Don’t Start 2020 Without Completing This End-Of-Year Content Marketing Checklist
It’s December. The big day is fast approaching. You’ve been making festive plans, arranging family visits, decorating the house— all of the last-minute yuletide to-do’s that keep us on our toes each year. Perhaps you’ve even braved the retail chaos and checked a few items off your holiday shopping list. (If so, I salute you and your fearless commitment to the season.)
But have you considered a holiday checklist for your business?
If you’re like most entrepreneurs I know, the answer is probably no. It’s ironic, isn’t it? All that talk throughout the year about our businesses being our “babies”, and we leave them behind in a mad blitz as soon as the winter holiday arrives. I mean really, what kind of business parents are we? (I kid, I kid.)
But on a more serious—and marketing-related—note, there’s no time like December to conduct a content analysis. You’ve already done the work. You’ve run your campaigns, posted to social media, and shared your blogs— all the marketing milestones you set for yourself in January. The only issue is that you haven’t taken inventory.
Which leads me to one simple question: how do you know the year was a success if you haven’t reviewed your results?
Identifying what worked for you in 2019, along with any aspects of your content strategy that are in need of improvement or tweaking, allows you to set a solid foundation for the year ahead.
Plus, wouldn’t it be nice to come back to the office in the New Year and not feel like you have to start back at square one?
If you’ve ever experienced what I call “turn of the year hysteria”, my guess is your internal dialogue in response to that question was something like:
Heck yes. Help me avoid the madness, Dee!
Fortunately, getting a firm grasp on your content marketing efforts doesn’t have to be complicated. There are a few core components of any content strategy that (when analyzed correctly) provide an accurate overview of where a business stands.
And, as luck would have it, I’ve compiled them into a content checklist that can be completed in just a few hours.
Trust me, in January, when your clients are back to business and putting pressure on their own projects, you’ll be glad you did it!
So, here it is. The end-of-year content checklist any business owner can use to get a running start on their content marketing in 2020.
Return
Document how much you spent on content marketing in total for 2019.
Document how much was spent on each content marketing method (social media management, copywriting, SEO, etc.)
Determine your online conversion rate by dividing the total number of leads you generated in 2019 by total number of unique visitors to your website and multiplying that number by 100.
Determine your direct content marketing benefits by multiplying the total number of conversions by your conversion rate.
Calculate your return on investment (ROI) by subtracting your total content marketing costs from the direct content marketing benefits amount (the amount from the bullet above).
These figures are the most powerful financial metrics available to business owners who want to get down to brass tax when evaluating their annual performance. Without these fiscal indicators, your content analysis will be misleading. Other metrics can clarify user behaviours, engagement levels, and exposure rates, but they don’t quantify the data in terms of dollars and cents. And, ultimately, all marketing efforts must be brought back to profitability in order to determine of overarching business goals are being met.
Response
Make note of the top 10 social media posts on each of your company accounts that received the highest engagement rates.
Make note of any peaks in website traffic that came from social media. When did they occur? Can the surges be attributed to specific posts?
Document the five company e-newsletters from 2019 that had the highest open rates and link clicks.
Identify the five blogs your company posted in 2019 that had the highest number of visits and lowest bounce rates.
Identify the top five SEO keywords that brought the most organic traffic to your website in 2019.
Document any positive Google reviews, testimonials, Facebook comments, or emails from clients.
If beauty is in the eye of the beholder, brand is in the eye of the customer. This is why it’s so important to identify the content your online audience appreciated most in 2019.
The bad news? You’ll have to sift through the dirt to find the diamonds.
Yes, this part of your content analysis will be time-consuming. But if you want to generate higher engagement rates and expand your customer base in 2020, you need to know which content marketing methods perform best. Compiling your most successful posts and materials will allow you to look at them from a bird’s eye view, pinpoint any similarities or common characteristics, and make it easier to reproduce comparable content in the future.
Not sure how to find the information mentioned in this checklist? As an Edmonton content creator, I use specialized tools and software programs to measure the success of content marketing strategies and campaigns for my clients. I can help you locate and compile the data you need.
Reflection
Compare the current number of social media followers on each of your company accounts with the number of social media followers you had in December of 2018. By what percentage did your followers increase? Write this figure down for each account.
Compare the number of unique website visitors per month in 2019 with the corresponding month in 2018. Write down the difference, in percentage, for each month.
Compare the number of e-newsletter subscribers you had at the end of 2018 with your current number of subscribers. Document the percent of the increase.
Compare your posts with the highest engagement rates from 2019 to the highest performing posts from 2018. Do this for each platform you use and document the difference in the number of engagements.
Compare the number of monthly visitors to your blog in 2019 with the same figures from 2018. Document the percent of growth for each month.
Add up the total value of conversions from social media in 2019. Compare this number with the value of your total conversions from 2018. Document the difference in dollars.
Too often, entrepreneurs only compare their year-over-year growth and earnings when filing their corporate taxes or applying for business loans, not realizing that the specific departments and services they offer can benefit from this type of benchmarking too.
Having clear, hard numbers you can refer to when reflecting on what worked for your business and what contributed to overall growth is always smart— even when it comes to creative services like content marketing.
Besides, bringing your year to a close with a retrospective examination of your marketing growth is an excellent way to boost your morale, zero in on your accomplishments, and admire the fruits of your labour.
How I Can Help
The majority of my clients come to me seeking an Edmonton copywriter who can produce optimized, high-value content they can publish online. But in addition to being a proficient writer with more than 10 years of professional experience, I am also a content marketing specialist. I have worked for both creative agencies and businesses, helping them analyze their marketing strategies and develop new, innovative campaigns and collateral that drive growth and engagement.
In a nutshell? If you’re just looking for an Edmonton SEO copywriter who can help rise up in local Google rankings, I can do that.
But I am also capable of doing the in-depth research and investigative digging required to compile a comprehensive content analysis.
If you’re interested in completing this content checklist (or investing in content analysis to better understand where your business stands) but you don’t know where to begin, I encourage you to fill out my online form.
I’m confident I can provide you with the clarity you‘re looking for!