
The best place to start is to spend 20 minutes with pen and paper before you dive into your campaign briefings. Start with success and work backwards, it will make your briefs stronger and the whole process much clearer.
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