Does your content work? It's a simple question. But, getting the answers can be a complex chore. Learn the essentials of assessing whether your content, or your client's content, has impact from Colleen Jones. You can watch the full video session at: http://blog.gathercontent.com/colleen-jones-webinar-evaluating-content Check out Colleen's website at: http://www.content-science.com/ Her tool, ContentWRX http://www.contentwrx.com

1. DOES YOUR CONTENT WORK
FOR PEOPLE?
essentials for evaluating your client’s content
Colleen Jones

2. About Me
 Author of Clout and Does Your Content
Work? (2014)
 Principal of Content Science, a digital
content consultancy for clients such as
 Occasional partner with leading
consultancies and agencies
 Owner of ContentWRX™
 Proud parent of an adorable mutt…
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3. Quick Poll: 1 thing you want to
get out of our session?
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4. Our Goals
COMMON
VOCABULARY +
VISION
OVERVIEW OF
CONTENT
EVALUATION
START
EVALUATING
4

5. Agenda
1. WHAT IS CONTENT EVALUATION?
2. WHY DO IT (despite the challenges)?
3. WHEN DO IT?
4. HOW DO WE START DOING IT?
5. HOW DO WE COMMUNICATE IT?
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6. Participating Pays Off!
ANSWER ?s
in polls
ASK ?s
in chat
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7. WHAT IS CONTENT EVALUATION?
Quick Poll: Rate your expertise
with content evaluation.
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8. Content is…
TEXT
IMAGES,
PHOTOS,
INFOGRAPHICS
VIDEOS
PODCASTS,
AUDIO

9. Content evaluation is…
a constant assessment of whether
your content meets your goals.
* Inventory
* Heuristics
* Lifecycle
* Personas

10. Content evaluation is NOT…
• A one-time thing.
• A clinical trial.
• A data dump thing.
• The same for every organization
or set of content.
* Inventory
• A content audit.
* Heuristics
* Lifecycle
* Personas

11. What’s the difference?
CONTENT AUDIT
CONTENT EVALUATION
FREQUENCY + • A single deep dive for a
DEPTH
migration, redesign, or
other big change
• A constant high-level
assessment
FOCUS
• A project or initiative
• Ongoing strategy aligned
with organizational goals
SCOPE
• Content inventory and
quality assessment
• Content effectiveness or
impact
TIMING
• Discovery or analysis phase
before launch
• If not established, starts
after launch

12. Content evaluation also is…
NOT very easy
right now…
* Inventory
* Heuristics
* Lifecycle
* Personas

13. Does this sound familiar?
I see opportunity to
make our content
have more impact
on sales lead
generataion.
Based on what data?
Our general
satisfaction survey
says content is fine.
CLIENT SENIOR MANAGER
EXECUTIVES +
STAKEHOLDERS
13

14. Does this sound familiar?
I see opportunity to
make our content
have more impact
on sales lead
generataion.
Based on what data?
Our general
satisfaction survey
says content is fine.
CLIENT SENIOR MANAGER
EXECUTIVES +
STAKEHOLDERS
Help! I need more
data about our lead
gen content for the
past 2 quarters.
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15. Does this sound familiar?
I see opportunity to
make our content
have more impact
on sales lead
generataion.
Based on what data?
Our general
satisfaction survey
says content is fine.
CLIENT SENIOR MANAGER
Help! I need more
data about our lead
gen content for the
past 2 quarters.
CLIENT ANALYST
I can pull some
numbers, but it
will take a few
weeks.
EXECUTIVES +
STAKEHOLDERS
15

16. Right now, content data is often…
TOO FRAGMENTED TO GATHER EFFICIENTLY
Insights must be pieced together from satisfaction survey,
web analytics, + social analytics tools.
TOO GENERAL TO ACT
Satisfaction surveys say content is important but provide little
content-specific feedback.
TOO CUSTOM + HAPHAZARD TO AFFORD OR COMPARE
Deep-dive qualitative studies are slow and expensive.
Occasional custom surveys don’t allow you to compare over
time, to your industry.
16

17. WHY EVALUATE
CONTENT ANYWAY?
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18. Business today is digital, so content is critical.
Dell, The Coca-Cola Company,
Equifax, IHG, Cerner Corporation
and other leading companies are implementing
content strategy
for B2B and B2C marketing, service, and support content.
Content investments by
B2B + B2C companies now
account for
1/3
of
MARKETING BUDGETS
CONTENT IS THE
#1
PRIORITY
OF
CLIENT-SIDE
MARKETERS
even over social media,
email, and other trends.
eMarketer
Today,
Content Marketing Institute
content supports
every business purpose –
Businesses invested nearly
MARKETING / POSITIONING CONTENT,
$17 billion
SALES CONTENT,
CUSTOMER SERVICE CONTENT,
SUPPORT CONTENT
in content marketing in 2012.
Custom Content Council
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19. If your clients don’t evaluate, they risk…
$£
WASTING MONEY ON CONTENT EFFORTS because
decisions aren’t informed with complete, reliable feedback.
DIFFICULTY GETTING BUY-IN TO CONTENT CHANGES
from executives because content isn’t connected to results.
MISSING COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE because
content decisions are slow or misguided.
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20. WHEN SHOULD YOU
EVALUATE CONTENT?
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21. ALWAYS!
Content never ends.
Neither should evaluating it.
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22. Evaluation evolves content strategy
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23. The content strategy lifecycle
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24. The content strategy lifespiral
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25. HOW TO START
EVALUATING CONTENT
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26. How NOT to start
Drowning yourself
in the data…
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27. How to start: Ask the right questions
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28. Where do the right questions come from?
• The right questions come from
your goals and objectives.
BUSINESS
GOALS
• Your goals and objectives
come from your content
strategy.
CONTENT
STRATEGY
• Your content strategy comes
from your business goals and
objectives.
CONTENT
EVALUATION
QUESTIONS
28

29. The better you define your
content strategy, the easier
starting evaluation will be.
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30. Framework for content evaluation questions
DIMENSION
GOAL
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31. Goals drive dimension priority
GOAL
DIMENSION
MARKETING
Positioning
SALES
Guided Selling
SUPPORT
Help or Education
REACH
COMPREHENSION
EFFICIENCY
ENGAGEMENT
PERCEPTION
COMPREHENSION
PERCEPTION
CONVERSION
ENGAGEMENT
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32. Dimensions help identify specific questions
GOAL
MARKETING: Positioning
DIMENSION
Digital Magazine
Goal is to raise awareness and position with
midsize businesses
REACH
Did our content attract midsize businesses?
ENGAGEMENT
What did midsize businesses do with our
content?
PERCEPTION
Did our content change how midsize
businesses view our expertise?
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33. Goal-aligned dimensions ward off the wrong questions
Did our new digital
magazine increase our
sales this quarter?
EXECUTIVES + STAKEHOLDERS
MARKETING MANAGER /
DIRECTOR
Oh, #$#@!
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34. Goal-aligned dimensions ward off the wrong questions
Did our new digital
magazine increase our
sales this quarter?
EXECUTIVES + STAKEHOLDERS
Our immediate goal is
positioning, not sales. We’re
tracking our reach and impact on
the market’s perceptions. And,
we’re succeeding at both.
MARKETING MANAGER /
DIRECTOR
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35. The content evaluation process
Collect
2
5
Act
1
Ask
Analyze
3
4
Interpret
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36. 2 Collect: Gathering content data for evaluation
• Focus on data that informs answers to your questions.
• Strive for a systematic approach.
• Rely on quantitative methodologies and tools.
Surveys
Sentiment
Analytics
Collection
Other
Data
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37. For many goals, behavior data is
NOT ENOUGH to understand
content impact.
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38. 2 Collect: Examples of quantitative tool types
USER BEHAVIOR
ANALYTICS
USER PERCEPTION, INTENT, + CHARACTERISTICS
SURVEY
• Adobe SiteCatalyst
• ForeSee
• Google Analytics
CLASSIC
• iPerceptions
SENTIMENT
• Salesforce Marketing
Cloud (Radian6)
• IBM Social Media
Analytics
NEW
• Content Creation + Hosting
Platforms (Skyword, Invodo)
• Chartbeat
• ContentWRX
• SparkScore
• UserZoom (survey
component)
• Clarabridge
• IBM Content Analytics
• OpinionLab (open
feedback component)
NOTEWORTHY
Some tools trending toward
Some tools trending toward
Some tools trending toward
FOR CONTENT
• More content specifics
• More content specifics
• More real-time data
• More integration with other
data
• More accurate and faster
analysis
• More content specifics
• More help with interpretation
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39. 3 Analyze: What are the answers to my questions?
Don’t do the ONE-OFF
approach….
MANAGER / DIRECTOR
I’m being asked for proof that
our content is making an
impact. We need a report.
Find a way to make it happen
in your down time.
CONTENT STRATEGIST
But, I have no
down time…
If you do, consider it a temporary bridge to building an analysis competency.
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40. 3 Analyze: Develop an analysis competency
EMBEDDED
CENTRALIZED
Analyst is part of your team
Separate team analyzes
Quick Poll: What is your
organization’s approach to analysis?
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41. 4 Interpret: So what do these answers mean?
Turn your content data into content intelligence.
CONTENT DATA + ANSWERS
INTERPRETATION
CONTENT INTELLIGENCE
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42. 4 Interpret: So what do these answers mean?
A match made in insight heaven
DATA
DATA ANALYSTS
CONTEXT
CONTENT STRATEGISTS
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43. If you don’t do something with
your content intelligence, you
might as well not have it.
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44. 5 Act: So what do we do about it?
Do at least one of the following.
CONFIRM +
CONTINUE
ADJUST
STUDY
FURTHER
Track and communicate to build your content
intelligence over time and across silos.
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45. The content evaluation process
Collect
2
5
Act
1
Ask
Analyze
3
4
Interpret
45

46. HOW TO COMMUNICATE
CONTENT EVALUATION
46

47. How NOT to communicate it
Throwing
detailed reports
over the fence…
Follow basic communication best practices.
47

48. Educate executives beyond satisfaction
• Focus on telling a story of content
impact on goals.
• Progress
• Success
Our web satisfaction
survey says content
is just fine…
• Opportunity to improve
• Include enough details to support
the story but no more.
• Note the benefits of having more
details (vs satisfaction).
EXECUTIVES +
STAKEHOLDERS
• Report regularly.
• Invite questions and feedback.
48

49. THANK YOU
DOES YOUR CONTENT WORK? (New Riders)
Q1 2014
Updates at content-science.com/books/
use with attribution
Colleen Jones
@leenjones