We’re Bringing Data to Downloadable Content With a New Acquisition

Contently is five years old now, and it’s incredibly fulfilling to see how far we’ve come—moving out of our tiny co-working space to an office that was “ours,” landing a massive chunk of the Fortune 500 as Contently customers, and hiring an executive team that would make even a seasoned entrepreneur weep with happiness.

Today I’m pleased to announce that we’ve crossed another milestone off the list: We’ve acquired our first company, Docalytics.

What is Docalytics?

The short story is that Docalytics is a technology company based in St. Paul, Minn., that provides sales and marketing teams with detailed data on how people engage with downloadable content like PDFs and sales materials.

The slightly longer version is that they’re a company of incredibly talented engineers as well. We knew we wanted to work with them right away. (Well, after seeing their product… and then getting to know them in an old-school Minnesota bowling alley.) Not because we go around wanting to acquire every company we come across, but because it was obvious that we’re a perfect match.

Why we’re excited

This acquisition launches the next phase of Contently and shifts how we’ll be working to influence the content industry as a whole.

Now more than ever, we stand behind our mission to make the media world a better place—to support freelance creatives, to empower brands, and to produce better content for everyday people. We still believe that great stories build relationships. But we understand that creating an organization propelled by great content marketing is a big investment, and brands need hard numbers to prove that their investment is paying off. Downloadable content has always been a key part of content marketing—especially for B2B brands—but until now, there hasn’t been a way to see how potential customers are interacting with that content.

That’s where our acquisition of Docalytics comes into play. Integrating Docalytics into our software will allow Contently customers to track engagement on downloadable content, thereby getting a deeper understanding of how well their content investment is paying off.

Smarter decisions around content

Our brand clients use content to achieve a diverse set of business objectives, ranging from brand awareness to conversions to driving new revenue streams. These goals need to be tracked with metrics beyond engagement time, metrics that measure exactly how leads are generated and converted.

In the words of the Ninja Turtles’ wise Master Splinter, “What you know is dangerous to your enemy; what you think you know is dangerous to yourself.” In other words, when it comes to content marketing, brands can’t compete if they’re basing decisions on guesswork. Contently Analytics helps brands remove this guesswork from their content marketing. It includes features like contributor analytics, benchmarks that compare content across brands, and data-driven recommendations in one centralized location. Now, with Docalytics, we’ve added the ability to track downloadable and emailed content. No one else does that.

We’re also welcoming aboard the members of Docalytics’ incredibly talented team. They’ll operate as employees of our new Midwest office, focused on continuing to grow our engineering team and Midwest sales efforts.

For our clients, this means:

• Key features added to the Contently platform, including the ability to track downloadable content, optimize lead capture forms, and integrate with marketing automation, CRM, and email marketing platforms.
• One centralized location for tracking, managing, and optimizing content production and performance.
• Understanding what content works to generate and convert more leads, helping both sales and marketing teams tie revenue directly to content.
• Flexible lead forms, which improve retention throughout the lead funnel and increase lead conversion rates.
• A larger product development team building and rolling out new features even faster than before.

Content everywhere

With our newly integrated software, we’re building what we’re calling “content everywhere” capabilities. This is centered around the concept that brands not only need to create great content on their own site, but they also need to be where their audiences are, from YouTube to email to LinkedIn.

This means integrating with the marketing systems that connect to these channels, and building a channel-specific experience for each step of the content process. Docalytics is supporting this by enhancing our integrations and our understanding of how specific pieces of content perform on each channel.

The ink just finished drying on the deal, but our engineers have been busy working hard on seamlessly integrating Docalytics into Contently Analytics. We’ll be making updates as we continue to build, but here’s a preview of what it’ll look like when it goes live in March. Notice the in-depth measurement of downloadable assets, including a heatmap, a breakdown of engagement by each page, downloads, sends, prints, and more.

Looking ahead

We think that enterprise companies will use content across every department, not just marketing. We’re seeing it already. We have clients using our platform to power high-level thought leadership content that supports brand awareness (PR), clients sharing bottom-funnel content to convert leads (sales), and clients using content to retain existing customers and help those customers succeed (account management).

Departments like HR, corporate comms, PR, and investor relations are using content to build relationships and meet business goals, and we’re building our technology to fill this need.

The Contently platform already supports sales teams that use content to build relationships, but we can do even more to help them use content as a tool. Docalytics is an important part of this sales enablement, as it helps track the success of content once it’s been downloaded or emailed.

One new company, one new celebrity pig

Along with Docalytics’ amazing software, Contently is also gaining access to YouTube sensation Hamlet the Minipig, who’s managed by Docalytics CTO Ryan Morlok. Hamlet, who has appeared on The Today Show and 30 Rock, will lead Contently’s influencer marketing efforts.

With our original to-do list officially completed (plus one celebrity pig), it’s time for us to tackle a whole new set of crazy dreams. We’ll be rolling out plenty more exciting news over the next few months. Without giving away too much, I can tell you that we’ll be continuing to build smart technology, doing it with integrity, and having some fun along the way.