Introducing Analytics for PDFs (and More!)

Brands produce a lot of content, and Contently is no exception. Much of it goes on this blog, but as any marketer worth their lead funnel knows, there’s a whole universe of downloadable content (like sales decks, PDFs, and case studies) that lives elsewhere.

This is what we tend to call middle- and lower-funnel content—the stuff we use to get people interested enough in our software to become brand advocates and, eventually, clients. But while our engagement analytics suite gives us an accurate sense of what people are interested in on The Content Strategist, until recently we didn’t have a clear picture of how well our middle- and lower-funnel downloads performed.

To solve that, we launched Contently’s newest product, Docalytics.

What is it?

Docalytics is a first-of-its-kind content measurement tool that allows us to take a look inside our downloadable assets. Page-by-page engagement analytics tell us which topics are most engaging for specific audiences and provide insight on how to optimize content length, organization, and cadence.

By allowing us to measure everything from how much of a document someone read to heat maps of where they clicked to what pages drove the highest-quality conversions, we operate our marketing operations with a whole new set of data. Now, we can optimize our middle- and lower-funnel content based on detailed results, not just landing page conversions or email clicks.

It’s also a huge value-add for other departments—like our sales team, which can now know how much of a deck or case study a prospect read, and whether or not that prospect passed it along to any colleagues.

Ryan Morlock, our director of engineering at Contently, gives a brief rundown of how it works here:

Who’s using it?

A few dozen tiny brands you may have heard of, like Microsoft, PwC, and Guardian Life Insurance, among others. Microsoft’s team went so far as to call Document Analytics “groundbreaking.” (Thanks, guys! We think so too.)

Great, so what does it actually do?

Document Analytics helps marketers optimize their content in three specific ways.

1. It closely tracks downloadable content using:

• Page-by-page time-based engagement analytics on PDFs and decks.
• Heat maps that show exactly where readers click, hover, share, and skim.
• Analytics on social shares that show how your content resonates across different networks.

Here’s what it looks like to view multiple data points broken down by page. (We know, mind blown.)

2. It generates, captures, and converts higher-quality leads by:

• Embedding lead capture forms at any point with high engagement in the download—thus optimizing for high-quality lead capture.
• Integrating with marketing automation, CRM, and email marketing platforms.
• Allowing marketers to A/B test content on the fly, even after an asset has been downloaded.

3. It efficiently manages documents at scale by:

• Providing a centralized location for tracking, managing, and optimizing content production and performance.
• Using version control to optimize, correct, and tailor content that’s already been published.
• Pre-populating text for social sharing so you can control and standardize how your content is presented across all social networks.

I’m sold. How can I get this amazing technology?

Document Analytics is a free add-on for Contently’s enterprise customers, and non-enterprise customers can upgrade for less than the cost of this handmade stuffed tortoise doll.

If you’re not a Contently customer, our overzealous chief technology officer would like your number. But seriously, if this is something you think your brand needs, please reach out to us for more details.