Using Content Scoring to Engage My Audience

Whether it’s crafting a quick social media update or developing an in-depth digital resource, I’ve authored countless content pieces tailored for SaaS enterprises, burgeoning small businesses, esteemed nonprofits, governmental bodies, and my own digital platforms. Embarking on this journey, a method known as content scoring has profoundly shaped the creation of posts that truly resonate with my audience.

Each content item is meticulously analyzed and measured to ensure success using a bespoke content scoring approach. This innovative method has empowered me to deliver insightful pieces that audiences genuinely appreciate.

By utilizing an individualized content scorecard, you pave the path for a methodical, data-centric evaluation of your content marketing achievements. Drawing from various sectors, including my own ventures, I’ve curated strategies to assist you in crafting an effective content scoring framework.

Moreover, one insightful metric that stands out can significantly elevate conversions—up to 50%—by employing a complimentary evaluation tool. Intrigued? Let’s delve further into the art of content scoring!

Table of Contents

Understanding Content Scoring

Content scoring, a pivotal tool in content marketing, involves assessing the success of marketing materials through various metrics, such as views, engagement levels, shares, and backlink activity. This process is vital in crafting a roadmap for future content endeavors.

By developing this scorecard, teams can strategically guide their content creation to align with audience preferences.

Research indicates that 93% of marketers who utilize a unified data source find it transformative, yet only 65% succeed in establishing one.

Increased communication and alignment across departments emerge as top priorities, addressing marketers’ concerns from our 2024 State of Marketing report. Through content scoring, teams collaborate seamlessly and enrich communications while optimizing editorial plans.

Expert Tip: Incorporating insights from both your sales and marketing teams during system creation maximizes potential.

Maximizing Expertise with Content Scoring

Even if you’re new to social listening or TikTok-based strategies, tools like Later bridge expertise gaps efficiently. These choices in scoring tools leverage vast expertise, bringing data-driven insights directly to you.

While generic tools like ChatGPT offer initial guidance, specialized ones unlock a deeper comprehension of content impact.

Proving ROI With Content Scores

Measuring return on investment is crucial for marketing efficiency. Yet, with a focus on avoiding data loss, why does so much information slip through?

Statistics Matter: Marketing analytics sway over half of decisions, while data underutilization remains high.

87% of marketers confirm data as their least leveraged asset. This amplifies the need for detailed ROI quantification, especially with 50% planning content marketing expansions by 2025.

Embarking on a content scoring journey includes a clear methodology. Illustratively, this process will be showcased through examples from my travel site, Walk The Camino Portugués.

Recognizing that no universal scoring method exists, identifying an adaptable, useful system is paramount.

Identify Content for Scoring

The first step entails selecting the type of content you’ll evaluate, as metrics differ across platforms like social media, email campaigns, or website pages. Choose from:

• Social media posts
• Email campaigns
• Landing pages
• Product listings
• Blog posts
• Videos

As an illustration, I’ll examine blog content for my travel site, identifying relevant metrics for evaluation.

Select Your Metrics

Define the crucial performance indicators that cover both content quality and impact. Select metrics aligning with your audience and business goals, ranging from:

1. Video completion rates
2. User satisfaction
3. Visibility and impressions
4. SEO optimization score
5. Follower engagements and changes
6. Video engagement metrics
7. Retention duration
8. Conversion metrics
9. Bounce rates
10. Page navigation depth
11. Readability levels
12. Reader interactions
13. External links generated
14. User exit statistics
15. Shared content volume
16. Click-through counts
17. Content saves or bookmarks

My Focus: With my travel website, I emphasize SEO efficacy, web traffic, readability, and Pinterest saves. For this new venture, initial emphasis will be on SEO and readability scores, tracking subsequent metrics at six-month intervals.

Select Scoring Tools

Diverse tools offer varied assessments, from objective numerical scores to comprehensive analytics data.

SurferSEO might yield a 72 optimization score, while engagement tools report differing results. Remember, comparisons between tools can be like comparing apples to oranges.

Tools recommended for content scoring include:

Recognizing that some valuable insights might arise through manual reviews, extend this analysis annually to capture significant trends effectively.

My Scoreboard: I incorporate GA4, SurferSEO, Hemingway App, and SharedCount for a rounded content scoring model.

Develop a Scorecard

Once scoring parameters are established, structure a repository capturing all content evaluations. Opt for spreadsheets, Notion, or in-tool analytics as organizational platforms.

Understand that differing metrics mean incomparable scores, converting numbers for ranking can overly simplify data.

I’ve recorded scores involving my site’s data for clarity:

*As the website is budding, example values temporarily fill data gaps.

Incorporate Into Content Strategies

Derive insights from your content scoring findings to enhance content strategies. By accumulating over 12 months of data, unveil seasonal trends to fuel your marketing calendar creation.

Serving as content manager for varied businesses, these insights influence a majority of my annual content directives.

Guided by my scores, I enhance content readability, determining essential updates based on traffic and ranking analyses.

Jake Ward, from Kleo, underscores the value of both overt and silent data. Balancing both forms can involve:

• Analyzing engagement versus disengagement
• Observing purchases and abandoned carts
• Comparing clicks against hovers

Jake advises looking beyond obvious statistics, such as click or open rates, to uncover non-visible data essentials.

Choose Metrics Carefully

Metrics vary between new and established brands. Newer brands should prioritize metrics such as:

• Time spent on pages
• Readability assessments
• Comment interactions

With established brands, key metrics like search rankings, shares, and backlinks gain importance.

Prioritize Readability

Alex Hormozi of Acquisition emphasizes enhancing readability, aiming for simplicity using tools like the Hemingway App.

“Simplifying text yields substantial rewards,” shared Alex. By applying his advice, my article’s readability dramatically improved.

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Capitalize on Positive Metrics

Utilize successful content beyond mere internal victories to showcase social proof. Analysis reveals 90% of sites often overlook it.

Forbes exemplifies this approach through disclosed article viewing data:

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Engagement builds further engagement, encouraging a feedback loop using displayed metrics, such as:

• Backlinks: “As seen in” section
• Post Views: Aggregate views display
• Reader Interactions: Comment totals
• Product Adoption: Lifetime downloads or purchases
• Share Counts: Shared counts showcased
• Video Success: Pinned high-impact videos
• Followers: “Join X followers” widgets

Essential Content Scoring Tools

I previously detailed numerous tools, and for newcomers, choices may appear numerous. To simplify selection, highlighting a few robust options could streamline your approach.

Note: Though unmentioned, tools like Google Analytics 4 and Google Search Console are foundational tracking platforms necessary for operations.

WordPress

Cost: Free, with optional enhancement tool (Social Warfare Pro) priced at $29 annually.

By integrating plugins, WordPress enables content analysis directly within its dashboard, minimizing additional steps in your workflow.

Insights like these can be found directly on my WordPress post dashboard:

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Icon Guide:

• Statistics: Jetpack (free)
• Comments: WordPress (free)
• Social Interaction: Social Warfare Pro (paid)
• SEO Indicator: Yoast SEO (free)
• Readability Status: Yoast Readability (free)

Your team can readily access your website, sidestepping extra costs for paid collaborative tools.

WordPress allows easy sorting of content by distinct metrics, as shown by comment numbers on my site:

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Limitations exist; WordPress lacks date-specific data separation, a feature more sophisticated users might crave, like those presenting in-depth analytics.

SEO Writing Assistant by Semrush

Price: Free tier, upgraded plan at $139.95 monthly.

Providing an editor interface for content creation, SEO Writing Assistant offers scoring for:

• Readability
• SEO characteristics
• Originality analysis (paid)
• Tone consistency (paid)

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Through multidimensional scoring factors, content pieces can be assessed and ranked efficiently.

While the tool isn’t my primary choice, it suits marketers seeking straightforward insights independent of existing tools.

Later

Pricing: Free introductory plan, $16.67/month annually.

Dedicated to examining social content, Later offers extensive analytical capabilities that uncover content performance indicators across platforms.

Having utilized Later extensively, privacy concerns limit visible client analytics. However, its website elucidates extensive analytics features:

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A few standout features include:

• Flexible content sorting based on valued metrics
• Identifying optimal audience engagement periods
• Conducting social listening

While other teams deploy alternative schedulers, Later remains my preferred tool, providing vast data for insightful social analytics.

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Evaluating AI-Generated Content

AI content offers immense potential when employed carefully. Insights from our marketing trends report reveal:

• Merely 6% of marketers generate entire content pieces with AI.
• 95% edit AI-generated text, with 44% conducting intensive edits.
• Concerns regarding AI-induced plagiarism or bias worry 60% of marketers.

Evaluate AI output for accuracy and plagiarism initially, then assess time-on-page, bounce rates, and conversions for performance checks. Choose AI options emphasizing quality like HubSpot’s AI Content Writer.

While endless data abounds, comparing content across platforms can challenge. Identifying standard engagement rates by industry, such as a 3% engagement rate for financial tweets, helps.

Single-system evaluations offer limited insights, emphasizing individualized, in-house content performance analyses for comparing month-on-month and annual metrics.

An Analysis of My Scoring Journey

My luggage transfer guide for the Camino Portugués exemplifies my scoring evolution. Initially scoring 6.9 out of 10, personal recalibration reflected a 7.7 score.

Despite automated suggestions, depth over brevity remained my aim, reflecting my content philosophy.

Continued experimentation and adjustment fine-tune results, offering personalized insights.

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