3 Actionable Data Points Every Marketer Needs in 2014
In 2014, marketers will need to seek out tools that help them produce valuable and engaging content that works to connect their brand with customers.
Creating and distributing high-quality marketing collateral comes at a price. It requires the investment of precious time, energy, and resources, so it’s a shame that a lot of organizations don’t have the tools in place to measure the more telling engagement indicators that provide insight into how well (or not well) certain marketing initiatives are performing. With access to the data points that carry more potential for action, marketers have the opportunity to revise and perfect marketing messages, delivery vehicles, and overall strategies.
Think About It
You want your content to be shared and disseminated freely, but you also don’t want to lose track of analytics along the way. Neither do you want to dissuade people from engaging with or sharing content by hiding it behind a lead-gen form.
This is exactly the challenge companies like Content Raven are aiming to solve. With the use of non-invasive content delivery solutions and next-level, marketing analytics tools, marketers now have the ability to track things like what type of device their content is being viewed on, and whether or not people are watching a video all the way through to the end (or re-watching certain portions), sharing an infographic with friends and colleagues, or skipping over certain slides in a presentation.
3 Actionable Data Points
Sure, you can tally up retweets, check email campaign open rates, or add up page views, but what does that actually tell you? It gives a broad indication of how many people are touching a piece of content, but it doesn’t help with understanding:
1. Data Point: The type of device someone is using to consume your content.
Action Step: Review (and possibly reallocate) design resources to optimize different content pieces based on the most popular devices used for retrieving and viewing.
2. Data Point: The most boring, exciting, confusing, engaging, (fill in your own “-ing” here) parts of your content.
Action Step: Edit sales material, training documents, product videos, etc. based on specific information related to how users are interacting with your PowerPoints, videos, PDFs, etc.
3. Data Point: Detailed demographics that include the viewer’s email address, location, and how long they’re spending with content.
Action Step: Identify popular content pieces (and/or sections within) for repurposing or reprioritization, while zeroing in on target audiences.
Measuring Engagement: The Nitty Gritty
How are people interacting with your infographics, slideshow presentations, sales collateral, marketing decks, and product videos? What pages or sections are they spending the most time on? What kinds of devices are they viewing them on? Do they print or share the information with other people? What parts of the content are garnering extra (or less) attention from viewers?
As marketers, we’re all trying to take advantage of big data and automation tools to create customized buyer personas that we can match up to personalized marketing funnels, but to do that effectively we need analytics tools designed around interactions and engagements.
Actionable Opportunities
Analytics move from being general talking points to actionable opportunities when you acquire the ability to get super granular with the measurement of data points. In 2014, marketers need to seek out tools that assist them with the tall order of constantly producing valuable and engaging content that works to connect their brand with customers.
