Writing a killer copy isn't rocket science anymore. AI-powered solutions like ChatGPT and similar ones do all the heavy lifting for you. You feed it a prompt, and the tool generates any type of content in a jiffy, be it a blog article, Instagram post, video script, or other. The only nuance is that you need to learn how to prompt the right way to get a really good copy.
You may feel tempted to produce content this way. But there's more to it than just writing text. You want to boost engagement, pique interest in your brand, and generate demand awareness. Creativity alone isn't enough.
To stay on top of people's minds amid the sea of information, you should know your customers inside out, keep an eye on industry trends, and have clear objectives.
Without data, it's hardly feasible. Tap into data-driven content marketing. It's all about using data analytics to solve numerous questions, namely:
- Who are your "would-be buyers"?
- What do they fear, yearn for, or expect?
- What sort of difficulties are they experiencing?
Data pours in from multiple sources, including your CRM, GA4, paid channels, heatmaps, and more. This information is crucial for shaping the content creation process.
Are you ready to amp up your content strategy? Look no further. In this article, you'll get practical tips on using data for content marketing, as well as choosing the right tools to collect information, personalize content, and track vital stats. Let's get started.
What makes a content marketing strategy data-driven?
Data-driven content marketing relies on conducting research and analyzing data to make the right decisions when creating content. This method places a strong emphasis on data and favors a data-driven mindset over intuition and gut feeling to determine what to publish.
To ensure an effective content marketing strategy, it's critical to incorporate a wide range of data points and types. These may include intent data or insights from different departments in your company.
This kind of content marketing requires more time and effort, that's true. The "figure it out as you go" method may be easier, but the effort is well worth it; you can be sure of it.
Why should you adopt a data-driven content strategy
What is the goal of data-driven content marketing? A data-driven strategy aims to improve the performance of your content and drive a greater response from your target audience. To accomplish this, you need to clearly comprehend the following aspects:
- your niche;
- competition on the market;
- the platforms you use to share content with the audience.
Additionally, it's essential to apply key insights at all stages of content creation: pre-production, production, and post-production. The result? Developing a thoughtful content strategy, producing audience-friendly texts, and refining the copy after launching it.
A data-driven content marketing strategy is also impossible without specialized content analytics solutions. This software performs SEO research, analyzes the input, and unites data in one place. Among the major advantages of such an approach are as follows:
- reducing time spent on data collection compared to manual data crunching;
- lowering the number of erroneous results manual analysis frequently yields;
- allowing for real-time data analysis and enabling you to pivot the content strategy as needed.
That's where tools like Foleon come into play. This platform allows you to collect information on audience behaviors on each page, such as what grabs their attention and where they drop off. If connected through Zapier, it easily integrates with systems like CRM, marketing automation platforms, and 2,000+ other apps. The best part is that everything is available in a user- and beginner-friendly setting.
Screenshot taken on Foleon's website
10 effective data-driven content marketing strategies
1. Defining specific objectives and goals
How do you assess content marketing performance without knowing your goals and content benchmarks?
Right, there is no way to do it.
To keep the content focused and be able to measure it up to competitors' marketing efforts, you need to set clear targets.
Articulate the purpose of your content strategy, the desired outcome, and how it will impact the bottom line of the company. Here are some questions to help you determine the reasons for developing content:
- Why does your content exist?
- What do you want your target audience to do once it has consumed your content?
- What value do you expect these actions will provide for your business?
Each content piece and type may have diverse answers, but that's okay. You still need to compile a list of different goals to settle on. Match these objectives with relevant marketing metrics and KPIs, such as:
- engagement metrics: time spent on a page, social shares, and comments;
- lead generation: form submissions, email sign-ups, and the number of new leads coming in;
- conversions: sales, sign-ups, or whatever action you want people to take.
2. Advanced analysis of your target audience
The next crucial component of crafting relevant content is understanding your target audience. Who are you designing the content for? This question encompasses not only basic demographics but also broader insights like:
- customer behavior;
- content preferences (text, audio, or video formats);
- pain points (what they're yearning for that your content can give them);
- job and income;
- emotional triggers (the main motivators for people to act like fear, envy, sadness, happiness, anger, a need for belonging, and desire to do better);
- main channels (social media, forums, or other websites).
Use advanced segmentation and behavioral data to create detailed buyer personas (fictional representations of your ideal customers). A buyer persona is someone you imagine coming to you, like a 35-year-old male college graduate living in an urban area. And they are necessary for developing personalized content, optimizing messaging, and selecting whom and where to target.
That's where the problem of finding all these details arises. Here are some sources where you can gather information:
- Google Search Console;
- surveys;
- data capture forms on your site like this on Flow AI;
- spying on your potential customers by going to online locations where they spend their time;
- asking your support and sales team;
- competitor research.
Foleon comes with built-in analytics to determine the most resonating part of your content marketing strategy. If that's not enough, you can take advantage of its native integration with tools like Google Analytics 4 and Hotjar. With these solutions, you can take a step further and dig deeper into every click, form fill, and page turn.
Here is what information you can extract with Foleon's tools:
- who read your content;
- which pages they engaged with;
- how they moved through your content.
After collecting, the platform turns raw data into actionable insights.
3. Using data for the idea generation and production of content
To create content that performs well, you need to do more research. You know yourself, you've determined the audience's needs, and now you need to ensure the blog post ranks high on search engines.
Take your time, conduct keyword research, and examine what's in the top ten search results on Google and other relevant search engines. Leverage search engine optimization (SEO) tools like SemRush, Ahrefs, and Moz.
We chose SemRush and Ahrefs as the two main SEO tools. While they may look similar and perform the same tasks, Ahrefs serves better for developing link-building strategies, whereas Semrush is excellent for overall SEO. Besides, both reveal search trends and competitors' performance, which are vital insights for planning your data-driven content strategy. Here is what the Ahrefs interface looks like:
Screenshot taken on the official Ahrefs website
As you start optimizing or creating content, incorporate keywords from your list. Integrate them seamlessly. Remember that the text is aimed at people, not robots.
Also, bear in mind the following SEO points when working on your product descriptions and product pages:
- titles;
- metadata;
- Alt texts for images;
- formatting with bullet-pointed lists.
This is the Tamiami Dress product page on the official Columbia Sportswear website. We can see that besides the product name, the title also has the keyword "Women's PFG dress". PFG dresses are created to cool body temperature. Thus, we can see this keyword used in the description. Plus, the features are listed in bullet points.
Screenshot taken on the official Columbia website
Pro Tip: Incorporating user-generated content can work wonders. It builds brand recognition and trust as it's provided by current customers who've used your products and services for real. Here is what EveryoneSocial says about user-generated content:
- 93% of consumers employ UGC to decide whether to buy from a company.
- 70% study user-generated reviews and ratings before making a purchase.
- 41% need at least seven+ pieces of UGC to place an order.
How do you identify the best UGC for the brand?
- It should align with your company values.
- It should garner much attention and engagement, so track key metrics like likes, shares, and comments.
- Choose the content provided by customers who closely match your target audience.
- Prioritize quality content like crisp and clear visuals and well-written content.
- Ask your customers to shoot videos, leave comments, and take photos, especially if they're satisfied with the quality of the products or services.
4. Matching the content with the sales funnel stages and distribution channels
One more thing to consider when mapping your content is the consumer's place on the buyer journey. Just think about it: A person reading your instructions, because they're about to make a purchase, will need different information than the one only researching your niche and what you can offer.
There are three stages of the purchase journey, and you should tailor content according to them. Note that the customer journey is often more complex than that. Potential customers jump from one stage to another and come back to the awareness stage after being in the consideration one. The journey also relies heavily on the business type.
1. Top of the Funnel (ToFu): Awareness
This phase is the initial point of contact between your brand and potential clients. There is much more traffic at the awareness stage than at other stages, as people are just getting to know your offerings. They may not even be interested in buying yet.
That's where you need to make a good first impression with the help of valuable content. Here are some leverages you can utilize to build a successful content strategy for the ToFu:
- an interesting banner advertisement;
- an insightful blog article that appears in organic search results;
- social media posts that encourage people to stop scrolling.
HubSpot uses online courses as part of its data-driven marketing strategy at the top of the marketing funnel. This educational content provides value and space for promoting the company's software.
Screenshot taken on the official HubSpot website
2. Middle of the Funnel (MoFu): Consideration
Once consumer interest is evoked, the readers will start learning more about your business and offerings. They're getting closer to becoming customers, but they need a few reasons to purchase from you rather than your competitor. Apart from not measuring up to rivals' products or services, potential clients may also hesitate to buy due to their own personal barriers (such as insufficient budget or trust).
Create targeted marketing collateral like case studies, present customer feedback, and use data—such as time spent on a page, click-through rates, and download statistics—to uncover and capitalize on the most effective content.
As people study your data-driven content, you should examine them, too. Determine what content strategies resonate with them most and proceed to the phase of generating leads.
3. Bottom of the Funnel (BoFu): Decision
That's where potential buyers move toward the purchase. While providing real value is still necessary, create content that encourages people to act. Compelling calls to action, a sense of urgency, discounts, and other techniques can strengthen your overall strategy.
Note: Don't use too many elements on one page to avoid overloading a viewer. For instance, 1—3 CTA buttons may be enough. And remember hierarchy. Make the most important CTA or offer the most noticeable one on the page.
As far as data-driven content is concerned, it should alleviate final objections and present your solution in the best possible light to tip the scales in your favor. For example, it can include testimonials, product demos, and detailed pricing guides. Nevertheless, conversion isn't the last step in your data-driven content strategy. Remember to invest in customer retention, serving personalized content to which the existing client will relate. And this leads us to another marketing strategy known as personalization.
5. Personalizing content to increase Its relevance
One of the great things you can do when you have enough data on hand is to determine what this or that person likes and develop content just to appeal to these tastes. Content is engaging when it resonates with the audience. For example, if your potential customers are eco-conscious, highlighting your sustainability efforts can appeal to them better than anything else.
Foleon understands the importance of personalization and continuously develops its feature set to add new capabilities to streamline the creation of targeted content. For example, you can tailor each Foleon Doc, significantly enhancing your content marketing efforts. Here's how:
- Personalized greetings: Address each visitor by name directly on your cover page using text properties. This small but impactful touch helps capture attention right from the start.
- Targeted page content: You can show specific pages only to certain audiences by setting page conditions. For instance, you could display a U.S. pricing page exclusively to U.S. prospects, ensuring they see the most relevant information.
- Batch personalization: Don't worry about creating personalized content one by one. By uploading a CSV file, you can personalize texts for hundreds of contacts in just a few minutes. This feature is ideal for large data-driven marketing campaigns where individual attention to detail is crucial.
- Role-based personalization: Foleon introduces a new dedicated user role, the Personalizer, which allows team members like sales reps to personalize content without altering the design. This ensures that your core content remains intact while enabling a broader team to engage directly with potential customers.
- Analytics for personalization: Track your content marketing performance through Foleon's analytics. You can see which personalized Docs are getting the most engagement, helping you fine-tune your strategy further.
6. Testing and optimizing the content post-launch
What if your data-driven content strategy could deliver even better outcomes than they are now? You can determine it only by experimenting, testing, and optimizing your content. If you're unsure what to change and what to leave, try A/B testing.
It's straightforward: You create two versions of your content and see which one performs better. You can start small and implement minor changes, like another headline, CTA, or image. Or, there is another way: use another type of content. For instance, replace a lengthy text with a video.
The main rule of A/B testing is running both versions simultaneously to prevent other factors from influencing your content strategies. Optimizely claims that A/B testing can increase your click-through rates by as much as 49%. It's simple but makes a huge impact.
7. Leveraging Business Intelligence for your marketing efforts
If you want to effectively gather, process, and analyze data in all its forms, consider introducing business intelligence (BI) solutions. The benefits of choosing BI include enhanced decision-making, trend identification, process streamlining, risk mitigation, and more.
Is BI just another form of data analysis? Not quite. It's broader. BI encompasses data analytics insights and leverages data warehousing, dashboards, reporting tools, and data visualization platforms to present a more holistic picture of your business standing.
BI also covers everything from descriptive to predictive and prescriptive analytics. Data analysis can usually be applied to a single dataset or set of metrics and can be used for tasks like statistical analysis or data mining.
What role does it play in content marketing? You can use BI marketing dashboards to analyze traffic, metrics, conversions, and trends. Plus, you can segment the audience based on shared characteristics.
Foleon offers content intelligence that goes beyond traditional metrics. With real-time data on how users interact with each piece of content, businesses can achieve the following:
- track engagement;
- optimize content performance;
- personalize communications at every touchpoint.
8. Repurposing and updating existing content
Content repurposing is one of the easiest ways to improve content marketing with fewer resources. It entails sharing existing content on other platforms. For example, a blog article doesn't receive much engagement. Why not reuse it as a social media post? Maybe your target market prefers to scroll their Facebook or LinkedIn feeds during breakfast and read useful materials.
Yet, don't forget about the data-driven approach. Content marketers should specify what content needs repurposing, where it's better to present it, and in what format.
9. Managing content in a single place
Realizing your data-driven content marketing strategy becomes much more manageable with the right tools. You may already leverage a content management system (CMS) for authoring. Today, such solutions have evolved a lot and offer the following benefits:
- streamlined access;
- consistent structure for organizing content by categories, tags, or folders;
- improved tracking of critical metrics and content versions;
- easier editing.
Foleon provides an integrated, centralized content creation, management, and analysis platform. The cherry on top is its user-friendliness, so you can design on-brand content without professional assistance or the need for specific skills.
Thanks to its robust collaboration features, you can share your content with other teams and enable them to make edits. And Foleon perfectly knows how crucial it is to centralize your information to ensure data-driven marketing. It offers numerous integrations through Zapier, Integrately, or other native solutions.
10. Tracking performance metrics and ROI
Remember us talking about the necessity of matching your goals with certain metrics? When the content is launched, it's essential to check whether you're heading in the right direction and whether your data-driven content marketing strategy helps you achieve established business and marketing goals. Let's review some metrics:
- Engagement: It encompasses a set of KPIs related to how long your data-driven content can retain people on the page, whether it sparkles communication, and whether readers find it insightful enough to share. Pay attention to metrics like time spent on a page, page views, social shares and comments, and CTR.
- Lead quality: While generating as many leads as possible sounds tempting, zero in on the quality of those prospects. That's where lead scoring can help. It's a practice of assigning points to a potential customer according to how close they are to making a purchase. For example, the more pages they browse, the more points they can earn.
- ROI: Return on investment is an important metric showing whether your data-driven content marketing efforts pay off. To determine the ROI, you need to monitor metrics like:
- cost per lead (CPL): You shouldn't spend on acquiring the lead more than they're worth;
- customer lifetime value (CLV): This metric shouldn't fall short of the money spent on your content strategy;
- revenue attribution: Measure what content exactly brings you leads and profit.
Final thoughts
Data-driven marketing is a must in today's world. The more data is accumulated, the more solutions to make sense of it emerge. So, employ analytics at every stage of the content generation process, from start to finish. As you can see, laying a solid foundation with a proper understanding of your goals and audience is no less important than tracking content marketing metrics when the content is live.
We've taken a deep dive into data-driven content marketing strategies. Now, you also know that Foleon can assist you with many of those tasks. So, try Foleon, speak directly to your audience's needs, and let your content convert!
