Storytelling can be a powerful tool. In our personal and both professional lives, we can use...
Whether you're creating a content strategy from scratch or re-evaluating your existing one, performing a content audit can be a daunting task. You may even be asking, "What is a content audit?" and "Why do I need one?"
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A content audit is the process of evaluating content both in quantity and quality. This audit will help identify any gaps in your content or uncover any quick wins. This will also help lead your content strategy moving forward.
Where do you begin? What pieces should you look at? How should you evaluate the content? These are all questions that may come to mind. Lucky for you, your content audit doesn't have to be overwhelming if you stick to this solid, four-step approach.
1. Identify all of your existing content. Create an exhaustive list of all pieces of content available. Types of content include price lists, call scripts, website copy, blogs, landing pages, videos, advertisements, infographics, presentations, newsletters and printed collateral.
2. Categorize your content. Ask yourself how old the content is? What is the purpose of the content? What stage of the customer's journey does it speak it? Who is the audience? How does it tell the story of the business? Grouping your content into categories allows you to see the areas where the gaps are.
3. Evaluate the performance of your content. This can be a little tricky as some pieces of content are easier to evaluate than others. For online content gather insights on content pieces through websites analytics or by using a CRM tool. For "offline" pieces like a sell sheet or presentation, interview the internal users of the content to find out how it's used and how effective the piece of content is.
4. Develop your next steps. Once you're identified all of your existing content and determined what's working and where the gaps are it's time to create a plan for the future. This will be the foundation on which you can build your content strategy upon.
In my next blog we'll dive into creating a content strategy that delivers success. Until then, happy auditing!
Need help with you content audit? Contact The Impact Group and we'll help you get started.
