In today’s market, it is common knowledge that large companies often mine user data in order to empower their product and increase revenue.
Facebook uses data mining in order to better direct advertisements, Google uses data mining to provide better search results, and one of the reasons that Microsoft is giving Windows 10 away for free is because it tracks user data better than previous versions of Windows.
Big companies track and analyze data because it allows those companies to offer a better user experience. While they don’t have the same resources for data mining, smaller companies can similarly benefit from data collection and analysis.
Using the right tools and techniques, content marketers of any size can use data to power content.
The Right Tools for the Job
Companies like Google have literally spent billions of dollars gathering and analyzing data. There simply isn’t any way that your business can use data in the same way. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t gain and analyze useful data with the right tools.
If you are creative, you don’t even need professional tools. While tools like Google Analytics will tell you exactly how how many page views your content is getting, you can get a similar benefit by creating a poll that directly relates to the interests of your audience.
The numbers won’t be exact, but because interaction is voluntary, it will give you a good sense of how well your content engages your audience.
Choosing Your Data
Collecting data is only useful if you collect the right data. What type of data you need to collect depends on various factors, including your business goals, your audience interests, the industry of your business, and the purpose of the content you are creating.
For starters, you almost always want to collect data on the reach of your content. This doesn’t mean just how many people are seeing it, but also how much it is being shared and how much time your audience spends looking at your content. That kind of data is useful for determining whether you are connecting with your target audience.
In addition, you want to collect data that more directly relates to your industry or customer base.
For example, if you run a car rental service, you should collect data on what types of cars are rented at various times of the year. If that data shows that SUVs rentals increase by 50% during the summer months, you can schedule your marketing content to highlight your available SUVs shortly before and during those months.
Using the Data
The above example is just one way you can use data to implement your content marketing strategy. It is an example of using data analysis specifically for demographic targeting.
Another way to use data to power your content is using data to reinforce the substance of your content. This article from Quick Sprout perfectly highlights how that is done. Supporting data is sprinkled throughout the article, usually in a graphic that visually emphasizes the point being made.
By sharing interesting data with your audience, your content becomes more engaging and appears more trustworthy.
By using a mixture of data sharing and audience targeting, your data collection and analysis efforts are almost certain to produce higher audience engagement, retention, and action.
