How I Use Content Scoring to Make Posts My Audience Loves

Starting from temporary social posts to deep-dive digital guides, I’ve written hundreds of items of content material for SaaS corporations, small companies, authorities workplaces, main nonprofits, and my very own web sites.

These items of content material had been tracked and analyzed to gauge their success, however all utilizing distinctive measuring sticks. How? Utilizing a tailor-made content material scoring course of.

With your individual tailor-made content material scorecard, you’ll be able to create a data-driven course of for measuring your particular person content material advertising and marketing success. I’ve gathered examples from my very own web sites and types throughout industries, plus suggestions that can assist you create a strong content material scoring system.

I actually have a metric that one entrepreneur says can affect conversions by 50% — measured utilizing a free device. Excited? Let’s get scoring!

Desk of Contents

93% of marketers with a single supply of reality for knowledge report that it is helpful for his or her group, however solely 65% of entrepreneurs even have one.

Lack of communication and alignment between departments is a high concern of entrepreneurs, per our 2024 State of Marketing survey. A scoring system unifies groups and services higher communication, whereas additionally appearing as a roadmap for populating your editorial calendar.

Professional tip: Each your gross sales and advertising and marketing groups should be concerned within the creation of the scoring system to maximise its potential.

Content material scoring helps you leverage experience.

I‘m not an professional in social listening and TikTok content material efficiency.

Guess what? I take advantage of Later to assist me with that, which suggests I don’t should be. The instruments you employ to attain your content material will leverage unbelievable quantities of experience and put data-driven insights at your fingertips.

Whereas you need to use generic instruments similar to ChatGPT (and I am going to share a immediate in a minute), an enormous advantage of the content material scoring course of is selecting specialised instruments that deepen your understanding of your content material.

Content material scoring helps you show ROI.

Return on funding is at all times a precedence for advertising and marketing groups and organizations as an entire. However then, why does a lot knowledge fall by way of the cracks?

The numbers matter: Over half of promoting choices are influenced by advertising and marketing analytics.

But knowledge’s falling by way of the cracks. 87% of marketers reported that knowledge was their firm’s most underutilized asset.

On condition that 50% of marketers plan on growing their content material advertising and marketing funding in 2025, advertising and marketing groups have to quantify content material’s efficiency and show ROI with as a lot element as attainable.

Let‘s stroll by way of the steps to attain your content material. After explaining every step, I’m going to point out you the way this seems to be utilizing the instance of a weblog submit from my web site, Walk The Camino Portugués.

There‘s no one-size-fits-all answer in relation to content material scoring. It’s vital so that you can discover a system that works, and you will — look ahead to it — truly use it (fortunately, I hope). Use this as your start line.

Step 1: Select which content material you will rating.

Not all content material may be scored the identical manner. Social media content material is completely different from electronic mail, which has completely different metrics from web site content material. Begin this course of by selecting which content material you are going to be scoring. Choices embrace:

• Social media posts.
• Electronic mail advertising and marketing.
• Touchdown pages.
• Product pages.
• Weblog posts.
• Movies.

For instance, I‘m going to be analyzing weblog content material for my journey website. Let’s take a look at which metrics belong on the scorecard.

Step 2: Select your metrics.

It’s best to take into account key metrics associated to content material high quality AND content material efficiency. There are various numbers which you can select from, and so they do not all should be included on each scorecard (your advertising and marketing staff provides you with an ear full if you happen to strive).

Select what issues most to your target market and your enterprise goals. Listed here are some solutions — discover that these embrace each constructive and adverse metrics (extra on this in a minute).

1. Video proportion watched.
2. Reader satisfaction.
3. Impressions/views.
4. Optimization rating.
5. Follows/unfollows.
6. Video view price.
7. Time on web page.
8. Conversions.
9. Bounce price.
10. Scroll depth.
11. Readability.
12. Feedback.
13. Backlinks.
14. Exit price.
15. Shares.
16. Clicks.
17. Saves.

What I am measuring: The metrics that matter most to me with my new journey web site are search engine optimization rating, web site visitors, readability, and Pinterest saves. On condition that it is a new web site, I‘ll observe search engine optimization rating and readability upfront and I’ll measure visitors and saves over a interval of six months.

Step 3: Select instruments to attain content material.

The numbers you‘ll get from instruments aren’t all the identical. Some instruments will rating content material by assigning an goal quantity, whereas others will collect analytical knowledge.

For instance, SurferSEO would possibly assign a weblog submit an optimization rating of 72. This quantity displays how my content material carried out in opposition to platform or trade benchmarks. An engagement device, alternatively, could share that content material’s engagement price is up 5%.

The 72 and 5%, whereas each vital, aren‘t straight comparable. It’s like evaluating apples and oranges — maintain this in thoughts as you parse your knowledge.

Take into account these instruments to attain your content material:

It‘s value noting that some insights gained’t be discoverable utilizing a content material scoring technique. Some extraordinarily helpful insights can solely be gathered by way of handbook overview of top-performing content material and on the lookout for traits. That is ideally completed over a interval with important knowledge, similar to a year-end overview.

My scorecard: I will be utilizing GA4, SurferSEO, the Hemingway App, and SharedCount to create my content material scoring mannequin.

Step 4: Create a scorecard.

When you‘ve established your scoring standards, it is advisable to retailer your entire scored content material in a single place for simple overview. This may be completed in a spreadsheet, Notion, inside a device’s analytics interface — I share choices for this under.

For individuals who’d wish to create their very own scorecard for his or her distinctive scoring system, you’ll be able to enter knowledge right into a easy desk.

Word: The numbers you‘ve collected all have completely different values. For instance, a weblog submit’s search engine optimization rating of 78 is not straight corresponding to getting 245 social shares.

Some entrepreneurs will resolve this by rating all of their knowledge factors on a scale of 10, then including these up on the finish. I‘ll present you a screenshot of this sort of desk created with ChatGPT in a minute.

Personally, I’m selecting to only listing the unique numbers and consider them individually, as I believe it dilutes the info an excessive amount of to transform every little thing to a 1-10 scale.

I’ve completed this under with my web site knowledge:

*This can be a new web site, and there isn’t any knowledge for these factors but, so these values are used as fillers.

Step 5: Use to tell content material technique.

Use the insights out of your content material scoring technique that can assist you create high-quality content material. When you may have greater than 12 months of knowledge, you’ll be able to take a look at seasonal traits and use these insights to information the creation of your marketing calendar for the yr (free template here).

As a content manager for companies, these insights information 80% of my content material creation for the yr.

Taking a look at my very own scorecard, I do know that I want to enhance the readability of all of my items (see extra on this in finest practices). The info on rankings and visitors will prioritize which items should be up to date first.

Jake Ward, founding father of Kleo, suggests that you just have interaction along with your silent knowledge along with the standard (loud) knowledge factors. Listening to the loud and silent knowledge in your small business can appear like:

• Engagement + disengagement.
• Purchases + deserted carts.
• Clicks + hovers.

“Do not simply concentrate on the apparent metrics like clicks or open charges, but additionally on the info that isn’t making noise,” Jake shared.

Select metrics deliberately (new model vs. established).

Key metrics for judging a new model are generally completely different from these you’d use for an established model. Established web sites can see outcomes for some key metrics a lot sooner, like:

• Search rankings.
• Social shares.
• Backlinks.

A brand new web site would possibly want to attend months earlier than it sees these numbers begin to construct momentum. In consequence, I would pay extra consideration to metrics, like:

• Time on web page.
• Readability.
• Feedback.

One in all these metrics is far more vital than most individuals (even entrepreneurs) understand — readability.

Do not ignore readability.

Alex Hormozi, founding father of Acquisition, shared the ability of enhancing readability in certainly one of his “Mozi Cash Minute” electronic mail blasts. He recommends simplifying your language to the third-grade stage (age 8 or 9) utilizing the Hemingway App.

“I as soon as ran all my emails and internet pages by way of this course of and obtained a everlasting 50% increase,” Hormozi shared along with his electronic mail subscribers. “There are only a few issues that at all times work. However, this tactic is about as shut because it will get.”

I‘d by no means used the Hemingway App earlier than, and I assumed my article’s content material rating can be tremendous. I used to be shocked to find that my article was given a grade 6 readability rating and would require edits to 84 sentences to maximise the readability per Hormozi’s recommendation.

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Leverage these constructive metrics.

Having content material that performs effectively ought to do extra than simply trigger high-fives within the advertising and marketing division — it also needs to be leveraged as social proof. I spend loads of time reviewing advertising and marketing supplies on-line and I discover that that is neglected on 90% of internet sites.

This is an instance of how Forbes leverages their constructive metrics by publicly sharing article views:

Source

Why does it matter? Engagement begets extra engagement. Faucet into this self-fulfilling prophecy by displaying constructive metrics in your web site. Listed here are some methods to function your constructive metrics:

• Webpage backlinks: “As featured in” part
• Weblog submit views: Share whole variety of views (tutorial)
• Weblog engagement: Show remark depend
• Product downloads: Share the variety of lifetime purchases or downloads
• Web page shares: Show shared depend (Social Warfare Pro plugin)
• Video views: Pin high-performing movies (TikTok tutorial, Instagram tutorial)
• Social followers: “Be part of X followers” web site widget

With a couple of customary plugins, WordPress customers can customise their dashboard to incorporate quite a lot of vital scoring metrics. This lets you analyze your web site content material proper inside your website dashboard, with out throwing a dozen extra steps into your workflow.

Right here, you’ll be able to see 5 highly effective metrics at a look proper throughout the “posts” web page of my WordPress dashboard:

Source

This is a key for the boxed icons above:

• Stats: Jetpack (free).
• Feedback: WordPress (free).
• Social shares: Social Warfare Professional (paid).
• Visitors mild: search engine optimization rating by Yoast (free).
• Feather: Readability rating by Yoast (free).

Your total staff will have already got entry to the web site, which avoids additional prices of getting to pay for “seats” on subscription-based platforms.

You possibly can even kind content material primarily based on sure metrics, like shares or feedback. You possibly can see how that appears right here on my essential website, the place I’ve sorted my weblog posts so as of most feedback to fewest feedback:

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WordPress does have limitations, although. Information cannot be separated and analyzed by date, which might make discovering particular related data tough. Google Analytics is far more highly effective for these superior options however is overwhelming for freshmen on the lookout for at-a-glance knowledge.

search engine optimization Writing Assistant by Semrush

Value: Free plan, then $139.95 per thirty days.

That is one other device that focuses on written web site content material, like articles, touchdown pages, product listings, and many others. search engine optimization Writing Assistant has a document-like interface the place you’ll be able to write content material from scratch or paste in current textual content. This device has a scoring system that evaluates your content material’s:

• Readability (free).
• search engine optimization (free).
• Originality (paid).
• Tone of voice (paid).

Source

It gathers knowledge for these 4 metrics and assigns a single rating to your web site content material. This enables content material property to be simply in contrast and ranked.

I don‘t depend on this device for my very own content material or my shoppers’ content material, however I do suppose it‘s an awesome useful resource for individuals with straightward wants who aren’t model loyal to different extra particular instruments.

Later

Value: Free plan, then $16.67 per thirty days when billed yearly.

Whereas the primary two instruments centered on owned content material by yourself web site, Later analyzes social media content material. That is an extremely sturdy social scheduling platform that pulls large quantities of knowledge so that you can sift by way of and analyze your content material’s efficiency.

I‘ve been utilizing Later for years, however I can’t share analytics screenshots with out revealing non-public consumer data. As a substitute, right here‘s a abstract of the analytics capabilities as described on Later’s web site:

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A couple of options I like:

• Content material sorting primarily based on whichever metric you worth most.
• Discovering your viewers’s most lively instances on-line.
• Social listening.

I’ve labored on groups that use different scheduling instruments — generally very dear ones — however Later is my most popular platform. It has an pleasurable interface and places a ton of analytics knowledge at your fingertips (with out being overwhelming).

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Scoring AI-generated content material.

AI content may be helpful to your model, however it must be leveraged rigorously. Listed here are a couple of insightful statistics from our State of Marketing traits report:

• Solely 6% of entrepreneurs report utilizing AI to supply total items of content material for them.
• 95% of entrepreneurs who’re utilizing generative AI to put in writing copy should edit the textual content, with 44% saying they make important edits.
• 60% of entrepreneurs concern the priority that AI can hurt their model’s status by way of plagiarism or bias.

Whenever you’re rating AI-generated content material, assess it upfront for inaccuracies and plagiarism. Whenever you’re gauging its efficiency, assess time spent on web page, bounce price, and conversion price. Let content intelligence be your GPS.

If you are going to select AI instruments, go for respected instruments that prioritize high-quality content, just like the HubSpot AI Content Writer device.

There are mountains of knowledge accessible on content material efficiency. Must know what the common X (beforehand Twitter) engagement price for the finance sector is? Three percent. However, discovering and leveraging that knowledge for each single platform and trade can be tedious at finest and inconceivable at worst.

Some software program, like search engine optimization Writing Assistant by Semrush, will use their very own proprietary scoring system to mix a number of scoring elements into one quantity. No single software program offers an entire image, although.

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How you will get essentially the most worth from content material scoring: Figuring out above or below-average content material efficiency can solely come from having month-over-month, year-over-year analytics and evaluating your individual datasets.

My Scoring Instance

A very good instance is my Portuguese Camino luggage transfer information. My article obtained a rating of 6.9 out of 10 with Semrush’s device, which earned it the label of “good.” Nonetheless, once I checked out why it was on condition that rating, I disagreed with it for a couple of causes.

I selected to put in writing a extra in-depth information. My article is 1,975 phrases lengthy, whereas this device is telling me to trim it again to 617 phrases. I am an intensive author, not a quick one (have you ever observed?).

The device additionally routinely assigned key phrase targets from my article, a lot of which had been incorrect. After I manually edited the key phrases, my content material’s rating routinely went as much as 7.7 out of 10.

Instruments may be highly effective, however maintain prompting and tweaking them to personalize and tailor the outcomes.