Analytics Help Answer Content Questions

Jeff Chasin

I recently talked analytics with Jeff Chasin, a sharp web analyst contracting for IBM and member of Atlanta Content Strategy. He kindly let me share some of our conversation.

How Do You Explain Analytics to Content Pros?

Chasin: “When I say ‘analytics’ to someone who spends most of their time with words and pictures, sometimes their eyes glaze over and they have a flashback to college statistics class. The good news is that Web analytics does not have to mean diving into stats or regression analysis.  You don’t have to be a numbers person to use Web analytics to improve your content.”

How Do Analytics Help?

Chasin: “When you take a road trip, how do you know if you’re going in the right direction? How do you know whether you’re making good time? Does your car need gas?  You have your map or GPS, your speedometer, and your gas gauge, right?”

“Don’t you ask similar questions about your content?  What’s the purpose of this content?  How will I know if it’s working the way I want it to?  How do I know which part of my audience is getting my message?  Are they sharing my ideas?  Do they read my articles, watch my videos, listen to my podcasts, re-tweet my stuff?  What type of content is most effective at driving sales?  Which channel should I use to communicate with my best customers?  What’s the best day of the week for a new blog post?  Are people finding my content in the search engines?  When they find it, is it relevant to them?”

“These are all content questions.  These are all questions that Web analytics can help you answer.”

How Should a Content Pro Start with Analytics?

Chasin: “You’ll have problems if you don’t ask questions about the content to begin with. Ask questions to help establish your objectives. For instance, if you have a website with advertising, an objective might be to keep people engaged on the site.”

[Me: So, if you're already working on a content strategy, coming up with these objectives should be pretty painless.]

“Once you establish objectives, you need to decide what activities would best indicate whether the objectives are being met. Some examples are viewing more pages or downloading a certain file. After that, you can establish metrics and KPIs (key performance indicators).”

What’s the Most Challenging Part?

Chasin: “I see the most confusion in picking the activities that indicate whether the objectives are being met. That’s why it’s so important to ask content questions up front and establish the right objectives.”