Content marketing is based around two main elements. The first is of course content, and secondly the promotion thereof.
To be successful and make an impact it is necessary that your content is compelling, well-researched and relevant. There is no point in having a blog and sharing content that is irrelevant and badly written.
When writing articles you should imagine them featuring in a high-end publication - meaning that the quality should be of outstanding value. Writers for The New Yorker or National Geographic, for instance, can spend weeks researching and writing one article – ensuring that it is factually correct, relevant and of a high quality. Content marketers don’t spend hardly as much time on a single article, but the same care should be taken to make your content works of art rather than uninspiring regurgitations.
The Measurement
Comparing your unique, overall and returning visits is an important measurement of just how popular your content is. In the publishing world success is based mainly on how much you are read. How many books an author sells is what places him or her on the top lists – nothing more, nothing less.
If you have quality content on your blog you should have more overall than unique visitors. If your content is not of a high enough quality this ratio will decrease. It is crucial that you have repeat visitors as this means that visitors return for more – indicating that your content is compelling and valuable.
If you successfully promote bad content, meaning you constantly share on social media, you’ll see a spike in new visitors but the number will be the same as your overall visits. This means that no one came back for more – you are not building up a loyal readership because your content is no good. People visit your site because it seems appealing when they see your gripping headlines and links on social platforms, but when they get there they’re disappointed and won’t come back.
Good content is shared more often, it is linked frequently and the author or company is referenced. It’s necessary to look at your statistics and visitor numbers to get an idea of the quality of your content.
What About Engagement?
Some would say that comments are a good indication of how compelling your content is. Look at the biggest content marketing blogs on which almost each article has more than 10 comments. People don’t like commenting where no one else has commented and if you have a relationship with someone they’re more likely to comment on your post. Our blog, for instance, has a very healthy ratio of visitors but it doesn’t include many comments. One of our guest posts on jeffbullas.com, however, received 37 comments. Engagement is not necessarily an indicator of how many visits your site receives but more about how well known the author is.
Top Free Analytics Sites
This is a list of basic analytic tools that will give you the where, what, who and how of your statistics.
In a Nutshell
All you have to do to ensure that your hard work is echoed in your website statistics is:
1) Write well researched, exciting content.
2) Promote that content on as many platforms as you can. Remember, the ‘teasers’ you share should be a true reflection of the content visitors will find when clicking through.
3) Lastly, don’t depend on anything else than analytic tools to determine how attractive your content is.
The ratio between unique and overall visitors displays the general quality of your content. The below is a demonstration of how this works:
The website statistics are as follows:
Overall visitors this month: 1000
Unique visitors this month: 100
The ratio is 1:10
By comparing figures with previous months you’ll have an indication of whether your overall visitor number is growing – if it is it means your content is achieving what it is meant to – generating traffic.
Your unique visitor count should always be rising. If it is stagnant or declining this means that your website is not visible enough, i.e. you’re not promoting enough. Returning visitors are just as important as this means that people are coming back for more. Your overall visitor count should be the highest and should always be on the rise.
Sound Idea Digital is a full service digital marketing agency. For more information, contact 012 66 44 227 or email to info@soundidea.co.za
Carina Claassens is a Writer for Sound Idea Digital l carina@soundidea.co.za l@soundidea | Sound Idea Digital l www.soundidea.co.za
|
Request a Digital Marketing Services Consultation
 |
[Back]
blog comments powered by Disqus
