Ignore the humorously ominous title of this post. Content intelligence isn’t something to fear. In fact, it’s something to embrace. “Content intelligence” is a term that’s been around for a decade or so, but it has been used much more frequently in the last few years. It refers to the knowledge gained from systems that use information on content consumers and content consumption to produce actionable insights for driving a content marketing strategy. Yes, that’s a mouthful!
Let me clarify. Content intelligence helps you understand what content your audience wants and needs so that you can produce more of it, manage your content portfolio more effectively, and thereby gain a competitive advantage. It combines data, artificial intelligence, and content marketing.
How, Specifically, Can Content Intelligence Help?
First, I should explain that content intelligence is not just about knowing, for example, how many times a white paper was downloaded. It’s about the realization that a person contacted with a particular email who then requests a certain marketing brochure is likely to download a specific white paper if contacted using a particular follow-up email. Heavy stuff!
In other words, content intelligence can help you know things like:
- What content to share with whom. For many marketers today, these decisions are based as much on gut feel as anything. Says one marketing or sales team member to another: “I sent this piece to one of my prospects. He thought it was helpful. I’m sure your prospect will, too.” However, those kinds of generalizations aren’t necessarily helpful. And in some cases, they can hurt your relationship with a prospect who feels like you don’t “get” them or understand their pain points.
- What content to create. Looking at what content has been most readily consumed by your target audience and producing more of the same is one way to make your content development decisions. But what if, for all the value your content consumers get from your material, there are pieces you’ve never produced that would be the key to turning prospects into customers? Content intelligence seeks to help you find those missing links.
- What content to update. Here again, you can take a strictly systematic approach to refreshing your content by implementing a policy that, say, each piece is reviewed once a year. But a deeper dive into all the relevant data available may reveal that Piece A would get better readership if you updated it asap due to recent changes in your industry, while revising Piece B might do more harm than good.
Where is the Science of Content Intelligence Today?
Advanced marketing automation tools like HubSpot provide a significant amount of powerful intel already, and the companies behind them continue to enhance them. Other organizations are focusing more exclusively on big data and artificial intelligence, and are constantly pushing the boundaries of what can be known about a market’s (or an individual’s) content wants and needs. Suffice it to say that “content intelligence” is a term you want to be aware of and a concept that may be powering your marketing efforts in the very near future.
Take Advantage of Our Content Marketing Smarts
At some point, content intelligence systems may be commonplace. But until then, the insights that their innovators are after can be found in the expertise and experience of seasoned content marketers like our teams in Olympia, WA, Springfield, MO, and Colorado Springs, CO. Have questions about how a marketing automation platform like HubSpot can raise your content IQ and improve your results? We’ve got answers. Give us a shout!
