Why you need to perform a content audit

Sometimes, it may feel like you have to check the boxes in marketing. Active on social? Check. Regularly updating your website? Double check. Sending out emails? Triple check. But, sometimes what may seem like a pass-through activity has a lot more value and importance than you may think. Take a content audit, for example.

What is a content audit?

A content audit is a review of all of your content marketing materials. They include hard assets such as white papers and eBooks, sales content such as data sheets and FAQ documents, videos, podcasts, and anything else you typically use in the sales cycle.

However, a content audit goes beyond a simple list. A well-constructed audit categorizes the different assets along the buyer’s journey, highlights keywords, and even fits the various pieces into what buyer personas they best target.

Why are content audits important?

Performing a regular inventory of your assets is essential to developing and executing successful marketing campaigns. But, why?

Know what you have

When it comes to content, it’s easy to think you have more than you actually do. Sometimes, projects get discussed and never come to fruition. Sometimes, projects that start as one thing turn into another. This can lead you to believe that content that doesn’t exist, does. Unless you’re regularly auditing your published content, it’s impossible to know what you have.

Perform a detailed audit to know exactly what you can use now. Who knows, you may discover that an eBook you forgot existed would make an excellent offer in that Facebook campaign you’ve been wanting to run.

Identify gaps

When you know what you have, you know what you don’t have. Identify gaps in your content marketing strategy with a content audit by examining what parts of the buyer’s journey aren’t supported by your existing content. For example, if you do an audit and discover you have a lot of decision content for people late in the buying cycle, you’ll realize you need more TOFU content. TOFU content is designed to bring earlier stage prospects into the funnel, whereas your decision content is designed to help close.

Use your content audit to understand which personas are lacking dedicated content. You can’t run a targeted marketing campaign if you don’t have targeted content.

Develop your digital marketing strategy

Believe it or not, you can use your content audit to help develop your marketing strategy. Furthermore, it can actually support sales initiatives. If you know what content you have, you can see what has worked and what hasn’t. After all, digital marketing is all about analytics.

If during your audit, you discern a distinct lack of blogging and you’ve seen new website sessions stagnate, then you know that the content on your site is no longer drawing people in. Thus, your content audit can help you understand that the content you’ve written on x, y, and z is no longer what prospects are looking for when doing a Google search.

Or, say the majority of the topics you’ve covered in your assets are about X, but click-through and conversion rates are low. This shows that another topic you haven’t covered will likely resonate more with your audience.

Lastly, a content audit allows you to understand what the sales team needs. If they have a lot of data sheets on your products, but they have trouble closing deals because they can’t answer questions on competitor products, a competitor comparison might be just what you need.

Not a one and done

Revisit your content audit regularly. Update your spreadsheet or document as you create or retire marketing collateral. By staying up to date, you’ll never wonder what you have and you’ll always be able to make informed decisions on where to go next.

Need some help getting started? DemandZEN can help. Drop us a line today.