Six Benchmarks You Can Start Using Today to Ensure Editorial Success

My editorial brainstorming sessions with internal stakeholders are sacrosanct. Planning not only helps me to focus my time at work but makes sure my editorial calendar is strategically aligned to meet key business objectives. This year, our content marketing team decided to expand the scope of these discussions to go beyond topics. We identified six criteria to help us decide which projects warrant the department’s editorial attention (and sanity).

The 6 Benchmarks

1. Meets Highest Need

• Does the proposed project meet a high business need (i.e., is the project aligned to a business objective)?

• What is the high need (i.e., can the internal stakeholder articulate the rationale behind the request)?

All content undertakings should be aligned to a business goal. Writing for the sake of writing rarely leads to a high ROI. Therefore, it is important to identify what our internal stakeholders need and how we can fill that void. If the project is not aligned to help meet a business goal, I typically recommend postponing the assignment or identifying an external resource. Often the internal customer realizes the project was not a high priority or needed at all.

2. Measure of Success

• How are you (the internal stakeholder) defining success, right now, for your business unit (or program or initiative)?

• What are you hoping to achieve through this content request?

Understanding the internal stakeholder’s key performance indicators (KPIs) helps to frame the assignment from a business perspective. These same KPIs can then be used when measuring the assignment’s success. Aligning our KPIs to those of our internal customer also helps to ensure our content gets the kudos it deserves — we are, after all, helping the business succeed.

3. Relevance

• Is the content relevant to our audience?

• Can the content be distributed frequently to enhance engagement?

Content has to be relevant to its target audience and not just meet a list of internal requirements. Many internal stakeholders think they know what the customer wants, even though previous survey data and real-time analytics show otherwise. Therefore, identifying the content’s level of relevance to its target audience is key to ensure future engagement.

4. Time & Scope

• Is the content timely (i.e., why are we doing this now instead of something else)?

• How long will this project take to complete and distribute (i.e., what is the internal client’s time frame for completion compared to our time frame for execution)?

While the topic might be timely today, executing on the assignment might take a bit longer than expected based on existing resources. Getting everyone on board with the project’s completion timeline is important to setting the right expectations up front.

5. Recyclability

• Can the content be leveraged in other ways (e.g., conversion from a white paper to a presentation to a series of infographics)?

• Can we distribute the content through various channels (e.g., from a live presentation to a SlideShare or turning a blog post into an infographic that is shared via social media)?

Time is precious to a content creator (and everyone else). Many “one-and-done” projects end up taking longer to complete (and, thus, costing more) due to their lack of strategic alignment. As you start to plan the assignment, look for ways to use the amazing content you’re about to create in other ways. This will help to expand the ROI of your work, while also benefiting the organization down the road.

6. Call to Action

• What is the one take-away our audience should identify upon reading our content?

• What one action are we hoping our audience will perform?

Identifying how we want our readers to react is important as it helps to anchor our content and make it actionable. Whenever an internal stakeholder provides more than three calls to action (CTAs), I look for ways to narrow these down or combine them. If the internal stakeholder is unclear what the CTA should be, we run the risk of writing copy that is unfocused and lacks any true external value.

In Short

While these six criteria may not necessarily apply to every assignment, the more I can relate my work to this checklist, the more aligned my efforts become to a key business objective.

#contentmarketing #contentalignment #measurement #editorialplanning