It always comes back to metrics. We’ve written on which metrics matter, which ones might not, and there’s been extensive debate from others on the same topic. Digital publishers are investing to understand their metrics – the Association of Online Publishers found that 89% of their survey respondents planned to grow their investment in data technology in the coming year.
We’re not surprised; in fact, we’re encouraged, as organizations are starting to really understand the value in data. But a word of caution, if we may? Analytics can be a shiny fun tool to play with, but shiny fun tools can get boring after a while. If you aren’t using those numbers you capture to make better decisions, connect more with your readers, and improve your strategies – then it’s a wasted investment.
What’s one way to make sure you’re capitalizing on your analytics and data spend? Understanding what makes a reader loyal. While singular metrics can often be gamed - the gaming of page views is what has spawned much of alternative metrics discussions – reader loyalty can put all other metrics in context, and truly show you how valuable your audience thinks your content is.
Here’s a good way we like to think about reader loyalty in the context of other metrics: a car analogy. How do you judge a car? Depends what you want to get out of it, right? If you’re a NASCAR racer, you want very different things than if you are a mother of two on a budget. One might look at horsepower and weight, the other at safety features and MPG. Neither of these are incorrect metrics to evaluate the car on, they’re both in context of the goals of the driver. However – if that driver gets in once, and never wants to get back in, then that car hasn’t done its job.
Publishers have different goals as well. Some have content that needs readers to stop by just for a moment, get their info and leave. Some have longform, in-depth pieces that require readers to stick around. Others want socially viral content. But a good indicator that each of these publishers reached their goal is: did the reader come back again?
This month in our Authority Report, we examine loyalty of readers across our entire network of hundreds of publishers and billions of pageviews. The average site has 11% of their visitors returning more than once in a 30 period. (Download the full report here, and sign-up to receive future issues.)
That’s a metric we encourage publishers to rally around. We encourage them to invest in that metric. Understanding what those 11% read, do and see versus the other 89% could be the highest ROI you’ve seen yet.