Are you setting goals?

What makes content work for both B2B and B2C clients? Actionable goals!

Actionable goals are the key to creating content for any business on any topic and making them successful. Actionable goals should be the first step in any content creation strategy, for they will be the basis upon which all content is devised.

Actionable goals must be all of the following:

• Measurable
• Realistic
• Short-Term or Long-Term

Measurable

There are many ways to “measure” a goal, and there are many measurements to align with any given piece of content. Each piece of content should have one primary goal assigned to it, although multiple pieces might have identical goals. Measurable elements include clicks on certain links or elements, engagement via comments, shares or likes, taking an action (e.g. does the content lead the reader to purchase a product or submit a contact form) or increase brand awareness and loyalty. The last is the most difficult to measure, but it is often seen by looking at the traffic preceding and following the content piece you have aligned with this goal. Regardless, a goal must be measurable for it to be worth something and to give you data on how to adjust your content strategy moving forward.

Realistic

Let’s face it, we would all like to go from 0 to 100 in a day if we could. Heck, we’d all love to grab Google’s Number 1 ranking spot in a month, and yet both of these goals are unrealistic. In order for a goal to actionable, it must be realistic. All goals are eventually realistic, but you must accomplish smaller goals before bigger ones. Sit down and make a list of your bigger goals and then figure out the smaller ones you need to accomplish beforehand. Create content for each small goal and then create content for the bigger ones.

Short-Term vs. Long-Term

Define which of your goals will be short-term and which will be long-term. Then decide tentative deadlines you’d like for each. This will help you plan out your goal timeline and formulate a plan of attack. This will also provide the structural framework you will need to build a successful, engaging and organized content campaign.

Need some help with your content? Reach out to the content specialists at Insite Advice by emailing [email protected].