Creating A Content Strategy for 2024 Step 1: Set Clear Goals and KPIs

Why are you using content marketing for your business? If you can’t clearly answer this question, you’ll find it challenging to develop a strategy that effectively meets your objectives.

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Identifying Your Purpose

For most marketers, content serves at least a few of these key purposes:

• Building brand awareness
• Increasing website traffic
• Educating the Audience
• Establishing Thought Leadership
• Building Trust and Credibility
• Driving Social Media Engagement
• Facilitating Customer Retention
• Supporting Product Launches
• Influencing Purchase Decisions
• Encouraging User-Generated Content
• Reinforcing Brand Values and Mission
• Gathering Customer Feedback
• Boosting audience engagement
• Generating leads
• Enhancing Customer Loyalty
• Improving Customer Experience
• Fostering Community Building
• Supporting SEO Efforts
• Nurturing Leads
• Driving sales

All in all, the end goal of all content marketing is to transform customers into brand ambassadors.

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Setting Goals and Tracking KPIs

To ensure your content marketing efforts are purposeful and effective, you need to establish clear goals. These goals will help you determine which Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to track.

The SMART Framework

To create a strategic roadmap, we recommend using the SMART framework:

• Specific: Clearly defined and focused.
• Measurable: Quantifiable to track progress.
• Achievable: Realistic given your resources and timeline.
• Relevant: Aligned with your business objectives.
• Time-bound: Have a specific deadline for completion.

Examples of SMART Goals in Action

Here’s how SMART goals might look in practice:

• Increase website traffic from the blog by 50% in the next 6 months.
• Generate 100 marketing-qualified leads from gated content in Q3.
• Boost LinkedIn engagement by 20% in the next 3 months through weekly industry-related posts and active participation in relevant groups.
• Increase webinar attendance by 30% in the next 4 months by promoting through email campaigns and social media ads.
• Enhance blog comment interactions by 15% over the next 6 months by encouraging reader feedback and responding promptly to comments.
• Grow Pinterest followers by 25% in 90 days by consistently posting visually appealing content and engaging with similar accounts.
• Increase Instagram Stories views by 30% over the next 3 months by creating interactive and engaging stories and utilizing relevant hashtags.
• Generate 200 new email sign-ups in the next 3 months through a combination of lead magnets, content upgrades, and promotional campaigns.
• Raise the average click-through rate (CTR) on marketing emails by 25% in 6 months by A/B testing subject lines and content layouts.
• Increase participation in online forums and communities by 20% in the next 3 months by regularly sharing insights and valuable content.
• Boost conversion rates on landing pages by 30% in the next 6 months through A/B testing different elements and optimizing user experience.
• Enhance the shareability of blog content by 25% in 90 days by incorporating more engaging visuals and adding social sharing buttons.
• Grow TikTok followers by 50% in the next 6 months by posting regular, relevant, and engaging short-form videos.
• Increase the number of case studies published by 50% over the next year by actively seeking out and documenting successful customer stories.
• Improve content syndication efforts by getting 10 articles published on industry-leading sites within the next 6 months.
• Increase attendance at virtual events by 40% in the next 6 months through targeted email campaigns and social media promotions.
• Boost mobile app downloads by 30% in the next 3 months by creating targeted ad campaigns and optimizing the app store listing.
• Expand the influencer marketing program by partnering with 5 new influencers in the next quarter.
• Enhance user-generated content submissions by 20% in the next 4 months through community engagement and incentives.
• Improve email open rates by 10% by the end of the year.
• Increase the number of whitepaper downloads by 40% in the next quarter through targeted LinkedIn ads and gated content on the website.
• Improve the average time spent on site by 20% in the next 6 months by creating more engaging, in-depth content and optimizing site navigation.
• Boost podcast listener retention rates by 15% in 4 months through improved content quality, regular posting schedules, and listener feedback.
• Grow YouTube subscribers by 25% in the next 90 days.

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Setting SMART Goals for Your Content Marketing Strategy

As mentioned earlier, it’s essential to set SMART goals for a content strategy that gets results. SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.

Here’s how you can set these goals, broken down step by step:

1. Start with Your High-Level Business Objectives

Begin by identifying the overarching goals of your business. These could include increasing sales, expanding your customer base, or improving brand awareness. These high-level objectives will serve as the foundation for your content marketing strategy.

Example: If your business objective is to increase online sales by 20% this year, this will guide your content marketing efforts.

2. Break Them Down into Specific, Measurable Content Goals

Once you have your high-level objectives, break them down into more precise content marketing goals. These goals should be clear and quantifiable so you can track your progress and measure success.

Example: To support your objective of increasing online sales, a specific goal could be to “Publish one SEO-optimized blog post per week to boost website traffic by 50% in 6 months.”

3. Ensure These Goals are Realistic and Achievable

Your goals must be attainable given your current resources, capabilities, and time constraints. Setting realistic goals helps maintain motivation and ensures you can achieve them.

Example: If you are a small team, it might not be feasible to publish 25 blog posts per week. Instead, aim for 2 high-quality posts per week.

4. Align Your Goals with Your Overall Strategy and Target Audience Needs

Your content goals should fit into your broader business strategy and address the needs and preferences of your target audience. This alignment ensures that your efforts are relevant and impactful.

Example: If your target audience consists of busy professionals, create content that provides quick, actionable insights they can easily digest and apply.

5. Set a Clear Timeline for Completion

Each goal should have a specific deadline to create a sense of urgency and keep you on track. A timeline helps in planning and executing your strategy efficiently.

Example: You might set a goal to “Grow YouTube subscribers by 25% in the next 90 days by posting two new videos per month.”

Putting It All Together

By following these steps, you can set SMART goals that are well-defined, achievable, and aligned with your business objectives.

Here’s an example of a complete SMART goal:

• Specific: Publish two SEO-optimized blog posts per week.
• Measurable: Increase website traffic by 50%.
• Achievable: Given current resources, 2 posts per week is realistic.
• Relevant: Supports the business objective of increasing online sales.
• Time-bound: Achieve this in the next 6 months.

By setting SMART goals, you create a clear roadmap for your content marketing strategy, making it easier to track progress, adjust tactics as needed, and ultimately achieve your business objectives.

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Broadening Your Content Strategy

Remember, content marketing isn’t limited to the written word or your blog. Identify where your audience is most active and engage them across those channels. Then, create SMART goals for each channel:

For example, if your business goal is to increase your sales by 15% this year, your SMART content goals might be:

• Publish two new SEO-optimized blogs per week to increase organic traffic by 50% in 6 months.
• Create one whitepaper per quarter to generate 200 leads.
• Grow email list by 25% in Q3 through a weekly newsletter and content upgrades.
• Increase TikTok subscribers by 30% in 6 months by publishing 5 new videos per week.

Selecting KPIs to Monitor Progress

Once you have your SMART goals, decide on the KPIs to track based on your content type:

• Email: Open rates, click-through rates, bounce rates, unsubscribe rates, email sharing/forwarding, conversions.
• Blog: Traffic, engagement, backlinks, comments, Social shares, Bounce rate, keyword rankings.
• Guest Posts: Referral traffic, backlinks, social shares, author bio clicks, lead generation, brand mentions.
• Social Media: Followers, engagement rate, reach, impressions, click-through rates, follower growth rate, hashtag performance, shares.
• Video: Views, watch time, subscribers, comments, click-through rate (CTAs in videos), social shares, video completion rate.
• Podcasts: Downloads, subscribers, reviews, sponsorships, listener retention rate, episode completion rate, social media mentions, and website traffic from podcast links.
• Webinars: Registrations, attendance rate, engagement (Q&A participation, polls), conversion rate, follow-up actions (e.g., demo requests), feedback surveys, replay views.
• Infographics: Social shares, embeds on other websites, traffic to the landing page, backlinks, download rates, engagement (time on page).
• eBooks/Whitepapers: Downloads, leads generated, time spent on download page, social shares, conversion rate (from lead to customer), referral traffic from share links.
• Online Courses: Enrollments, completion rates, user feedback and ratings, engagement metrics (quizzes, assignments), conversion rate (free to paid courses), community activity (forums, discussion boards).
• Interactive Content: Participation rates (quizzes, polls), time spent on interactive elements, social shares, lead generation, conversion rate (from engagement to action), feedback and user satisfaction.
• LinkedIn Engagement: Post likes, comments, and shares, Profile views, Connection requests, Click-through rates on shared links
• Webinar Attendance: Registration numbers, Attendance rate, Engagement during webinars (polls, Q&A participation), Conversion rate post-webinar (e.g., demo requests)
• Pinterest: Follower growth rate, Pin saves, Click-through rates on pins, Board follows
• Forum Participation: Number of posts and comments, Engagement metrics (likes, upvotes), Referral traffic from forums, Community growth
• Landing Pages: Conversion rate (form submissions, purchases), Bounce rate, Time on page, A/B test performance
• Content Syndication: Number of articles published on other sites, Referral traffic, Backlinks generated, Brand mentions
• Influencer Partnerships: Number of partnerships, Engagement metrics on influencer posts, Referral traffic from influencer links, Conversion rate from influencer campaigns
• User-Generated Content (UGC): Number of UGC submissions, Engagement metrics (likes, shares), Quality and relevance of UGC, Conversion rate from UGC campaigns

Phew. That’s a looong list … and it isn’t comprehensive by any stretch.

The takeaway here is that no matter what your content types are, there are KPIs to track. And by tracking these KPIs, you can effectively monitor the progress of your SMART content goals and make data-driven decisions to optimize your content marketing strategy.

Aim for Continuous Improvement

Regularly review and adjust your SMART goals based on performance data. Use tools like Google Analytics to track progress against your KPIs. Celebrate your wins and learn from any misses to continually optimize your content strategy.

And that’s step 1 to creating a winning content strategy that’s aligned with your business objectives.

Step 2 is coming up next….