6 Ways Data Can Help You Create Better Content

Making data-driven decisions–this should be the north star for all your teams, across every department in your organization. This holds especially true for your marketing and content creation teams.

While data might seem just one piece of the content marketing puzzle, it’s the gravitational force that brings and keeps everything together. Creatives and project managers often focus on the content’s aesthetic and the copy that tells the story, but it’s the data that should direct both.

In other words, marrying creativity with solid data and key performance indicators (KPIs) is not just a strategy; it's a necessity in a fiercely competitive industry. It ensures your content not only resonates but also drives your marketing, branding, and sales objectives forward.

Let’s put all of this into perspective, and explore how harnessing the right data in the right way can revolutionize your content creation.

It All Starts with Data Integration

Good content serves every department in your business, not just marketing. It's the backbone of all essential customer-facing and internal processes, from education lead generation, and onboarding to employee development, brand-building, and sales.

Good content is necessary for every team, and especially for the teams that are working towards common goals. Take marketing and sales, for example.

Marketing content - and marketing data - should be a driving force for sales activities, including lead nurturing, conversion, and retention. If sales and marketing are disconnected, then they won’t be able to push each other in the right direction.

This is why data unification is so important, also known as data integration, which offers a panoramic view of your organizational data, harmonizing disparate sources. These include your CRM system, project management and collaboration tools, as well as your marketing and sales dashboards so that teams can stay abreast of promotions, campaigns, and evolving trends with ease.

Organizing Data for Project Outcomes

If you’re not already, you should be looking at content creation and marketing through the lens of project management. Every piece of content should be a well-defined project, each with a specific purpose and fitting into a broader campaign. 

Why should you get so granular? The finer your focus, the more precisely you can align specific data with specific outcomes. 

It’s easier for project managers to leverage data for project deliverables when the project itself (or the content) is narrow in scope and has a clear objective.

On the other hand, dividing content into projects is essential for maximizing all content formats. With Issuu, you have the power to rapidly craft captivating Flipbooks, Articles, Social Posts, and more.

The trick lies in channeling the right data into the right formats to amplify each project's impact.  For instance, one project might aim to create more engaging social media posts, while another could focus on boosting the reach of your long-form content.

These projects will work towards the same goal – more engagement – but will have their unique trends and KPIs.

Defining Key Engagement Metrics

The essence of effective content creation and marketing lies in close monitoring and relentless optimization. Customer and market trends change, the industry is always evolving, and you need to be agile enough to continuously improve content quality and output methods.

To do this, you need to understand the key content engagement metrics. These metrics are not mere performance indicators of individual content pieces; they offer a holistic view of your content strategy’s efficacy. Here’s a quick list:

• Average engagement time

• Unique visitors and page views

• Session duration

• Pages per session

• Bounce rate

• Conversion rate

• Social media interactions

• CTR and email open rates

One of the most important data sources you need to have, however, comes from Issuu’s platform: the Statistics feature. Issuu’s Statistics provide an in-depth understanding of your audience, who is consuming your content, how it’s performing, and more.

With this data, you can uncover the reasons behind underperforming content, adjust your strategy, and maximize the potential of each format.

Leveraging Email Data for Better Content

Long ago, it was thought that email would die out in the wake of the more modern communication channels and marketing tools. But lo and behold, email marketing is more popular and effective than ever.

The latest email statistics point out that more than 80% of people use email every day for work and personal correspondence. Email is a great way for you to establish a direct line of communication with your audience and customers, but the email content you create needs to be rooted in good data.

For example, you may have a lot to say about your new product or promotion, but 66% of people prefer shorter emails. So naturally, you will design your email to be short and impactful, with a clear CTA leading to a landing page that expands on your offer.

Or how about the fact that 61% check their email primarily on mobile? You need to make sure your email copy and visuals load properly on mobile, paying particular attention to the above-the-fold content because of the smaller screen size.

It’s this kind of data-driven content creation that will maximize your email KPIs.

Professional Networks: Understanding LinkedIn Content Creation

LinkedIn, often lumped together with other social platforms like Instagram and TikTok, demands a distinct approach to content creation, distribution, and engagement.

When it comes to creating engaging content on LinkedIn based on metrics and trends specific to that social environment, you need to have a strategy that directly supports outreach and one-on-one engagement. 

The content you create serves to support personal and professional brand building and to boost your credibility for when you’re ready to reach out to prospects directly. Remember, LinkedIn is a hub of industry leaders and professionals and in order to convert them, the content you post and the topics you discuss need to be relevant to those individuals.

Crafting LinkedIn content and messaging demands thorough, personalized prospect research. Moreover, a well-defined nurturing strategy, supported by relevant content at every funnel stage, is crucial for effective engagement on this platform.

Data Aggregation for Social Media Management

Creating engaging social content greatly relies on successful data aggregation.

In other words, you need to collect the data from all relevant platforms pertaining to your audience, your competitors, the market as a whole, and of course, the content within. A great way to do this is to create a social media wall that will automatically aggregate content from social platforms and provide real-time insights.

You can also monitor brand mentions and manage user-generated content to capitalize on the content people create around your brand in these communities. 

By aggregating user-generated content from various social media platforms, the social wall provides real-time insights into what topics, hashtags, or types of content are currently engaging your audience. This immediate feedback can be analyzed to identify trends or preferences, which can be incorporated into your content strategy. 

Over to You

The creation of shareable, impactful content is deeply rooted in data relevancy. It's not just about capturing attention but inspiring meaningful action.

Armed with a deeper understanding of the power of quality data and the imperative of a data-driven content approach, you're now well-equipped to infuse these insights into your 2024 content marketing strategy. The data-driven path is not just about following numbers; it's about crafting content that resonates, engages, and converts, propelling your brand to new heights.

Nikola Sekulic is a seasoned brand developer, writer, and storyteller who turns fresh ideas into engaging stories for the online community.