The Art of Measuring Content: A Guide to Analytics for Serialized Content
Introduction
In the ever-evolving digital landscape, businesses and marketers are constantly looking for ways to make data-driven decisions. One of the most fundamental ways a website serves its audience is by acting as a treasure trove of written content and images. But how do you measure the impact of different types of content? Well, that’s where web analytics best practices come into play. Today, we’re going to explore the fascinating realm of serialized content—think newspapers, blogs, press releases—and how to gauge its success effectively.
What Is Serialized Content?
Serialized content is the kind of material published on specific dates and usually displayed in chronological order. While it can be categorized by topic or author, the essence of this content lies in its timeliness—it’s most relevant close to the publication date. Examples are abundant: newspapers, blogs, press releases, announcements, and more.
Why Does Serialized Content Matter?
In a world addicted to scrolling, content that is time-sensitive or organized in a series can be incredibly engaging. The focus often shifts to the author or the source, giving a personalized touch and a sense of credibility to what you’re consuming. But here’s the question—how do you know if your readers are actually engaged?
What Metrics Should You Track?
Headline Views
Ever wonder how many people just read the headlines and move on? Tracking headline views can provide valuable insights into how many users are skimming through content, but may not be committed enough to read the entire piece. This is a crucial part of the customer journey and might require your attention if the numbers aren’t as promising as you’d like. Treat your headline views the same way you might look at advertising impressions – by themselves, headline views give you an idea of what content is being presented to your users. You can use this number by itself to measure awareness of various content topics, or in combination with search or personalization to see what content topics are generating interest and visibility. You can get the clickthrough rate by calculating the number of clicks by the number of headline views – a higher clickthrough rate means your headline caught the user’s eye and was intriguing enough for them to read the article. This is a perfect analytical approach to A/B testing for headlines, loglines, or article snippets.
Scrolling Milestones
“Scroll 25%, 50%, 75%, 100%.” Heard of these? They’re called quartile scroll events and can reveal just how deeply users are engaging with your content. For example, if a user scrolls 100%, there’s a high likelihood they’re reading and finding your content valuable. At a minimum, you want to track the initial article view and the 100% scroll, and calculate your article completion rate – however, tracking additional milestones will give you deeper insights into how engaging your content is and where readers tend to drop off. If your article content varies significantly in length, you may consider a more standardized milestone; for example, you may want to measure how far the user scrolls in 500-word increments. This method would be useful if you need to evaluate the perfect article length to retain users’ attention.
It may be tempting to use a time-based metric to understand how engaged users are in the article. However, take “time on page” metrics with a grain of salt. It’s hard to say if someone spent time reading or just left their browser open while doing something else.
Social Shares & Comments
Ah, the holy grail of user engagement. If someone is sharing your content on social media or leaving comments, give yourself a pat on the back. You’ve not only provided value but also encouraged interaction. These metrics are also useful for understanding the type of content that resonates with your audience, which can be vital for future data-driven marketing strategies. Be sure to track both the share events as well as the platforms on which users share. A “copy link” button is also helpful to see if there are new platforms your users are sharing on, or if they prefer to share links via text messages or email. In these links, it’s important to include a tracking code so that you can connect the dots between users sharing on social media and users who discover the site from those shared events.
Subscription
Less common, but equally significant, is the option to subscribe to future content via email or RSS. If users are subscribing, you’ve likely won them over as long-term readers—a big win for any content strategy. It’s a good idea to create segments of users who subscribe to content, and to use a long-term approach to the analysis of these users. How frequently do they return? What topics are important to them? Are they advocates who share your content and increase reach? Though niche, subscribers represent your most loyal users and can provide rich insights into topics, authors, and writing styles that perform well and improve social virility.
Similarly, if your site allows users to leave comments or encourages discussion, it’s a good idea to track comments and responses. You can analyze your content to see what topics generate the most engagement, and you can track your users to incentivize “power users” as well as identify and mitigate trolling behavior.
Variables to Consider
When it comes to analytics reporting tips, the devil is in the details. Consider tracking variables like:
Final Thoughts
Analytics is an evolving field, and while measuring engagement is important, it’s equally important to interpret these metrics wisely, so be cautious about drawing quick conclusions from your data. Measuring serialized content is crucial for any data-driven decision-making process. Be curious, be aware, and most importantly, be open to continually refining your approach based on what the data tells you.
For more than 20 years, Softcrylic has supported enterprises both large and small in implementing accurate data collection and deriving meaningful insights from their marketing and analytics tools. If you’re looking to optimize your data-driven marketing strategy and get the best out of your MarTech stack, talk to one of our consultants today.
