You Can't (Only) Measure Success

mlns='> Why the numbers are the least of your content measurement problems. [View Message in Browser]( / [Add Us to Safe Sender List]( Weekly News 2.25.22 Connect With CMI [How To Create Inclusive Content To Make Your Audience Feel Seen (and Heard)]( If you don't have an inclusive marketing strategy, you don't have a growth marketing strategy, says Michelle Ngome, founder of the African-American Marketing Association. She explains how to bake inclusivity into your content marketing strategy, planning, creation, and distribution in this article and video. [Read more]( By Jodi Harris More of the week's best stuff: - [15 Content Creation Tools You (Probably) Haven't Tried Yet]( by Irina Weber - [Take Content Beyond the Buyer's Journey by Playing Nice [11 Expert Tips]]( by Ann Gynn - [Your Content Analytics Are Meaningless Unless You Have This [Rose-Colored Glasses]]( by Robert Rose - [ICYMI: Your Content Mission in 2022: Get Ambitious and Embrace New Responsibilities]]( by Robert Rose  Measurement Isn't (Only) About Numbers If you're measuring something in marketing, it must be important. So, your job is to get the most accurate measurement, right? Not at all. For measurement to mean anything, people first must agree on what equals success. Here's one of the unspoken secrets in marketing measurement: Agreement on measurement is more important than accuracy. A couple of weeks ago, I talked with a marketing director at a technology company about how executives had directed him to sharpen (i.e., improve) his approach to measuring content marketing's contribution to marketing success. The director planned to dig into the accuracy of the analytics tools to make sure they were generating the correct numbers. I told him getting more accurate data was the least of his challenges. What senior leadership wants is agreement about the value of their content. To understand why agreement matters more than accuracy, think about TV ratings. They've never been accurate. In the early days, participants in the selected homes listed the shows they watched and for how long in diaries. Do you think any of them took a wild guess at what they watched (and for how long) on Tuesday? Until a few years ago, the representative sample for television ratings was about 20,000 households in the United States. When you consider that more than 100 million homes in the US have a television, that's like walking into a basketball arena of 10,000 people and figuring out what everybody wants for dinner by asking two of them. As I explained to the marketing director, television advertising isn't a $60 billion industry because viewership is accurately measured. It's because everybody has agreed to a standard for "good" television ratings regardless of their accuracy. The same principle holds in content marketing strategy. You first must define, align, and agree on your objectives, then identify the metrics you'll use to determine success. How do you do that? I explain the three-step process that has worked for many of my clients in this week's [Rose-Colored Glasses](. I'd love to hear how you approach measurement (and if you focus on agreement before accuracy). Let me know in the article's comments section or [by email](mailto:cmi_info@informa.com). In the meantime, remember: It's your story. Tell it well. Robert Rose Chief Strategy Advisor Content Marketing Institute You're getting this exclusive article from Robert Rose as a perk of your newsletter subscription. Do you have colleagues or friends who would benefit from Robert's weekly updates? If so, please invite them to [subscribe]( here.   Sponsored Content Content Matters 2022 Report Learn how content teams are driving growth, measuring what works, and thinking about the future—Content Matters is an exclusive WordPress VIP report and survey of 800+ leading content marketers worldwide. [Download the Report »]( Content Marketing Job Listings Currently on a job search? Thinking about switching gears with your career? Please check out our job listings below. Available positions: - [Content Marketing Manager]( Truework – San Francisco, New York City, Remote - [Learn More]( - [Content Marketing Manager]( FourKites – Chicago or Remote - [Learn More]( Interested in posting a job here? 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