Using Google analytics to know how effective is your content

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Often when you want to know how effective your content is you gauge its popularity by the number of people retweeting the link or the number of people coming to your blog and leaving comments.

Although it feels good to know how popular your particular page or blog post is growing, the real effectiveness of your content can only be gauged by what people do after coming to that page. If people are visiting your link in hordes and then leaving for other external links immediately after reading that page you aren’t achieving much (actually you are in terms of brand building and recognition but that’s different subject).

Google analytics can give you an in-depth analysis of user behaviour when they access your content. It is a free tool and you can easily put the tracking code in one of your common files so that all your pages and blog posts are tracked.

So assuming that you are tracking your websites with Google analytics, after logging in select the website or the blog profile you would like to see an on the left-hand sidebar you get the “Content” tab. When you click it there is a further drop down menu and you will see links like “Pages”, “Landing Pages” and so on. In these two sections you will see:

The number of unique visitors to individual pages
The time they spend on these pages and blog posts
The bounce rate
The exit rate

Content effectiveness with Google analytics

If the number of unique visitors is increasing to a particular page it means the page is getting more exposure on search engine and other websites.

It matters how much time people spend on that page. The more compelling and relevant content you have on that page or blog post, the more time people are going to spend on it.

The bounce rate is when people come to your landing page and then immediately leave your website without exploring other parts of your website. If they don’t find your content valuable then obviously they are going to assume that it represents the overall quality of content on your website and then they leave your website straightaway.

So even if traffic to a particular page is increasing but then it also has a higher bounce rate it is not doing you much good. You have to analyse its content quality and see why people are leaving your website without exploring other pages or blog posts.

This is where you can gauge the effectiveness of your content. If more people are coming to that particular page or blog post and the bounce rate is lower it means the content on that page is effective.

Then there is the exit rate. How many people who come to your website leave your website completely from a particular web page or blog post. Although this is a subjective matter you should carefully examine the content of a particular page or the blog post if more people are exiting your website from that link.

You cannot gauge the overall effectiveness of your content by its search engine and social media popularity. Effective content engages your visitors and gives them a reason to stay on your website for a longer time. The longer they stay the better are your chances of converting them into your paying customers and clients.

The Content Grid: At which stage of buying people prefer what type of content

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I just came across this magnificent content grid at Eloqua that graphically explains at which stage of the buying funnel what sort of content is sought by prospects. This infographic can be a great reference source while planning your content marketing strategy.

[Click image to enlarge]

As you can see content marketing isn’t just about aimlessly creating content and publishing it on your blog, on your website or even on other blogs and websites. You need to find out at what stage what sort of content is needed.

Why you need a Facebook page and how to increase your fans with quality content

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Creating a Facebook page is a great way to build a community around your product, brand or identity. More than 99% Fortune 500 companies have a Facebook presence (it differs from company to company how much they engage their customers and clients via their pages).

It takes a few minutes to create a Facebook page but it can take months to get a decent number of fans. Creating a page over there can be as simple as using its default features or as intricate as creating an interactive Facebook app to take your presence to an entirely different level.

Lets quickly go through some benefits of having a Facebook page.

It can act as your landing page: Since you can make your Facebook page as interactive and feature-rich as any other web page you can easily create a landing page for your product or service. Since you cannot create multiple pages you will have to take down one page in order to create another. Or you can have different tabs as different landing pages and then randomly decide on which tab people should land when they visit your page.
It can help you build a community around a product, service or idea: Just as birds of same feather flock together people of similar interest try to find people like them. There are many gadget companies that create Facebook pages to post interesting stuff about their gadgets and then have interactions with their fans. You can get valuable feedback from your fans. Some of those fans can turn into your evangelists and promote your product, service or idea on their own timelines, websites and blogs. The basic idea behind building a community is developing a kinship with your fans and having regular interactions with them to maintain a buzz around your presence.
It can act as a press release: Whether you’re launching a new product, testing a prototype, or giving an offer on your various products or services, you can announce that on your Facebook page. A good thing about releasing your news on your Facebook page is you will get instant feedback. So if you have just launched a product, you can include a link to the purchase page of that product and you can immediately see your sales soaring. Provided you have a considerable number of fans it can be a great PR tool for you in case you get some bad press.
Your Facebook fan page can help you build an audience: Suppose you are an artist or a writer and you want to build your own fan base. Just imagine what a boost you will get if you have 10,000 fans on your Facebook page. A good thing about having more fans is there is a greater probability of you getting more fans much faster. As a writer it will certainly give you an edge when you are negotiating with publishers or looking for agents. People who have become your fans will be more eager to buy your books. Similarly, if you are an actor people who have become your fans will be more eager to see your movie, and hence it will be profitable for producers and casting directors to prefer you over another actor who doesn’t have a solid Facebook presence.

These are some selective benefits and there can be a long list of other benefits of having a Facebook page.

Getting more Facebook fans with quality content

Eventually it all boils down to what sort of content you post on your Facebook page. Remember that you have to engage your audience. Your content must be inspiring, informative, provocative and thought-provoking. Since they have liked your page they expect you to say something authoritative, knowledgeable and useful. You are like a thought leader. They look up to you.

Publishing content on your Facebook page differs from field to field. It depends on your audience. A Paris Hilton audience would be totally different from, let us say, a Salman Rushdie audience (yup, I’m stereotyping here but that’s the reality). So you have to understand the dynamics of your audience and post your content accordingly.

A professional content writer can help you study your audience and then create your Facebook page content accordingly.

Three things get you a greater number of fans on Facebook:

Regular posting
Sticking to the interest of your fans
Interacting with your fans however much possible

Regular posting

Regular posting gives you constant visibility. Timelines on Facebook move very fast. No matter how popular you are if you don’t post for a couple of weeks nobody really misses you unless your presence is indispensable. So you have to appear in the timelines of your fans as much as possible. There are different frequencies for different types of audience, 4-5 postings everyday is the least amount of content you should create and post.

Regarding creating quality content, it doesn’t always have to come from you. If you come across an interesting link that you think your fans will find useful, post that link. If you find something controversial, post that and invite your fans to give their comments. You can also share stuff from people you are friends with on Facebook and other social networking websites. Use different sources to keep your Facebook page timeline buzzing.

Sticking to the interests of your fans

Your fans follow you for a reason. If you are a writer, they expect literary content from you or something related to your writing pursuits, or whatever is happening in the field of literature, writing and publishing. Of course you can also express your views on whatever is happening in the world at a particular time, but you should maintain a ratio of 80:20 – 80% your subject and 20% general interest.

Interacting with your fans however much possible

Social networking is after all 1-1 interactions. If you just post and never respond to your fans’ comments people gradually begin to lose interest, especially when they are addressing to you and they don’t get a reply. It gives them an ego boost when you personally reply to their quarries especially if you are a budding celebrity. If you are a business then people will most probably comment about how fantastic or how lousy your product or service is. Try to respond to positive and negative feedbacks as early as possible because timeliness makes your conversations more effective and relevant.

So keep on posting relevant, quality content on your Facebook page and see your fans growing with great speed in a matter of a few months.

As a business person or as an artist it is not feasible to focus on your core area and also focus on your Facebook page. Sooner or later you will need professional help, especially when it comes to regularly posting quality content on your Facebook page.

Difference between B2B and B2C content writing

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B2B Content Businesses need websites to instantly provide relevant information to their visitors. They also need engaging content that prompts them to take an action, and eventually turn them into their paying customers and clients.

Regardless of the type of site you have, its content should help generate traffic and build relationship with your target audience. Businesses are normally of two types: B2B (business to business) and B2C. For instance, Credible Content Services is a content writing service primarily catering to the B2B market because we provide content to businesses.

How do you differentiate between writing B2B and B2C content?

When writing for a B2B website, consider the language you would be using. B2B content is normally written for professionals working within a particular niche. These professionals use a certain jargon and terminologies in their day to day interactions with potential clients. Your content should therefore be written with phrases that would make them feel at ease, identify with your business and perceive your business as an expert within that niche.

On the other hand, the language employed in B2C website writing should be devoid of professional jargon and terminologies. It should be written with one thing in mind― how do we meet the needs of the consumers with easily understood content?

In a B2B, the buying process begins when a prospect accesses a company’s website or blog. Decision makers from different departments from within that particular company need to have access to some kind of information to accelerate their buying process. Because of these varied audience involved in the buying process, your web content must have sections addressing all these. But when writing for a B2C website, you are writing to the general public (which may be a varied audience I agree) and they all have one thing in common―How does this product or service meet my needs? If you are able to capture this in the content writing process you are done. Anyone who visits your website would see his or her needs met (though they are from different backgrounds).

B2B websites purchases require evaluating multiple factors. The buyer needs to do more research on the products, organize thoughts and analyze before a purchase is made. The content writer should go the extra mile to make whatever information a company may need to facilitate the buying process available, research should be presented in a form of write-ups (web contents) and condensed in an easily readable and or downloadable format. Such write ups may include white papers, case studies, referencing, e-books etc.

On the contrary, B2C writing does not need deep research in order to generate the contents as the consumer makes the buying decision alone. As such if he or she is convinced, the product or service meets his or her expectation and more importantly, if the pricing is right compared to other competitors, he or she would settle for yours.

4 billion videos are watched on YouTube everyday

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This is according to statistics present in this excellent blog post: 30 Mind Numbing YouTube Facts,Figures and Statistics

Other quite interesting statistics and facts about YouTube are

60 hours of video is uploaded on YouTube every minute
YouTube was acquired by Google in 2006 for $ 1.65 billion
4 billion videos are watched on YouTube everyday
YouTube is monetizing 3 billion videos every week
As it happens in every sort of real-life scenario, 30% of videos account for 99% of views
500 years of YouTube videos are watched every day on Facebook
There are more than 10,000 full-length movies available on YouTube

It’s astonishing how big the numbers become when it comes to the Internet. Here is the info graphic