What are the best questions to keep top of mind when conducting a content audit?

This is a great question!

I can't tell you the number of times I've created content because someone in the C-suite thought it would be a good idea, or because a sales reply simply couldn't close a deal with a highly customized 1-pager.

The truth is - content should be created with a purpose. Here are the questions I like to ask when conducting a content audit:

• Does this content answer questions our customers are asking? Does it help our customers & prospects accomplish their goals?
• How does the reader feel after consuming this piece of content? Does that feeling align with what our goal was when we created the piece?
• What is the purpose of this piece of content? Is it still serving that purpose?
• How often is this piece of content used, by who, and in what capacity? 
• When was the last time this content was refreshed? Is this something we want to be a staple in our library?
• In what other forms does this content exist (blog, podcast, short video, webinar, etc)? If the answer is none, should it be created in smaller, more digestible snippets? 

The first question is always “What are your business objectives/priorities today?”. Align everything to it. After that you can look at marketing metrics like:

1.     What is the engagement for the content?

2.     When was this last refreshed?

3.     Does it align with our latest messaging?

4.     Is this the best asset in this category?

Content is the cornerstone of an ABM campaign. Auditing and organizing your content can be time-consuming but it is worth the effort. Once you organize your content in a way that’s easy to sort or pick and choose, you’ll be able to easily identify the assets for your ABM campaign.

Below are nine questions to keep top of mind:

1. When was it created? Is the content relevant today?

2. Who is the author? Analyst, third-party, customer, or in-house content?

3. What is the format? PDF, video, or interactive?

4. Is it gated or un-gated?

5. How many MQLs did it drive (if gated)? What was the engagement rate (video views, likes)

6. What pain point/stage of the buying process does it address?

7. Which buyer persona does it address - business buyer or technical buyer?

8. Which industry does it apply to?

9. Which solution/product does it apply to?

Funnel stage, persona, and topic.

1. Funnel stage - is this content for someone who has never heard of your company and what you do before, or is it for someone who has been all over your website? The former will need to be introduced to what you do in a way that is interesting and engaging (think "thought leadership") where the latter will be more interested in your company (think case studies).

2. Persona - who is this content more relevant for? If you're selling to Analytics/Operations folks, is this content for a Sales Operations person, a Marketing Operations person, or a Systems person? Is it for an individual contributor working on a specific project all day, or for a VP who is thinking strategically about what they should be doing next year and how to get there?

3. Topic - this one is easy. What is the key topic of your content? And topic should be synonymous with value proposition or theme - NOT with product features. Topics are things like AI, Security, or Workflow Efficiency, not things like the new report or the new checkbox feature in the product. Those latter things are good for customers, but prospects need to know about how your solution solves their problems and makes their life better, not about the latest widget.

Content audits are very complex and for a good reason, content forms the bedrock of your Go-To-Market (GTM) strategy. It powers the education of your category and product, nurtures trust, and transmutes mere words into the embodiment of your brand and its distinctive voice. 

To get to the questions, you need to think about the audit in terms of phases.

Phase 1: Stage and persona framework: Do you have content that touches every stage of the customer journey, pre and post sale, for every layer of the buying team including.

1. Individual contributor/end user. 

2. Mid-level or Senior Management.

3. C-Level.

Phase 2: Relevance and engagement framework: Is the content accurate and up to date? Is it current, factual, and relevant? A great way to break this out is a simple spreadsheet that lists your content, and columns that capture content type, date published, target persona, funnel stage, in market, status (relevant/not), action (keep, refresh, cut). 

The next part of this exercise is to measure the engagement level? While KPIs will differ based on “role” or “job” of the content, it’s important to list these out, granularly. 

Phase 3: Summarize your plan forward: Where are the gaps? What’s the plan for the future? Does it fit into your overall content strategy? Do you have the right infrastructure to measure success?

From there you have an attack plan for campaigns, ads, enablemen, nurtures and more. And remember SEO is a strategy of its own. So while it’s integrated, a campaign content audit must be approached uniquely from SEO. 

By keeping these phases anchored on these questions in mind, you can conduct a thorough content audit that helps refine and optimize your content strategy for better results.

How well does the content align with the organization's overall business goals? Is it helping to achieve key objectives such as generating leads, increasing brand awareness, or driving sales? Can we measure it?

Is the content relevant to our ICP? Does it address their pain points, interests, and needs? Would they consume it and take action?

How well is the content performing? What are the traffic, engagement, and conversion rates? How does it compare to other content on the website, against industry standards?

Is the content optimized for search? Is it incrementally increasing organic search traffic on the site?

Does the content have a clear call to action? Is it telling people what you want them to do? Are they doing it, at what rate?

In a perfect world there would be a single dashboard listing all my content, with search, GenAI summaries, and automations to promote, demote, or flag content for review. What I'd want to know is:

• When was the content created?

• Who wrote it originally?

• Who last edited it?

• What is a brief summary of the content?

• What products does this content relate to?

• What personas does this content serve?

• What jobs to be done does this content address?

• What are the key needs, pain points, addressed in this content?

• When was it last reviewed?

• Are there any time sensitive components in this content such as product screenshots, technical instructions, customers logos, etc. that need to be regularly reviewed for current relevancy?

• How has this content been used already? (websites, campaigns, social networks, 3p networks, etc.)

• What stage of the funnel is this for?

• Is this high value enough to be gated?

Probably more. But ideally I'd love a tool that helps me very quickly filter content based on criteria like these. Allowing my team to ensure content is reviewed regularly, updated or removed, technically accurate, still valuable, hasn't been overused, etc.

This is a very insightful question! I say this because keeping the desired outcomes and goals front and center is incredibly valuable when conducting a content audit.

Here are some important questions to consider:

• What is the goal of this piece of content?
• Does this piece of content align with your target audience and ideal customer profile (ICP)?
• Is this piece of content helpful to your audience?
• Is this piece of content up-to-date or need revisions?
• How has this piece of content been performing?
• Is this piece of content currently ranking? If so, for what keywords?
• What SEO optimization opportunities exist in the current SEO landscape?
• What pieces of content are underperforming?
• Does this piece of content align with your brand voice?
• Is the piece of content discoverable?
• Is the piece of content optimized for accessibility?
• Is the structure and format of the content optimized? Can it be improved?
• Are there any overlaps and/or gaps in content?
• Is this content still relevant to your audience?