I recently wrote about how to define your key topics for pillar content and it occurred to me that probably the biggest question you’ll ask when defining your blog content marketing strategy is around goals.
What goals do I want to set for my blog?
How do I measure my blog post's performance against those goals?
That’s what I want to spend some time on today, so you can create pillar content that you can extract KPI results from.
What are KPIs and what do I need to measure in my blog’s pillar content?
Key performance indicators (KPIs) are a quantitative point of measure to determine the performance of a specific objective over time.
KPIs are important in business, not just as a financial measure of return on investment (ROI), but also to measure ground gained by employing a specific tactic, or content format.
They are targets for your efforts.
Typically we are looking for 4 areas of KPIs to measure from your blog content:
User behaviour
Engagement
SEO
Revenue
Google Analytics is great for establishing user behaviour KPIs
When it comes to blogging for business KPIs are great for measuring performance and engagement. Using Google Analytics (GA) you can easily find stats on user behaviour:
total visits to a blog post
which are your top performing blog posts
total traffic coming to your site from the blog and its entries
where traffic is coming from
how many people bounced away or exited before finishing or taking a next step
dwell time (how long people stayed on site after coming via a blog post)
how many other pages on average people visited after viewing a blog post
conversions (if your blog post has a specific call to action)
Perfect for understanding how the content you create engages with an audience and user behaviour.
SEO tools are great for establishing SERP KPIs
You can also use SEO tools like Ubersuggest, SEMRush, Moz or Ahrefs to determine the value of that content in your race to:
gain more Search engine Result Page (SERP) entries
rank higher in SERP for desired keywords
Determine gains in:
Then of course there are your business KPIs
Business KPIs are less easy to track using just one tool, but what can help is using Google Tag Manager to create tags for calls to action buttons, or content assets so that you can use GA to determine conversions.
If you have 3rd party CRM systems like HubSpot in play, then these can also track lead conversions.
So what might you be looking to track? What KPIs are important outside of performance measures covered in engagement and SEO?
I would include:
which blog assets perform better (image, video, etc) and their ROI if a separate cost
which content pillars and sub-topics are performing well
what ideal length of a post does your audience prefer
which blog posts are being talked about, or commented on in socials
which blog posts are receiving responses when we share them in email marketing
what’s the cost of acquisition? I.e. how much did a lead, or signup from a blog post cost me, compared to what I spent on the content creation for that post?
what’s the total cost of acquisition, i.e. how many leads/signups am I converting and at what cost across the entirety of my blog?
how many leads did a certain type of blog post generate?
What type of leads am I generating with my blog content (sales or data)?
did a blog post help to nurture and convert an existing lead?
Whatever you choose, start simple with your KPIs, choosing what you think is essential and then add in what makes sense at a later date.
KPIs are usually hardwired to budgets, but sometimes you have to remember that blog content can take a good time to start delivering consistent results (as much as 3-6 months). And as blogs are often updated for better SEO, you may need to wait for later iterations to see more meaningful results. So don’t write something off completely before you have given it a chance!
Having said that, budgets aren’t always crucial to establishing a KPI that works for your business. Goals other than finance have a place in tracking the performance of your content team and message.
How to create pillar content you can extract KPI results from
Once you have determined which KPIs matter to your business it’s time to think about how to determine which pillar content you need to create to achieve your goals.
There are two types of content you need to concern yourself with:
Informational content - building on and filling in steps of the buyer’s journey and showcasing your expertise (awareness building)
Transactional content - articles that have a call to action based on a financial or data transaction. In other words, getting paid, or getting a signup you can use for further marketing (sales and marketing audience growth)
In both instances, your content must focus on all areas of KPI targeting: user behaviour, engagement, SEO and revenue. Although when it comes to revenue, informational content KPIs are about cost, whilst transactional content KPIs are about cost and income/data gain.
This is why transactional content always feels much easier to establish ROI that will satisfy management or investors because there is a tangibility in comparing costs and gains. But that doesn’t mean informational pieces are any less valuable in tracking. There are still gains you can compare to costs, they just feel a little less tangible because they don’t result directly in cold hard cash.
With each piece you write, or have written for you (hello!) your KPIs will differ and so the structure of your blog article will differ too.
For transactional content, you will want to highlight your call to action early on (above the fold), much in the same way you would do with sales pages. Your copy should be compelling, in a way that highlights that call to action as a necessary next step.
For informational content, you will want to consider customer problems and solutions as stepping stones to later lead development or conversion. You’ll need to showcase your expertise and give them a reason to remember your help - because digital content should always be inspirational, educational, or entertaining to be remembered.
Remember this is where your topic exploration counts, so revisit that blog I just wrote on how to define your key topics!
As you get into the groove with your content creation and you understand what KPIs you are working towards, content should be easier to produce and results easier to gain.
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