Year in review: how does your content program measure up?
It’s the end of the calendar year, and it might also be the end of your fiscal year. This is a good moment to pause and reflect—how is your content program performing? What was the most popular piece of content you published this year? What was the most popular piece of content at all this year? (And was that published this year?) What kinds of content brought in the most new leads? And what were the next pieces they usually moved on to after that?
These are the kinds of questions that every content (and marketing!) team should be asking themselves. Most of us don’t create content for the sake of creating content. We’re here to help build and support a go-to-market motion. So it’s a good idea to regularly pause and take stock of what you’ve done. Get a sense of what is helping you reach your goals, and what might be better left in the past.
Build a report
Let’s take a look at what you’ve done this year. We want to understand what performed well, what actually contributed to sales or customer adoption, and what we might do differently in the future. Below is a chart with some common content types, high level metrics people often measure, and where you might find that information.
Share your work
When you have this information, share it with your extended go-to-market team. It’s incredibly helpful for everyone to have a clear view of what is resonating with audiences. Take a moment to discuss your findings. Sometimes a piece of content performs well because it was that good. Sometimes it’s because it was heavily promoted by different parts of the team.
In your discussion, ask team members to share their feedback as well. Do they prefer certain kinds of content over others? Are they noticing that certain buzzwords resonate more strongly in the field? Share your quantitative report with them, and be open to the qualitative information they have from their experiences. With this feedback you’ll have plenty of ideas for how you can strengthen your program.
If you find yourself wanting to learn more and dig deeper, that’s great! Here we’ve started with a high level understanding of what’s performing–what is driving new leads, what is getting people to sign up for trials or demos, and what is helping close deals. When you have the time and space, look into every part of the customer journey and fine tune it.
By this point, if no one else has said it yet, well done! Building, publishing, and promoting content is no easy feat. This report you’ve built is a testament to all the work you’ve done this year. Good job! And best of luck to you next year.
