Hey Suz,
Just adding my $.02 here.
You asked, "how do you truly measure value of copy/content to the true
consumers of that content"?
What you are looking for is somewhat complicated in that there isn't
simply a set of "content analytics" that translate value to a consumer
to the business one-to-one. Something I'm trying very hard at solving,
but that's for another day.
From a quantitative perspective do the following:
What you need to be able to do is choose the right metrics that show
content consumers are or are not "enjoying" the content and how those
metrics correlate to increases or decreases in one of the following:
1) Increase revenue
2) Decrease costs
3) Increase satisfaction
Often it's a combination of these three, but by always starting here
it will help you narrow what KPI (key performance indicators) and
metrics are appropriate to measure, i.e. measure what matters. If you
want to get "advanced" you can continue that same idea and determine
the business model, industry, user path, etc. If you're less familiar
with quantitative (web analytics) measures don't worry about them for
now. The more you dig and get into it the more complicated it will
become. Arguably more accurate, but in most cases that's not the case,
so keep it simple. Do keep in mind that anything, I mean absolutely
ANYTHING, can be measured. So keep at it.
That being said, if you are looking for a qualitative way try this:
1) Choose a few characteristics or dimensions of what (you think)
makes content "valuable" or good. Findability, Context, On-brand,
Professionalism, Sharing, etc. I'll refer you to a post from Colleen
Jones (back at ya!) I've used:
http://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2009/04/toward-content-quality.php
for more
2) Simply assign a value to it, e.g. 0-3 (my preferred), 0-5, 0-10,
etc.
3) Add up the total score given across all dimensions and divide it
by total possible. e.g 9 of 18 = 50%
Now you have used a qualitative method to quantify content across a
series of dimensions that is scalable, repeatable, and while not
'exact' its consistently inconsistent. Which is why I prefer the 0-3
method scale as it limits the amount of variation. You can then
monitor changes in your content over time and also correlate them to
quantitative metrics for a well balanced "qual - quant mix" of content
measurement.
I'll be posting a more detailed version of this method on my blog,
www.markohurst.com over the next week.
Cheers,
~Marko
Marko Hurst
Author, Speaker, Consultant, & Director of Content Strategy @ HUGE
Content Analytics
e:
ma...@markohurst.com
t: markohurst
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www.markohurst.com