If you’re looking to evaluate your own content strategy, and see if your business’s content marketing lives up to expectations and stands up to the competition, then take a look at some of the most common audit methods used by professionals in the industry.
I. Current resources: The first aspects anyone will look at are existing content, such as social media, the website, as well as press releases and other assets. This commonly consists of at least a basic site, a blog (usually WordPress), and social media outlets such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, along with any number of other content sources depending on the business in question. Key factors to consider are: the level of activity, the consistency of content between the different platforms and sources, and, of course, the types of content published so far.
II. In-depth look at the content: The next thing to analyze is the content itself. Here are some basic questions that you should ask yourself when evaluating your own content marketing:
• Am I publishing relevant, informative content?
• Am I distributing content evenly across all platforms?
• Am I creating original content, not just recycling?
• Am I using a diverse mix of multimedia resources (images, etc)?
The main goal should always be to create unique, original content. That’s what your readers are there for, to hear what you have to say. Reblogging, sharing and linking to other sources is great – if done smartly and in moderation. At the end of the day, your original content is what brings reader back every time. Multimedia is also important: a well placed image to attract attention or drive a point through.
III. The results: Now is the time to check if what you’ve done so far has brought any results. If the content you created brought traffic or sales to your website. Count the number of likes, shares or comments to get a general idea of the level of approval of your readers and visitors.
