Accountability of content

The second most asked question is ‘how to make content accountable.’ How to show that the investment in content production, distribution, and the team pays off. The reporting I usually see are nitty-gritty details with shiny numbers on reach and likes, clicks to www, or maybe sometimes a rare sale.

The one thing that’s always missing is how content contributes to the business in overall numbers. And that’s the sh*t that really interests the board and seniors.

Why it matters

Getting the buy-in from the board and senior management matters to lock in next year’s budget – or prevent loss of budget in the running year.

Them wanting to know how content pays off for the business is a legit question. With an answer that got stuck in the vanity metrics and daily operational reporting.

Let me explain

• Vanity metrics: steering on reach and engagement. These are in no way a predictor of sales. And in the end, it’s the sales that count. Right?
   
• Daily operational reporting: usually, we report on campaigns. We jump from campaign to campaign with the vanity metrics. No step back to zoom out to discover how content contributes in the long term.

Managerial KPIs

Choose the metrics for management that reflect the strategy. Your content strategy should be aligned with the business objectives; hence, so should the reporting.

Quarterly or half-yearly, the reason for these long intervals is that these KPIs don’t change overnight; it takes time. Lots of time.

• Content efforts plotted against overall sales 

• SEO performance 


Monthly, if desired by management

• 
High over content planning with campaigns and channels

• Budget reporting: production and media
• Team reporting: FTEs and external help

Content efforts plotted against overall sales 


Plot your content efforts against your overall sales data for a minimum of three years. You need the long-term to get insights. Doing this over a 3 or 6-month timespan is useless. 

Vertical ax (left):  the overall sales 

Horizontal ax: all content efforts; e.g., ‘Campaign XYZ, ‘publication help content’, ‘SEO optimalisation content’, ‘...’.  Including an overview of when you added resources to the team, hired a new agency, or budget cuts. 

Are there any specific milestones or events that influence the sales? E.g., the big launch of a new product or a pandemic lockdown, include these as well. 

Vertical ax (right): budgets for production and for media. Mention both, as you need both to create impact. 


SEO performance 


This is an indication of your leadership and digital maturity. The better your content, the better your SEO ranking. 

Without jumping into the SEO details, as this is an expertise by itself, I suggest you aim for a top-five position on the keywords people use to search for your product - not your brand name. 


If you rank outside of the top ten, your content is crappy, and your www technology is outdated. This is signal you have a bigger problem than just your content.


High over content planning with campaigns and channels


This one is more for the monthly reporting. The objective is to keep the management and stakeholders involved. You give an overview of the campaigns you are running and how you are performing against internal and external benchmarks.

Include your lessons learned and how you will implement these in the following campaigns and content production. 

Please. Keep this high level, and don’t fall into the pitfall of vanity metrics. Detials don’t matter to management - they want to know how you are doing and moving forward.

Budget reporting: production and media

Another thing that matters is how you are doing moneywise. What is the allocated budget, and how are you performing? Are you on track, overspending, or understanding? 

This underspending may sound weird. However, I encountered a few brands that were underspending on their media budget due to the suboptimal setup of the campaigns and audience building: too narrow or too conversion-focused. Or your content is so crappy content that the social channels didn’t use all media budget - remember, if the content is crappy, the socials don’t push it as it has no engagement.

Also, include your lessons learned on the budget; it’s the process and how you are going to improve.

Team reporting: FTEs and agencies

The war for talent has started. More often than not, a brand has many vacancies in its content team. Therefore, this is a valid metric to include in the reporting. Do you have the team in place to perform, or are you understaffed, causing suboptimal results?

Next to the team, you can include your agency management. This goes for production and media agencies. With whom are you working, and how are they performing?

No details for management

Why senior management should get a high-level, long-term reporting

• The details are a matter of the team, not of management 

• The details usually are vanity metrics focused on engagement, likes, 
and clicks 

• The details overshadow the bigger picture 

• The details are mostly short-term focused 


Final words

That having said, reporting on what matters to management isn’t easy. It’s bespoke and depends on the organization and its maturity, and the maturity of the management.

I hope I made you think about how to report to get next year’s budget

Quarterly or half-yearly

• Content efforts plotted against overall sales 

• SEO performance 


Monthly, if desired by management

• 
High over content planning with campaigns and channels

• Budget reporting: production and media
• Team reporting: FTEs and external help

Need help with all this? I got your back. Drop me a DM, and we can jump on a quick call about how to get started and if I can help you or if you need something or someone else.

The 5 most asked questions about content

You ask me the same questions over and over again. My clients. During workshops, keynotes, and calls. 

So, why not write them down? Here's my ‘They ask, you answer’ series on content and strategy.  The questions are in the most asked order. 

1. I want more content for less budget; what are the tips? 
2. What do I need to measure? I struggle with accountability. (this blog)
3. It takes forever; how can I speed up the process and shorten the time to market?
4. I don’t see the results; what can I do?
5. We struggle with ownership; where should content be?

• Bonus: How to prepare for AI; We have no idea what’s its true power; 33% cuts in teams are expected

Click on the links to read more (duh…)