Ready for Better Content Results? 🔄

Hello Reader,

⭐️ Before I get started with this newsletter, I wanted to let you know that my friend Kerstin Martin, Calm Business Magician (okay that's just what I call her), has just launched a new course, "Calm Email Marketing," and it's just the thing if you want to use email in your business without all the funnel chaos and urgency noise. Learn more about it here and get a discount using the code CEM200 through Sept 15 (I'm not an affiliate, just a fan). ⭐️

I often come across interesting marketing statistics, but one number has really stuck with me: 61 percent.

This simple number has a lot to teach us, because it represents the percentage of successful companies—almost two thirds of them!—who have content marketing as part of their marketing strategy that perform a content audit at least twice a year.

(Almost more interesting? Most companies who label themselves unsuccessful in marketing do not do content audits. All the data is here.)

So why is this number so important? The reason is simple: Auditing your existing content gives you a clear framework for seeing what you've already created and how it's performing. The numbers tell us that the majority of companies that are successful in their marketing efforts commit to doing this multiple times per year and see results.

Why does this equal success?

Auditing what you have allows you to make adjustments that can improve underperforming content or better leverage content that's exceeding your expectations.

Super simple, easy peasy.

For example, this year I off-boarded a client whose copy, SEO strategy, brand, and site I developed. During the off-boarding process, I always check the performance of their content in Google Search Console just in case anything weird pops up at the last minute. I noticed that a surprising piece of content was ranking quite high in Google, which hadn't been the case a few months ago when we first audited the site. Because of this, I was able to make recommendations about how small modifications could make more of that audience "stick" and explore the client's website and thought leadership further.

Put more simply, a quick look at what already performed well generated further opportunities.

The point here is that it's often easier to succeed by updating and improving existing content that's already performing well rather than creating something entirely new and waiting to see its performance. But you can't make those data-informed decisions without consistently auditing your content and knowing what you're working with.

On the flip side, a regular content audit can also help you find great content that's not getting any attention. This happens to everyone for many reasons. Audits can flag amazing content that has flopped before it lands in the black hole of "stuff you need to deal with eventually." Often, simply adding more detail, better context through links, or more visuals is enough to help a piece of content perform better. It can truly be that simple!

Then, the next time you audit your content (within six months, of course), you'll see if what you did moved the needle as you intended, or if there are some good surprises.

Onward & upward,

Sarah