How to Conduct Content Marketing Experiments to Boost Your Business

Content marketing experiments can help you test and optimize your strategies, tactics, and campaigns. Learn how to conduct them and what to measure.

Content marketing is a powerful way to attract, engage, and convert your target audience. But how do you know if your content marketing efforts are effective and efficient? How do you know if you are reaching your goals and objectives? How do you know if you are using the best practices and techniques?

The answer is simple: you need to conduct content marketing experiments.

Content marketing experiments are systematic and scientific methods of testing and measuring different aspects of your content marketing process. They can help you:

• Identify what works and what doesn’t work for your audience and your business
• Optimize your content creation, distribution, and promotion strategies and tactics
• Improve your content quality, relevance, and performance
• Increase your content marketing ROI and impact

In this article, we will show you how to conduct content marketing experiments and what to measure. We will also share some examples of content marketing experiments that you can try out on your own.

What are content marketing experiments?

Content marketing experiments are controlled tests that compare two or more variables in your content marketing process. The variables can be anything that affects your content marketing outcomes, such as:

• Content formats (e.g., blog posts, videos, podcasts, infographics, etc.)
• Content topics (e.g., industry trends, customer pain points, product features, etc.)
• Content headlines (e.g., how-to, list, question, etc.)
• Content length (e.g., short, medium, long, etc.)
• Content tone and style (e.g., formal, casual, humorous, etc.)
• Content keywords and SEO (e.g., keyword density, keyword placement, etc.)
• Content calls to action (e.g., subscribe, download, buy, etc.)
• Content distribution channels (e.g., email, social media, search engines, etc.)
• Content promotion methods (e.g., organic, paid, influencer, etc.)
• Content timing and frequency (e.g., when and how often to publish and promote your content)

The goal of content marketing experiments is to determine which variable or combination of variables produces the best results for your content marketing goals and metrics.

How to conduct content marketing experiments?

To conduct content marketing experiments, you need to follow a systematic and scientific process. Here are the steps to follow:

1. Define your goal and hypothesis

The first step is to define your goal and hypothesis for your content marketing experiment. Your goal is what you want to achieve or improve with your content marketing experiment. Your hypothesis is what you expect to happen or observe as a result of your content marketing experiment.

For example, your goal could be to increase your email subscribers, and your hypothesis could be that adding a pop-up form to your blog posts will increase your email subscribers.

2. Choose your variables and groups

The next step is to choose your variables and groups for your content marketing experiment. Your variables are the factors that you want to test and compare in your content marketing experiment. Your groups are the subsets of your audience or content that you want to expose to different variables in your content marketing experiment.

For example, your variable could be the type of form (pop-up or sidebar) that you add to your blog posts, and your groups could be the visitors who see the pop-up form or the sidebar form on your blog posts.

3. Design and run your experiment

The third step is to design and run your content marketing experiment. You need to ensure that your experiment is valid, reliable, and ethical. You need to:

• Control for confounding factors that could affect your results, such as seasonality, external events, or audience characteristics
• Randomize and balance your groups to ensure that they are comparable and representative of your population
• Use a large enough sample size and duration to ensure that your results are statistically significant and generalizable
• Use a suitable experimental design, such as A/B testing, multivariate testing, or factorial design, depending on the number and type of variables that you want to test
• Use appropriate tools and platforms to create, implement, and monitor your experiment, such as Google Analytics, Google Optimize, HubSpot, etc.

4. Analyze and interpret your results

The final step is to analyze and interpret your results from your content marketing experiment. You need to:

• Use descriptive and inferential statistics to summarize and compare your results, such as mean, median, standard deviation, confidence interval, p-value, etc.
• Use data visualization tools and techniques to display and communicate your results, such as charts, graphs, tables, etc.
• Use critical thinking and logical reasoning to explain and evaluate your results, such as causality, correlation, validity, reliability, etc.
• Use your results to confirm or reject your hypothesis, and to draw conclusions and implications for your content marketing process

What to measure in content marketing experiments?

The metrics that you measure in your content marketing experiments depend on your goal and hypothesis. However, some of the common metrics that you can use to evaluate your content marketing performance are:

• Content consumption metrics, such as page views, time on page, bounce rate, scroll depth, etc.
• Content engagement metrics, such as comments, shares, likes, clicks, etc.
• Content conversion metrics, such as leads, subscribers, downloads, registrations, etc.
• Content retention metrics, such as return visits, loyalty, churn, etc.
• Content revenue metrics, such as sales, revenue, profit, ROI, etc.

You can use these metrics to measure the effectiveness and efficiency of your content marketing experiments, and to optimize your content marketing process.

Examples of content marketing experiments

To inspire you, here are some examples of content marketing experiments that you can try out on your own:

• Test different content formats to see which one generates more engagement and conversions for your audience. For example, you can compare blog posts, videos, podcasts, infographics, etc.
• Test different content topics to see which one attracts more traffic and leads for your business. For example, you can compare industry trends, customer pain points, product features, etc.
• Test different content headlines to see which one captures more attention and clicks for your content. For example, you can compare how-to, list, question, etc.
• Test different content lengths to see which one performs better for your SEO and user experience. For example, you can compare short, medium, long, etc.
• Test different content tones and styles to see which one resonates more with your audience and brand personality. For example, you can compare formal, casual, humorous, etc.
• Test different content keywords and SEO strategies to see which one ranks higher and drives more organic traffic for your content. For example, you can compare keyword density, keyword placement, etc.
• Test different content calls to action to see which one converts more visitors into customers for your business. For example, you can compare subscribe, download, buy, etc.
• Test different content distribution channels to see which one reaches more and better audience for your content. For example, you can compare email, social media, search engines, etc.
• Test different content promotion methods to see which one generates more exposure and results for your content. For example, you can compare organic, paid, influencer, etc.
• Test different content timing and frequency to see which one optimizes your content lifecycle and performance. For example, you can compare when and how often to publish and promote your content.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Question: What are the benefits of content marketing experiments?

Answer: Content marketing experiments can help you:

• Test and validate your content marketing assumptions and hypotheses
• Optimize and improve your content marketing strategies and tactics
• Increase and measure your content marketing outcomes and impact
• Learn and innovate your content marketing process and best practices

Question: What are the challenges of content marketing experiments?

Answer: Content marketing experiments can be challenging because:

• They require time, resources, and expertise to design and run
• They involve uncertainty, risk, and failure
• They depend on data quality, accuracy, and reliability
• They need constant monitoring, analysis, and interpretation

Question: How to overcome the challenges of content marketing experiments?

Answer: To overcome the challenges of content marketing experiments, you can:

• Plan and prioritize your content marketing experiments based on your goals and resources
• Start small and simple, and scale up and complexify your content marketing experiments gradually
• Use reliable and relevant data sources, tools, and platforms to conduct your content marketing experiments
• Seek feedback and guidance from your team, peers, and experts to improve your content marketing experiments

Summary

In summary, content marketing experiments are systematic and scientific methods of testing and measuring different aspects of your content marketing process. They can help you identify what works and what doesn’t work for your audience and your business, and optimize your content creation, distribution, and promotion strategies and tactics. To conduct content marketing experiments, you need to define your goal and hypothesis, choose your variables and groups, design and run your experiment, and analyze and interpret your results. You also need to measure the appropriate metrics for your content marketing goals and objectives, such as content consumption, engagement, conversion, retention, and revenue metrics. Finally, you can try out some examples of content marketing experiments, such as testing different content formats, topics, headlines, lengths, tones, styles, keywords, SEO, calls to action, distribution channels, promotion methods, timing, and frequency.

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute professional advice. Please consult a licensed content marketing expert or agency if you need help with your content marketing experiments.