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Content Auditing: Unearthing the Substance of Your Brand

Rachel LovingerExperience Director, Razorfish

@rlovinger

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©2014 Razorfish. All rights reserved.

I’m here to share some practical processes, tools and tips for auditing your content.

Photo by Matthew Macy (link)

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• Experience Director/ Content Strategist, Razorfish

• scatter/gather (content strategy blog): http://scattergather.razorfish.com

• Nimble: A Razorfish Report on Publishing in the Digital Age (June 2010): http://nimble.razorfish.com

About me: Rachel Lovinger

@rlovinger

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©2014 Razorfish. All rights reserved.

• Razorfish views digital as not solely a marketing channel but an opportunity to go to market in new and powerful ways.

• We blend creativity, technology and media, supported by consumer and business insights, to delivering for our clients in both marketing (ideas) and technology (execution).

About Razorfish

Media Creative

Technology

Business Strategy

& Insight

TRANSFORMATION

Disruption

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Some of my clients

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• Financial services client

• Small Business offerings

• “We have a ton of content”

A social marketing strategy project

Photo by Alan Reeves

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The reality of their content situation

30 PDFs 3 Videos

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After the 33 content items, we looked at:

• The broader landscape of content available for Small Business owners

• Content offered by our client’s direct competitors

Result:

We were able to make better recommendations about underserved needs and untapped opportunities.

The content audit was brief

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Content Auditing: What?

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Text

© Contents Magazine

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Images

© National Geographic

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Audio

© 99 Percent Invisible

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Video

© General Electric

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Data

Visualization by Ramiro Gómez

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Infographics

Infographic by tastyplacement

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Airbnb‘s origin: Two guys in San Francisco rented out air mattresses in their living room.

Brand narratives

Airbnb Story as of August 2013, via Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine

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Expanded narrative: It’s about going anywhere in the world, and having a place to feel at home.

Brand narratives

© Airbnb, Inc.

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• Brand identity elements

• Messaging standards

• Design elements: logos, colors, fonts

• Copy standards

• PR/Marketing assets

• Templates

Brand assets

© TED Conferences, LLC

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Brand guidelines

TEDx Branding Guidelines, May 15, 2009

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Content channels

www icon by Saki, GPL

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Content is a dialogue

Photo by Marc Wathieu

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Conversations about your brand

Archer © FX Networks

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Sometimes, damage controlJuly 16 July 18

Aug 11

Bélo © Airbnb

July 23

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Your audience’s:

• Interests

• Questions

• Hopes/desires

• Frustrations

*Participate cautiously, respectfully, and ethically.

Conversations in your area of interest

Photo by Marc Wathieu

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Content Auditing: Why?

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Thanks to digital, marketing is changing

Photo by Ruth Flickr

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Paid, owned, earned = more content

Net

CMS Platform

Website Content Offer

ALWAYS-ON PAID: SEM

EARNED

OWNED

SEO

Search engines

Organ

ic

PAID MEDIA

BlogsForumsFollowersLinks

LinkedIn Network

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Real-time marketing = faster content

Sharknado Weather Forecastby @dcschrader, @redcross PR Volunteer

Poop Tweetby Razorfish, for @smartcarusa

(watch the case study: https://vimeo.com/58482929)

Cobaltfor @TargetStyle

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In marketing it plays a critical role in:

• Attracting

• Converting

• Building and maintaining loyalty

Content is the stuff people want

Photo by zandperl

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• There’s a lot of content out there

• It takes time, resources and planning to produce good content

Content is a big deal. So what?

Data Never Sleeps infographic © Domo; Plans photo by Sarah Ross

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• What content do you have available now?

– Discover the quantity, quality, effectiveness and perception of your content

– Learn how to better use your existing content

• What content do you need that you don’t yet have?

– Find out what your audience wants, what they’re getting elsewhere, and what they’re not getting at all (yet)

What you can learn from auditing

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It’s an iterative process

Assumptions

Information

Findings

Insights

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Content Auditing: How?

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• Understand the context

– Business goals, audience needs, and institutional knowledge

• Evaluate the landscape

– Competitive and comparative

• Analyze the content

– Quantity, quality, effectiveness, and perception

• Assess the opportunity

– Needs and gaps

Steps to Auditing Content

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• Understand the context

– Business goals, audience needs, and institutional knowledge

• Evaluate the landscape

• Analyze the content

• Assess the opportunity

Steps to Auditing Content

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What are you trying to accomplish with the content?

Typical goals include:

• Awareness

• Engagement

• Conversion

• Satisfaction / Loyalty

Business goals

Photo by Rachel Lovinger

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Who is your audience? What do they want from the content?

Audience needs

Ways to get information:

• Surveys

• Interviews

• Focus groups

• Personas

• Content testing

Backup plan: Read secondary research.

Photo by K2_UX

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What can you learn from your content stakeholders?

Ask them about:

• Current efforts

• Past attempts

• Complaints

• Requests

• Like & dislikes

Institutional knowledge

Photo by Amir Lodge

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• Understand the context

• Evaluate the landscape

– Competitive and comparative

• Analyze the content

• Assess the opportunity

Steps to Auditing Content

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Consider factors such as:

• Tone

• Topics

• Credibility

• Segmenting & Targeting

• Brand Expression

• Sales Approach

Look at other sources of content

Photo by David

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Look at the content your competitors are producing.

• What types of content? Formats? Subjects?

• Does it seem interesting and engaging?

• Is it clear who it’s for?

• What needs is it trying to serve?

• Is it serving those needs?

• Where are they making it available?

• Is it unique and on brand?

Competitive content audit

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Focus Format Overview

Instruction,Inspiration

Articles, video, tools

Digital Vanguard: Very actionable advice and tools, primarily in the realms of social media and online search. Also very on-brand.

Inspiration,Editorial Curation

Video, curated articles, events

Brand Values: Small amount of original content, highly associated with Chase values. Consistently and pervasively branded (“Ink from Chase”).

Instructional, Inspirational,

Article, video Practical authority: Well-organized articles. Precise but not jargon-y. Actionable information references the brand, but isn’t overly sales-oriented.

Instruction, Inspiration

Articles, video Relationship Building: Reinforces the message that small business owners should engage in a one-on-one relationship with PNC.

Instruction Video Demonstrated Expertise: Establishes an authoritative voice on a broad spectrum of small business-related topics.

Community Curation

Articles, forum Cautionary Tale: Lots of actionable content of various types, but poorly moderated and not leveraged in any way that benefits the brand.

Instruction Online workshops,transcripts

Content Fail: Would be better off with only product content – this content does more harm than good to their brand image.

Instruction Online workshops Content Fail: Brand message of relationship building is wholly unsupported.

Instruction Articles Content Fail: Advice content is strictly focused on solving potential business problems with products and service offerings.

Competitive content audit

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Look at sources that serve similar audience needs.

• Where else does your audience go for information on topics related to your brand’s offering?

• What other kinds of information is of interest to your target audience?

• Look at informal channels, as well as official channels.

• What’s interesting or different from the content produced by your brand and your competitors?

Comparative content audit

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• Instruction and Opinion

• Inspiration

• News

• Factual Resources

• Community Curation

• Editorial Curation

Content for small business owners

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• Understand the context

• Evaluate the landscape

• Analyze the content

– Quantity: How much is there?

– Quality: How good/appropriate is it?

– Effectiveness: Is it accomplishing what you need it to?

– Perception: What does your content say about your brand?

• Assess the opportunity

Steps to Auditing Content

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Content Inventory

A list of the available content items, with related data that can be used for organizing, ranking, sorting, filtering.

Content Audit

Includes analysis and insights from qualitative analysis of the content. Can be comprehensive or a summary.

Defining documents

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• Understand the context

• Evaluate the landscape

• Analyze the content

– Quantity

– Quality

– Effectiveness

– Perception

• Assess the opportunity

Steps to Auditing Content

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• Consider online and offline sources

• Determine how comprehensive your inventory needs to be

Quantity: Content inventory

Every item Representative examples

• Small or amount of content

• Need precise decisions

• Wide range in quality

• Legal or compliance constraints

• A ton of content (really!)

• You can learn what you need to know from looking at samples

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Sample content inventory

Sample from Discovery: Content Audits, Inventories and Interviews Oh My!by Andrew Kaufman

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• Name

• Location (URL and/or channel)

• Description

• Owner

• Format

– Ex: Article, Video, Audio, PDF

• Structure or purpose

– Ex: Recipe, Review, Blog post

• Intended audience (if variable)

• Date (if known)

• Metadata

• Analytics information

• Usage rights

• Anything else that will help make decisions about what to use and how to use it.

Possible fields to include

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Common Metrics to Examine:– Unique visitors (visitor level, # of people

who did x)

– Visits (session level, # of times x was done)

– Page views (page level, # of times page y was seen)

– Click through rate

– Conversion rate

– Completion rate (tool, application, etc.)

– Bounce rate (1 page view)

– Exit rate (left site after current page view)

– Repeat vs. new visitor rate

– Customer vs. prospect rate

– Site search rate

– Usage of navigation rate

– Site exit rate

– Average time (on site, on page, on tool)

– Average page views (on site, on tool)

– Initial promised amount for converters

Include analytics data

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If you’re not looking at every item of content, try to find out how much there is:

• In each channel

• Of each type

• On each topic

Content counts

Photo by Scott Kidder

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• Try Content Analysis Tool, by Content Insight

– Crawls online content

– Incorporates analytics

– Enhance data with your own further analysis

See also: Power Mapper, Screaming Frog (SEO focus), SiteOrbiter (for Macs), HTTrack (For PCs)

Inventory tools

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• Understand the context

• Evaluate the landscape

• Analyze the content

– Quantity

– Quality

– Effectiveness

– Perception

• Assess the opportunity

Steps to Auditing Content

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Qualitative analysis is not just a question of “is it good?”

Look at factors such as:

• Clarity

• Tone

• Purpose

Quality: Beyond the numbers

Photo by Shira Golding Evergreen

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Is your content:

• Communicating clearly?

• Appropriate for your goals?

• Appropriate for your brand?

• Appropriate for your audience?

• Relevant to your audience’s needs?

• Up-to-date?

• Compliant with standards & regulations?

Qualitative analysis

Inappropriate Greeting Card by tengrrl (CC-BY-SA)

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Two valid ways of talking about biochemistry

Variation is to be expected

Chem4Kids.com © Andrew Radar Studios; ACS Publications © American Chemical Society

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A misguided experiment

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Candy website restricted to people 13 or older (with a terrible disclaimer)

A self-defeating solution

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For more information on Tone & Voice, and for guidance on creating high quality content, read:

• Nicely Said, by Nicole Fenton and Kate Kiefer Lee

Tone & Voice

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• Understand the context

• Evaluate the landscape

• Analyze the content

– Quantity

– Quality

– Effectiveness

– Perception

• Assess the opportunity

Steps to Auditing Content

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Effectiveness: Measure against goals

Business Goal Potential Measurements

Awareness • Page views• Unique visitors

Engagement • Time on page• Repeat visits• Social shares

Conversion • Registration• Email signup• Downloads• Purchases

Satisfaction / Loyalty • Ratings• Reviews

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For example:

• Increase perception of expertise

• Aid in decision making process for prospective customers

• Reach audience with greater influence

• Improve sentiment towards the brand

• Receive fewer calls or emails to support center

• Increase percentage of repeat visits

Detailed objectives

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Possible approaches :

• Analytics reporting

• Social listening

• Scorecards

• Surveys

• Testing

Measuring content effectiveness

Photo by Ollivier Girard for Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR)

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• Set business goals and detailed objectives

• Establish benchmarks

• Measure, optimize, and measure again

Tips for measurement

Volume and Percent of Visitors who Accessed Content

1,994

16,383

25,561 25,315

28,800

0.00%

0.20%

0.40%

0.60%

0.80%

1.00%

1.20%

1.40%

1.60%

-

5,000

10,000

15,000

20,000

25,000

30,000

35,000

Q109 Q209 Q309 Q409 Q110

% o

f V

isit

ors

# o

f R

ead

ers

Volume of Readers % of Visitors

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snapscore, from ContentWRX:

• Surveys and analytics data

• Tools for analyzing data

• Reporting to help interpret

• Recommendations, research, best practices, and prompts

Effectiveness measurement tools

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• Understand the context

• Evaluate the landscape

• Analyze the content

– Quantity

– Quality

– Effectiveness

– Perception

• Assess the opportunity

Steps to Auditing Content

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• What does your content say about your brand?

– Does your content express your brand’s core values?

– What attributes does your brand voice convey?

– What story is your content telling about your business?

Include questions like these in your own qualitative analysis, as well as in research with your audience and stakeholders.

Perception: Align with brand values

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Who recognizes this?

Scans from Abandoned Republic, by Scott Adams

Thanks Margot Bloomstein (@mbloomstein)!

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Banana Republic 2014

© Banana Republic

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Recognize this brand?

[Brand A] touches the lives of millions of people each and every day. From special occasions to exceptional moments in everyday life, [Brand A] is there. The brand has become a special part of people's lives.

Over the years, thousands of people have sent us personal stories about how [Brand A] has affected their lives. Whether it is a favorite childhood memory, a reminder of family gatherings, or a recollection of good times with friends, [Brand A] has touched the lives of people all over the world.

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Coca-Cola

[Brand A] touches the lives of millions of people each and every day. From special occasions to exceptional moments in everyday life, [Brand A] is there. The brand has become a special part of people's lives.

Over the years, thousands of people have sent us personal stories about how [Brand A] has affected their lives. Whether it is a favorite childhood memory, a reminder of family gatherings, or a recollection of good times with friends, [Brand A] has touched the lives of people all over the world.

© The Coca-Cola Company

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At [Brand B], we believe that serving our communities is not only integral to running a business successfully, it is part of our individual responsibilities as citizens of the world. The mission of our program is to bring to life the [Brand B] value of good corporate citizenship by supporting communities in ways that enhance the company's reputation with employees, customers, business partners and other stakeholders. We do this by supporting visionary nonprofit organizations that are:

• Preserving and sustaining unique historic places for the future

• Developing new leaders for tomorrow

• Encouraging community service where our employees and customers live and work

How about this one?

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At [Brand B], we believe that serving our communities is not only integral to running a business successfully, it is part of our individual responsibilities as citizens of the world. The mission of our program is to bring to life the [Brand B] value of good corporate citizenship by supporting communities in ways that enhance the company's reputation with employees, customers, business partners and other stakeholders. We do this by supporting visionary nonprofit organizations that are:

• Preserving and sustaining unique historic places for the future

• Developing new leaders for tomorrow

• Encouraging community service where our employees and customers live and work

American Express

© American Express Company

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• Investigate how people perceive your content

• Craft content that better represents the unique attributes of your brand

What are your brand values?

Need some guidance? Read Sine Qua Non by Jonathon Colman (@jcolman): http://bit.ly/csapple

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• Understand the context

• Evaluate the landscape

• Analyze the content

• Assess the opportunity

– Needs and gaps

Steps to Auditing Content

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What is your audience looking for that isn’t available, or that you could provide better?

Opportunity: Fill the gap

What your audience wants

Competitors

Other Sources

Opportunity

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You may already have content that fills some of those gaps. If you’ve done your audit, you know what you have and you’re ready to use it.

Use your content well

Photos and pendants by Mary Anne Enriquez

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• 2 Critical Types of Content Analysis, by Colleen Jones (Jan 23, 2014)

• Content Audits and Inventories: A Handbook, by Paula Land (book, to be released September 2014)

• Discovery: Content Audits, Inventories and Interviews Oh My!, by Andrew Kaufman (July 9, 2013)

• Does Your Content Work?, by Colleen Jones (eBook, Feb 6, 2014)

• How To Do a Content Audit - Step-by-Step, by Everett Sizemore of Inflow, for The Moz Blog (Aug 13, 2014)

• Inventory to Insight: Understanding Content Inventories, Audits, and Analysis, by Paula Land (webinar, Apr 18, 2014)

Want more information?

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Thank You!