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#ContentWritingChat Recap: Conducting a Mid-Year Content Marketing Audit

by | Jul 8, 2022 | Uncategorized

Content Writing Chat recap

You’ve made it halfway through the year!

But are you on track to hit your content marketing goals? That’s an important question to ask yourself at the mid-year point as you’re reviewing all your brand has accomplished so far.

Why? Well, by conducting a content marketing audit, you’re able to see where you’ve been successful and where your efforts have fallen short. Then, you can make tweaks to your strategy, as needed, to ensure success in the second half of the year.

However, if you’ve never conducted an audit of this sort before, you might be wondering how to get started. And luckily, that’s exactly what we talked about in this #ContentWritingChat!

#ContentWritingChat Recap: Conducting a Mid-Year Content Marketing Audit

For this month’s #ContentWritingChat, we hosted a community chat where our chat participants are the stars of the show. Each one offered great insights into conducting an audit, so let’s dive into their tips!

Q1: What is a content marketing audit?

An audit will require you to take inventory of your content on all the channels you’re actively using. This way, you can measure the performance of everything you’ve published and identify areas for improvement.

As Andrew said, an audit is an opportunity to identify what has and hasn’t been effective within your content marketing strategy. He says to make note of things like posting days and times, popular topics, etc. You can also compare titles, time on page, and other details to previous content to see how it stacks up.

Q2: Why is it important to conduct an audit of your content marketing strategy?

A content marketing audit is a great way to see how your content has been performing. Doing this allows you to see what adjustments should be made to your strategy moving forward.

When you know what’s been working and performing well for you, you can continue to focus your efforts there to ensure you’re providing value to your audience.

Q3: Before diving in, you need a few tools to make the job easier. Which tools would you recommend for a content marketing audit?

Google Analytics is great for tracking website data. If you use a scheduling tool for social media, such as Hootsuite, it’ll be smart to check their built-in analytics as well. Then, you can record data in a spreadsheet to easily review later.

Andrea shared a helpful list of tools that’s worth checking out if you need some ideas!

Q4: Everything goes back to your goals. What kind of goals might someone set when it comes to their content marketing?

Consistency is always a great goal to pursue!

Everyone’s goals will vary, but some common ones include: attracting leads, boosting sales, and generating brand awareness.

Q5: Part of conducting an audit requires you to take inventory of your content and analyze its performance. Which metrics should you be tracking during this stage?

As part of your content marketing audit, you may want to track things like shares, engagement, email open rates, etc.

If your site is still on the newer side and hasn’t generated much traffic yet, review the content itself. Are there any opportunities for improvement?

Q6: If you notice your content isn’t performing as hoped, what can you do to turn things around in an effort to drive more traffic, engagement, and conversions?

To improve performance, you need to first identify where things are going wrong. If you’re not seeing a decent amount of traffic on your content, review it to see if it’s properly optimized. Then, step up your promotion on social media and via email marketing.

If you’re seeing a decent amount of traffic, but your content isn’t converting… Look at the content itself. Is your post appealing to its reader? Is your call to action clear?

Compare content that isn’t performing well to the content pieces that have been effective in the past. Andrew suggests looking at the title, intro, etc. to see where improvements can be made.

Q7: How often should you conduct an audit of your content and your content marketing strategy?

A quarterly audit is a great way to go!

Or you can go for monthly, especially if you’re producing a lot of content.

Want to join us for the next #ContentWritingChat? Mark your calendars for the first Tuesday of every month at 10 AM Central. And be sure to follow us on Twitter: @ExpWriters.

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