4 min read

Why a Content Audit is Essential for Your Digital Marketing Strategy

Posted by ProsperoHub on December 3, 2020

Content is, and should be, a major part of any effective digital marketing strategy. Whether you're looking to increase brand awareness, attract more traffic to your website or capture your visitor's info, content can help you achieve your marketing goals while being helpful to your target audience. By content, we don't just refer to blog posts or emails but a range of content types from infographics and videos to case studies and white papers. 

When creating content, it is important to consider the challenges your targeted audience is facing and offer them valuable information to solve their issues. That will help you hit your objectives at every stage of the funnel; whether it's to increase awareness, generate new leads or support your sales team with converting a sales qualified lead into a customer. If you provide content which is not relatable, or too advanced/not advanced enough for the stage that the reader is in, then you risk losing them. This is why a content audit is so important, to help you identify what has been performing well, what could be repurposed and are there any content gaps.

What is a Content Audit?

A content audit is a time-consuming process that involves systemically reviewing the content on your website, assessing it's strengths and weaknesses, analysing metrics and ensuring that everything is aligned with your current marketing goals. Regular and well-conducted content audits can help you identify content gaps and repurpose existing content into other formats to ensure better conversion. Determining the status of your published content allows you to prioritise your future content marketing efforts.  

Ensuring you provide engaging and relevant content to your prospects throughout each stage of the Buyer Journey is key. A content audit will allow you to monitor if your website is performing as efficiently as possible, engaging the right prospects that will convert into high quality leads.

The first step in developing a strong content strategy to allow you to do this is to conduct a content audit. Understanding what content you have already, and where the gaps exist will help you develop an effective strategy.

 

5 Reasons to Conduct a Content Audit

There are many reasons why a company should conduct a content audit and HubSpot has identified some of the problems that can arise if one is not carried out.

1. Your Website Is Generating Traffic But It's Not Producing Qualified Leads

When you have traffic coming to your site, but you are not receiving many leads in return, often there is an issue somewhere - visitors coming to your website, but not converting into a lead, can be an issue with your content.

It may be the case that your content is attracting prospects from the wrong target market, and thus, no one converts. It can also be the case that the content was not written clearly enough to target a specific buyer persona, so it does not address any specific needs or pain points of that particular buyer persona, resulting in no leads. Understanding your buyer personas and the content that they would respond to, is crucial.

Through a content audit, you are able to track how your content is performing, what marketing channels are working and which should be eliminated - your content audit can determine how well your content is targeting the right people through the right channels. 

2. Unclear Value Proposition Producing Unclear Content

According to HubSpot only 7% of leadership teams can explain their company's value proposition, despite 85% of CEOs claiming their employees can state the company’s value proposition.

These statistics are worrying. If your marketers writing your content do not have a clear understanding of the company’s value proposition, then the content will appear confusing.

Undertaking a content audit will enable you to review your current content to check it fits with your company's value proposition. Presenting a clear value proposition helps to build relevance for targeting buyer personas which in turn, improves engagement, shares, and conversions.

3. Blogging Isn't Playing a Role in Your Sales Process

A content audit enables you to identify which marketing channels your leads are coming from, for example, blog posts. According to industry research, marketers who blog, receive 67% more leads than those who do not. However, there are many companies who do not use blogging as part of the sales process.

Aligning your sales and content marketing teams to create high quality blog posts that engage your prospects, helps to push these leads further down the sales funnel. A content audit will help you discover how the messaging on your blog posts are performing, which calls-to-action (CTA's) are the most effective, and how you can further drive sales traffic through blogging.

4. Leads or Sales Goals Aren’t Being Met

If your sales strategy is not aligned with your content strategy, your lead targets and/or sales goals can fall behind. Performing a content audit can uncover why certain goals aren’t being met and action can then be taken to rectify this.

It is crucial your content helps the sales process. Curated content can increase the number and quality of sales-ready leads for your business.

5. Your Content Isn't Being Read

If you have identified that people who have actively subscribed to your blog are not reading your content, a content audit can help you identify what content was successful previously. This will enable you to work on getting it back on track to keep these subscribers happy.

A content audit can help you understand where and when your content drifted from its original purpose, so you are able to re-purpose your content to attract the target audience that will be reading it.

 

What are the Benefits of Conducting a Content Audit?

Assessing the content of your website can open up opportunities which can significantly improve the traffic and conversion rates your website generates.

HubSpot has identified 3 of the top benefits from conducting a content audit:

1. Website Performance Optimisation

Performing a content audit allows you to review the performance of your website, assessing how user-friendly your website is to navigate and find content, and how it responds to search engines.

2. Search Engine Optimisation

Through a content audit, you are able to identify any missed SEO opportunities, and are given the chance to tackle these issues. Identifying these missed opportunities allows you to re-focus your SEO efforts where it matters most, on your users.

3. Conversion Rate Optimisation

Content audits enable you to re-evaluate the effectiveness of your website around lead generation and conversion rates. Through an audit you are able to identify any overlooked opportunities where your visitors may be more likely to respond to a CTA, as well as identifying any issues with your landing pages.

Optimising your content will allow you to boost conversions and significantly improve the traffic to your website.

How to Optimise your Content and Increase Lead Generation

ProsperoHub's Marketing Experts can help you ensure that you are using HubSpot to it's full potential. When you work with us we can help you begin understanding how to:


• Track prospects at every stage of the buyer's journey
• Effectively segment your data to deliver tailored marketing campaigns
• Combine the efforts of Sales & Marketing to gain a 360 view of performance against KPIs

Learn more about our content strategy services or schedule an online consultation to learn about website optimisation and revenue growth.

Topics: Buyer's Journey, Content Marketing

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