One of the biggest issues companies continue to have about blogging (and social media in general) is: “How do we tell if it’s working?’
One way to greatly improve your ability to measure the effectiveness of your company’s blogging efforts is by tracking the right metrics. When you are creating the strategy for your company blog, one of the things you need to focus on is making sure that the metrics you track match the goal you have for the blog. For example, if your company wants to use its blog as a tool to build awareness among current and potential customers, then one of the metrics you might track would be number of email subscribers. You might also want to look at number of comments per post and also the number of email inquiries or Contact Form submissions.
But you need to make sure that you are tracking metrics that feed back into the goal you have for your blog. Once you have settled in on the right metrics, then you can customize your blog and your blogging efforts so that these metrics are optimized.
For example, one of the metrics I measure at MackCollier.com is number of email subscribers. Up until May 15, 2010, I was averaging a new email subscriber every three days. In the 65 days since then, I have added an additional 87 email subs. What changed to cause this spike? I moved the email subscription form to the TOP of the blog, “above the fold.” That simple change has netted me an 311% increase in email subscribers. Not too shabby.
So when you look at your own blog, ask yourself two questions:
1. Are we tracking the right metrics? If you are looking to build engagement on your blog, then traffic might not be as important as number of comments. Likewise, if you are looking to increase sales, then you would probably place more importance on referral traffic from the blog to the website, rather than number of new blog feed subscribers.
Think about what it is you want to accomplish with your blogging efforts, then track the metrics that feed into that goal.
2. Are we making it easy for visitors to perform the desired actions? If you want visitors to subscribe via email to your blog, then is it best to place the subscription form at the TOP of the blog, or buried at the bottom of the second sidebar?
Think about what actions you want visitors to take on your blog, then find ways to encourage this action. It could be something as simple as putting your calls to action in the proper place, as with the above example about email subscriptions. Or maybe you need to figure out a strategy for increasing comments, if that’s a key metric you are tracking.
Track the right metrics for your blogging goals, then look for ways to increase the desired actions from your readers.
If you follow your analytics information closely you can clearly see which blog posts are pulling in traffic and which are not. That also depends if the blog posts are being pushed out and leveraged strategically and not haphazardly.
Good points, Maciej. This also helps you get a better handle on exactly what topics are resonating with your readers!
mack
i wonder if your growth in email subs wasn’t because you started ending posts with a call to action — subscribe. I know when I started doing that I saw a similar spike, which has now become the new normal, in email subs to the blog.
great piece.
@TomMartin
Tom I was wondering the same thing, so I stopped asking for email subs at the end of the posts after the first few times I did it. The level of email subs remained higher than it was before. A few years ago I did the same thing with The Viral Garden, I moved the email and feed subscription buttons to the top of the blog, and immediately saw a spike in both. Especially with a blog, anything below the fold is really almost invisible to the reader.
Great reminder Mack. Using the “above the fold” approach is very valuable in Web design and in optimizing site conversions.
Seth Godin wrote a book entitled “The Big Red Fez.” The entire book (a tiny one) encourages Web designers to think like a site visitor. Why hide key call to action items (like email subscriptions, Buy Now buttons, etc.) when instead they should be HUGE on the page and as visible as possible? He’s a fan of the “big ‘ol button” method of design. I’ve used that approach in email marketing for years and it works.
Hey Jesse! I think that’s a good reminder that sometimes you can put TOO MUCH information on your blog, especially at the top. It’s often better to focus on fewer areas, so that way those all-important calls to action will stand out. Thanks for the mention of Seth’s book, I’ll have to check it out!
Love the mention of “above the fold” . Clearly demonstrates the need for expert graphic design when designing a new site. Currently in the process of a re design with our blog and lucky to have an expert graphic designer involved as well as an experienced programmer. Both essential for design excellence.
Right, placement of information on your site is paramount. I am actually tinkering with the idea of removing a lot of information on my blog, and maybe even going from 3 columns to 2.
Less is more, in most cases
Thanks for the comment!
Sound advice, as always, Mack.
Thank you, Elaine! Hope to see you again soon!