Measuring Your Content Factory and Analyzing the Results Another critical aspect of managing your content factory is tracking and analyzing your results. Your content factory isn’t going to be perfect from the moment you build it. At first, you may struggle to consistently maintain your desired content rhythm and to get every piece of content out through all of the possible vehicles and programs that you would like. And, even after you mas- ter these things, your results will vary in terms of the impact your content has. The important thing is to hold yourself account- able to your goals, to measure the impact of your efforts, and to make ongoing adjustments along the way based on what you learn so that you are continuously able to improve. That’s where metrics come in. Initially you should track them across four areas: “As a content marketer, your daily ret- Content creation Content delivery rospective is the most important part Impressions Conversions of your day. It offers you the chance to look back on the previous day’s con- Let’s break down each of these. tent and ask yourself what went well, For content creation, you are simply tracking whether or not you were able to create all what didn’t go well, and what can you of the content that you have committed to producing as part of your content rhythm for do better. Doing so will ensure you’re a given period. Tracking this information (which can be as simple as saying “yes, we not just going through the motions, met our content commitments this week” or “no, we didn’t”) puts a spotlight on your but consistently learning from your ability to consistently create all of the content on your editorial calendar. That helps to efforts and adapting your approach surface other issues. If you are not consistently meeting your content commitments, accordingly. That’s the only true way it could indicate that: to improve and to take your content marketing to the next level.” » You don’t have the right resources in place » Your processes are inefficient Jonathan Crowe, » You are getting distracted by other things Managing Editor, OpenView Venture » You are not leveraging freelancers, influencers, or your co-workers effectively Partners » Your goals are too aggressive The bottom line is that until you are able to consistently hit your content commit- ments, you are not going to have a successful content factory. It Takes a Content Factory! | 51