Those of us who call ourselves “wordsmiths” may be tempted to ignore or shy away from numbers. We believe in the power of the word and see the potential of well-written copy to get results in our marketing and communications efforts.
But, according to Chris Sietsema, even content marketing has a numeric formula for writing copy that is sure to get powerful results. In this article, I will share his formula for producing winning content marketing programs, based on lessons learned from the movie Moneyball.
Just as Oakland A’s General Manager Billy Beane used statistical analysis to put together a winning team on a limited budget, marketers can put together a winning editorial schedule based on three primary numbers:
1. Revenue
When brainstorming content ideas for your editorial schedule, the first step is to determine the concepts that relate to your company’s money makers – the products and services that actually bring in the bucks. Which topics offer the most potential for generating revenue? Focus on the questions customers and clients ask you about your products and services, as well as on how you provide them with value and enhance their lives. Create a robust list to refine in the next steps.
2. Search
Once you have created a list of revenue-generating content ideas, determine their search potential. Using a tool like Google’s Keyword Tool, validate which content elements will be searched for by your target customers or clients. As you use the tool, watch for additional content ideas you may not have thought of initially. What you are evaluating are the search volume numbers, broken down into daily, weekly and monthly metrics.
3. Social
Finally, you’ll want to hone in on the social potential of your content ideas because great content encourages interaction on your blog and social networking communities. Using social monitoring tools, such as Sysomos and SM2, will help you discover what content elements are generating conversations online. Metrics like tweets, blog post hits, and Likes, will help you track these conversations around your keywords. To get an overview of your social potential, add up the metrics from each media channel you are tracking.
Now let’s put these numbers to work. To help analyze your data, create a scale of varying degrees of revenue, search and social volume. A simple scale, such as 1=low and 5=high, will work just fine. This scale system will help you find the content that has the best chance of performing according to the three variables above. For example, a content idea may have a revenue rating of 5, but a search rating of 2. How might you tweak this idea so that it is search-worthy? Or, do you have other ideas that yield high ratings across the board?
After assigning ratings to all of your content ideas, it’s time to determine which ones made the cut and which ones to toss. The goal is to find content that is 1) relatable to a revenue-generating product or service you offer, 2) highly searched for by your target audience, and 3) discussed and commented on in the blogosphere and on social networks. The content gems will have all three elements, and some of your other content ideas may just need some tweaking to live up to their marketing potential. Fill your editorial schedule with only the best content ideas that are proven to give you a winning content marketing program.
How about you? Do you have a numeric system for finding the best ideas for your content marketing strategy?
Image courtesy of watch-moneyball-movie.blogpost.com
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