How do you discover if your content is meeting your current online objectives? Assuming you are busy in your business, you rarely have the time to take a step back and review the work you have done, especially if you are working to an editorial calendar that dictates regular production of new informative and interesting content.
A content marketing audit, while it sounds a bit dull (and it can be!) is a great exercise to undertake to ensure that your content stays aligned to your business goals.
A content marketing audit will give you a better understanding of your content and its performance; it can also be a great source of new content ideas and an opportunity to update and improve content that isn’t performing as well as you would like.
Getting started with a content marketing audit
Mapping out your online world on a single sheet of paper is a great exercise, it can give you an overview and a sense of purpose that is sometimes lost in the day-to-day reality of working close to the ground.The purpose of the content marketing audit is to use the mapping exercise to discover what is working well, what you need to improve, what can be scrapped, and what content you need to create to fill identified gaps.
If your heart sinks at the thought of setting up an excel spreadsheet, don’t despair, it really is the best and most valuable way to track your content. Items you need to be looking at should include some or all of the following:
- page url
- place in site structure
- content owner
- content author
- page freshness/last update
- metrics
- target audience
- Stage in sales cycle to address
- key message
- call to action
- when to review
As you progress through the content, you should also be checking for broken links, spelling errors, broken images and other housekeeping issues that are otherwise overlooked. Ideally you should check these issues against a style guide that ensures a voice consistency and approach to ensure a holistic customer experience.
Armed with a completed content marketing audit, along with other critical documents of editorial calendar, social media audit and style guide, you should be well-equipped to begin a targeted content campaign that will see you through the next few months with confidence.
If you are a regular reader of this blog you will be aware that I am a firm believer that everything you do online for your business should be directed in achieving something positive for your business, and by taking a snapshot of your activity you will be able to better target your efforts on those things that are really working for you.
A well-done content marketing audit can then become a living document that can be updated and amended on a quarterly basis, so that firstly you don’t have to start from scratch again, and secondly so that you can ensure your activity stays on track and supports your business as it develops.
Get your 30 minute telephone consultation free of charge
If you would like to make your content marketing manageable, scalable and productive in 2014, delivering more relevant content targeted to your audience and with more evidence of return, then please contact me for more information and a free initial 30 minute telephone consultation to establish how we can work effectively together.
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