Tuesday Tip: Know whether or not your content is boring

So you have a blog and—perhaps thanks to our extensive series on content marketing—you're cranking out fresh content onto your site. Now hold up. What's happening with that content? Does anyone read it and if they do, do they like it? Today's Tip: Learn how to assess your content so you can be sure it isn't boring. 

First, the case for content marketing analytics

Maybe you already understand the benefits of strong analytics—if so, skip down to the next header. But if you find yourself doubting the power of data, we have a couple points to make. 

Benefits of content marketing analytics. You can...

• understand your reader's preferences
• optimize future content to play to these preferences
• determine what to write when inspiration runs dry based on successful pieces
• attribute conversions or sales to the content and in effect, understand your content marketing ROI

And so much else. 

Now, 3 signs your content is boring your readers

It's not always easy to self-assess. Luckily we have marketing expert, Andrew Warner of ContentRanked, to help. In a guest post on Jeff Bulla's blog, he points to three obvious ways you can tell if your content is too dull. Don't worry, he doesn't leave you hanging; he also kindly provides ways to enhance your content. 

His post is thorough so for the purposes of our tip, we paraphrase. Be sure to check out the whole shabang, "3 Tell-Tale Signs Your Content Is Boring The Life Out Of People."

1. You have hardly any comments

If readers like your content, at least a few of them will have something to say about it. This isn't a bad sign for blog posts across the board, but it can serve as a sign for most. 

• Tell more stories: If you're looking to create more engaging content, storytelling is the way to captivate audiences. 

"Stories transform dull tips into sparkling information and sticky advice. They turn lackluster lessons into engaging adventures. And what’s more… stories help you stand out from the drab blogging crowd. Your content becomes unique because nobody tells the same stories as you." – Henneke Duistermaat, Enchanting Marketing 

• Create more valuable content: If people came to your site via a search, they came to find a solution. If they're bouncing off right away, it's because your content isn't answering needs. Check out Andrew's "Ultimate Guide To Writing Valuable Content People Give A Crap About" and ensure your content is useful to readers.
• Ask for comments: You don't have to be shy about this. You can straight up ask business acquaintances or subscribers to come check out and comment on the latest post since they'll likely recognize the value. Keep those commenting relationships alive by not only asking but also commenting on their posts as well.

2. You rarely get social shares

If people love your content, they can't help but share it. On top of that,

To help maximize this...

• Write content that makes people look good if they share it. Sounds silly, but Andrew points out that if people see other people have shared or liked your content, they are actually more likely to share and like it. One way to check that it's share-worthy if you're feeling uncertain? Go to Buzzsumo and type in your keyword of choice, then see which types of content get the most shares.

"Before people share a piece of content, they evaluate its social currency. The better it makes them look, the more likely they'll be to pass it on." – Dr. Jonah Berger

• Reach out to people to ask that they share your content. There are plenty of template emails to help you determine how to phrase such a request. 

3. You have a high bounce rate

Caveat: High bounce rate can mean a number of things—we wrote a whole post about misinterpreted Google Analytics metrics which demonstrates this. But if you notice your high bounce rate is prevelant across your blog posts that also get less social shares or weren't written as thoughtfully, it might be a sign.

• Do more linking. Instead of writing a post and letting it live on its own, consider writing a three-part series or linking to an ebook offer. You can also link to other relevant content on your site like your About page.
• Conduct a site audit to ensure your site looks good. ArcStone executes a lot of these and even created a worksheet to help you through one if you'd like to DIY.

Thank you Andrew for saving us all from boring content. You can do some further analysis with this Neil Patel post we also really liked, "How to Check If Your Content Marketing is Working." It walks you through a Google Analytics setup so you're consistently tracking the right data and then he tells us what to do with these metrics. 

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