Is data the underdog in the content world? For The Drum Deep Dive Content MarketingHallam’s Siobhan Congreve champions the lost art of data-driven content with a human touch.
Since the dawn of search engine optimization (SEO) and the first use of the phrase “content is king,” data has been at the center of every content marketer’s agenda. Many of us have been around long enough to remember the days of keyword stuffing and simply reporting page views and session durations. It didn’t matter that your content made virtually no sense to human readers. If Google “knew” what you were talking about and rewarded you for it, that was enough.
Since then, there has been a gradual but noticeable shift towards content focused on driving human engagement. We have been wondering more about how content can be reused in social networks and whether a journalist would be interested in covering it in the press.
We still want to appease the search gods, but in a different way. Or rather, in a way that is not only there to make Google happy, but consumers as well.
This year, it went a step further when Google announced useful content update which de-prioritizes SEO-first content created to climb the search engine results pages and enhances human-centered content that is original and high-quality.
Where is the middle ground?
With all the focus on creating human-centered contentperhaps we have forgotten what was once so important to us: data.
From search data to industry data, content and data are intrinsically linked. However, the focus has been lost and we could be missing out on a lot of interesting and engaging content because we’re not using both human and data content at the same time. Instead, we keep them isolated for different purposes (even using the phrases “human first” and “data first” is slightly contradictory to the point of this article).
When you step back and think about how much data we need when creating content, there’s a touchpoint every step of the way: from the story we’re telling (and why) to what format it’s presented in and how communicates across platforms. At each step, we can see whether it succeeds or not with the data at our fingertips.
Data is that old friend you hardly ever talk to, the one you rarely text but know is always there for you if you need them. Sure, you might like Instagram stories from time to time, but you don’t need to be in constant contact to know they’re there. Well, it’s time for data to be back in the spotlight.
When data-driven and human-centered content not only coexists, but triumphs
Are you thinking about what topics to cover? Look at keyword research and hashtag data. Wondering about stats to prove your point? See data from existing studies and reports. Can’t decide which format best suits your content? Look at the variation in participation rates. Not sure when is the best time to publish your content? Look at your Google Analytics data.
Whether you work in SEO, paid media, creative or content marketing, data-driven (or data-driven) content that resonates with humans should be at the forefront of your strategy. The data is there to help you. When used correctly, it helps your content fly. And the Internet has no shortage of data.
Even if you look a little closer to home, whether you’re at home or working at an agency, proprietary data is gold, especially when it comes to content creation. It’s the only way to truly understand your customers as humans and use that information to deliver a more personalized experience, whether it’s through the ads you serve them or the content they find on your website and social channels social.
Human-centered, data-driven content isn’t something new, bold, and exciting that’s taking the marketing world by storm. But it’s a way of working that will help take your content marketing to the next level. It will help inform your content creation and content amplification strategies to a point where you won’t worry about whether something should be done or not, because the data is already in place to answer your question.
When it comes to telling stories with data, it’s all about extracting the interesting points for your audience – not inundating them with facts and figures, but using the information you have to bring your story to life.
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