How to Use Data to Drive Content Strategy? | Podcast S02E05

When people think of content, most think about creativity. But in reality, content marketing is a combination of creativity and data. The value of data for any business or any agency operating online cannot be overstated. In building a content strategy, data is instrumental in understanding how content is connecting the audience. Also, it can be a guide in the content creation process.

In this episode, we talk to the author of Content Chemistry (an illustrated handbook on Content Marketing) and co-founder of the digital agency Orbit Media Studios, Andy Crestodina. Andy shares with us the importance of data to drive content strategy, a framework on what to look for in your data, and the tools that are available to get the data you need.

“Data-Driven Empathy”

Data can give you empathy. Fundamentally marketing websites and the value of digital to a business is to answer questions of what are there prospects and visitors coming to their site. The data online can give you knowledge about what pieces of content are doing well, which content is getting people to share or buy the product. All of this information is answerable in seconds. A business can also start from the pages then get more information by contacting your leads offline to obtain qualitative data needed to create and improve content. All content is measurable.

“How do you get better in life without feedback or insight?”

A good feedback process for a business running online would be survey monkey or even a callback. If you are a service company, you can talk to your audience and find out what they care about in regards to your business. As a result, you’ll learn what your real value is to them. Then you can create a better content strategy for your brand by using the language that your audience uses. The more you know, the better. Google Analytics is very helpful in analyzing content performance. An example would be that if you have a product page, you can look at which products visitors are looking at more and how much time they are spending on the pages. Another excellent tool is Hotjar.

“The analysis is always more valuable than reporting.”

Go into analytics when you are trying to answer a question or an idea and then find the answer in the data. If you go in there to answer your question, you gradually improve your analytical skills and the question/answer action. Looking at a Google Analytics report won’t help you to understand what the data means — the best way to find insights that are valuable to you is by having a question.

“There are no tools that will take away inspiration.”

Going back to the case of creativity vs. data; There are no tools or artificial intelligence that can take way pure inspiration. Google Analytics shows you information from the past, and it can give you clues on what has been working, but it doesn’t tell you what will work. The best marketers are experimenting and seeing what works. Data can support you in getting the content ideas. Data-driven empathy can also make you a better writer or content marketer by using the internet data to mine topics ideas from different angles. An excellent example of an online place of data and inspiration would be Quora. Quora is a well-indexed database of the questions people want to know, in which you can get content ideas based on discussions, and also find out what people are saying about topics related to your product or service.

S02E05 Guest: Content Marketing Guru & Co-Founder for Orbit Media Studios, Andy Crestodina

Andy Crestodina is a co-founder and CMO of Orbit Media, an award-winning 38-person digital agency in Chicago. Over the past 18 years, Andy’s guided 1000+ businesses. He speaks at national marketing conferences, writes for big marketing blogs, and hosts a little podcast. Andy has written hundreds of articles on content strategy, SEO, influencer marketing, conversion, and Analytics.

Top 10 Online Marketing Experts, Forbes
Top 50 Marketing Influencer, Entrepreneur Magazine
Top 25 Content Marketers, Express Writers/Buzzsumo
Top 10 Social Media Influencers, Social Media Explorer

He is also the author of Content Chemistry: The Illustrated Handbook for Content Marketing.

A SCOOP OF INSPIRATION

Don’t skip this bit.

We are in a world where art and science can be combined.
Through a scientific method, you can test to determine if your experiment is worthwhile. But you can also do things for the love of it.
Inject chaos in the system and try new things!
We should be more intuitive to feedback.
Research, research, research!

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