How To Find (and Close) the Hidden Gaps in Your Content Strategy

How To Find (and Close) the Hidden Gaps in Your Content Strategy

Inside your content strategy lies holes that you can’t easily see.

These gaps may manifest themselves from the very beginning or materialize over time. But no matter their origin, these crevices present opportunities to improve your brand’s content marketing.

How to perform a content gap analysis

1. Perform a content audit

A content audit reveals what’s missing from your strategy and what your content competitors have that your brand doesn’t. That insight can inform future subjects for your blog, white papers, case studies, and other owned content. To begin, inventory all the content on your website along with their essential metrics. Next, inventory your competitors’ content to identify what outranks your assets in search engine results for your targeted words.

2. Conduct keyword research and social listening

Keyword research can unearth a treasure trove of insight into what content your audience wants to know. Crack open a tool like Ahrefs or Moz’s Keyword Explorer to see what words people use to search for content related to your industry. Sift through these keywords to identify questions asked within your area of expertise that you can answer through new content assets.

3. Identify the failed marketing goals

Every content marketing strategy should have documented goals quantified within an achievable timeframe, such as 50 marketing-qualified leads per month. With your goals laid out, you can quickly review them and spot any goals you haven’t achieved. They indicate potential gaps that need to be closed.

4. Crowdsource your way to discovering what’s not there — and should be

While the first three steps in the content gap analysis look at past behavior, this step looks forward. Ask followers and subscribers what they’d like to know more about. Send a brief poll or survey by email or post to social to open your eyes to content themes your audience craves.