18 questions you should ask yourself when evaluating your content

How can you determine whether or not your content is coming across? Evaluate the impact of your content in the blink of an eye with the 18 concrete questions from our practical checklist.

Content marketing offers many advantages. Not only are you helping the reader, you are also boosting your image and brand awareness. A true win-win!
But how can you be sure your content is indeed coming across? Cypres’s Content Audit Guide tells us that a content audit is indispensable if you want to analyse your content strategy. When the content inventory has been made, the next step is the evaluation. In this blog post we’ve listed 18 questions you need to include. This practical checklist guarantees an effective content evaluation.

Rate your content marketing on a scale of 1 to 5

To ensure objectivity, it is best to use a scoring system. Answer every question with a number from 1 to 5, then calculate the average score for an overall evaluation of every piece of content. This makes it easier to compare content and the best content quickly emerges.

Audience

1. Do you approach your topics from your target group’s point of view?
2. Do you pay attention to the needs and concerns of your target group?
3. Do you adjust to the language level of your target group?
4. Does your content provide sufficient context to understand everything?

Concrete tips

Ask yourself why a specific piece of content might appeal to your target group and adjust your terminology to this audience. Avoid jargon and adapt your tone to your target group. You use a different language in a whitepaper for doctors than you would when addressing nursing staff. This difference is even more pronounced when addressing patients. If your customers keep asking you the same questions it is a good idea to make the necessary changes in your content approach.

Whenever possible, integrate links to other pieces of content to give the customer a broader picture of the topic. For instance, click on this link to download our free Content Audit Guide.

Engagement

5. Do you invite your target group to react?
6. Do you encourage your target group to share and discuss your content?
7. Do you stimulate your target group to explore more content?
8. Is it easy for your target group to share your content?

Concrete tips

Do not forget to include user-friendly sharing buttons to make your content easy to share. A blogpost without a single sharing button is simply not done. Zero in on essential snippets of text. Use enlarged text with a call to action e.g. ‘Click to tweet’. This article in Post Planner contains concrete examples with instructions.

Show related content at the bottom of your blog post. Show comments below the article and don’t forget to respond. People often ask for more details about the content of your blog post. It is unacceptable to leave certain questions unanswered.

Language and structure

9. Do you structure your posts with titles and subheadings?
10. Is your content structured like an inverted pyramid: key content first, details later?
11. Have you reduced large bodies of text to lists, tables or diagrams that are easier to read?
12. Does your content meet the criteria of your style guide?
13. Do the links between the various content elements work?
14. Is your content free of grammatical, spelling and punctuation mistakes?
15. Does your content use the right tone of voice?

Concrete tips

Make your text “rollable”. This means you start by painting the broader picture before going into detail. Even if the reader only reads half of your post, he will still get the gist of it.

When a hyperlink promises to lead the reader to a related topic and the link doesn’t work or connects to the wrong page, then the reader will be frustrated and give up. Avoid this by performing a thorough check before sharing the content.

This article on wifi marketing in Knokke is clearly structured with short but powerful subheadings.

Facts, sources, legal obligations

16. Have you removed all inaccuracies from your content?
17. Are you consistent in your quotes & reference and your use of terminology?
18. Does your content meet all legal and regulatory standards?

Concrete tips

Check your content with specialists in the field before you publish it. Inaccurate information dents your professional image and devalues your content. This e-book on SEO myths by Hubspot was published in late 2014 and reprised with Google’s mobile update of 21 April 2015. It is important that the content still be correct and up-to-date.