• Content Evaluation Guide
Content That Gets Results
Great content successfully advances relationships with prospects to such a degree that those prospects close relatively fast without significant discounting.
To achieve this objective content needs to be available for each buying situation and that content must be effective at doing it's "job" of advancing the prospect relationship.
The value of a piece of content can be segmented into a few categories:
1. Its ability to attract an audience.
2. Its ability to educate the audience on the topic.
3. Its ability to advance the audience to the next level.
We recommend the following evaluation categories for each of the content components:
Interrupt (attract) - the offers ability to interrupt the prospect. In most cases the interrupt ability will be a judge of the headline or title used to characterize the topic or content of the offer;
Engage (attract) -- how well the offer promises to educate the prospect on the chosen topic. This type of offer will have its engaging ability (and engaging score) judged by the offers abstract and or the executive summary;
Educate (educate) -- how well the content of the offer educates the prospect on the topic. For this category the offers will be judged based on how well they explain the relevant and important issues involved in making a quantified case about the topic;
Advancement options (advance) -- how well the offer promotes a risk free method to obtain additional information on this topic or related topics;
Format (overall) -- a score of how well the content is visually organized so that it can be digested in an easy to consume manner;
Aging (overall) -- a score of how current the offer is;
We recommend the following content scoring process:
Provide a point score from 1-3 with 1 representing the poorest value and 3 representing the highest value for each piece of content;
Sum the point values for each offer component and divide by 6 to provide the overall offer score;
We suggest any offer with an overall point value below a score of 2 should be critically evaluated to be replaced or re-written before it is used in marketing automation and lead generation programs.
We recommend the following scoring structure:
1. Interrupt capacity:
0 points No headline
1 point Just company name or play on words -- does nothing to draw the audience in.
2 points Headline exists, but not action oriented and no key word phrase.
3 points Action oriented headline but not articulated well and no key word phrase.
4 points Good headline, interrupts prospects, uses a relevant key word phrase but needs to be more intensive.
5 points Excellent headline, hits hot buttons with right intensity and tone, uses a relevant and engaging key word phrase.
2. Engage capacity:
0 points ( if interrupt score is 0, 1, or 2 engage score is 0 )
1 point Nothing in abstract or summary to pull reader in
2 points Contains non-action oriented statements.
3 points Audience can scan abstract and determine decision making info.
4 points Audience is promised useful information in the abstract.
5 points Engaged reader, quick scan pulls them in and pulls them through the content.
3. Educate capacity:
0 points No case building materials present
1 point Some content listed -- maybe generically, not quantified or compelling
2 points Relevant points listed but not developed
3 points Relevant points listed with basic education
4 points Relevant points detailed ; builds a good case
5 points Educates on relevant and important issues and builds a solid well-quantified case
4. Advancement capacity:
0 points No next step offer discussed
1 point Contact information generically listed as next step
2 points Tells prospect to call for more information or to speak with a rep - offer present, but non-motivating
3 points Offer present, but un-motivating
4 points Good follow-on offer gets prospect to take action
5 points Excellent follow on offer -- causes prospect to take immediate action
5. Format:
0 points An unorganized mess.
1 point Does not flow, haphazard orientation.
2 points Basic structure is in place, but lacks power.
3 points
Structurally sound, flows well, but lacks power
4 points Proper use of fonts and spacing, well done
5 points Reader can quickly scan and understand main points
6. Aging:
0 points more than 60 months old
1 point 59 months to 48 months old
2 points 47 months to 36 months old
3 points 35 months to 24 months old
4 points 23 months to 12 months old
5 points less than 12 months old
Consider the following next steps:
Apply the grading to every offer in the inventory;
Determine where gaps are apparent due to lack of an offer or poorly constructed offers;
Recommend a roadmap to filling those gaps based on upcoming programs requirements;
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