The Global Content Impact IndexMeasuring Content from Some of the Best Brands in the World

20,000,000 sentences

150,000 public-facing web pages

340 companies

40 industries

31 countries

1 Content Impact Index

March 2015

1

In January 2015, Acrolinx launched a

research project to read and evaluate

the world’s content. Using a proprietary

linguistic analytics engine, our software

reviewed 150,000 individual, public-facing

web pages from 340 companies around

the world. That represents 20 million

sentences and over 160 million words.

Content marketing is one of the highest

priorities for today’s marketers, with

growth rates for content development and

distribution skyrocketing. According to the

Content Marketing Institute, for example,

70 percent of marketers are investing more

in content marketing than ever before.1

A recent research report from global market

intelligence firm IDC further underscores the

point, noting that “building out content

marketing as an organizational competency”

is one of CMOs’ most important initiatives,

second only to measuring ROI.2

Although over the past few years content

marketing has rapidly cemented its

position among CMOs as a strategic

priority, it’s still just beginning to emerge

from its infancy. In fact, most leading

indicators suggest that the industry still

has a long way to go to reach maturity.

One of the most revealing of them is how

content marketers view their own work.

As recently as October 2014, for example,

only 42 percent of B2B marketers thought

their content was effective, while among

B2C marketers, confidence rates were

even lower at just 34 percent.3

When it comes to explaining this

underwhelming performance, the

marketing community often cites a lack

of strategy as the main culprit. In fact,

according to research from Altimeter

Group, 70 percent of marketers lack a

consistent or integrated content strategy.4

But that’s only part of the problem. After all,

even the very best strategy won’t translate into

effective content if your writing isn’t very good.

1 The Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs, “Content Marketing Budgets, Benchmarks and Trends,” October 2014.2 IDC, “What Is Content Marketing? One of Marketing’s Most Critical New Competencies,” November 2014.3 The Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs, “Content Marketing Budgets, Benchmarks and Trends,” October 2014.4 Altimeter Group, “The 2014 State of Digital Transformation,” July 2014.

70 percent of marketers are investing more in content marketing, but most aren’t satisfied with

the effectiveness of their content.

2

This is an obvious but nevertheless

important point because it’s often

overlooked. Many marketers simply count

on the sheer quantity of their output or

their ability to amplify their messages

through new tools and technologies to

save the day. That approach may work for

a short time, but it’s not a winning solution

over the long term. The key to creating

successful content that achieves a desired

impact is ensuring that it’s really good, and

that starts with the quality of the writing.

When attention to quality is overlooked,

things tend to fall apart quickly. Consider,

for example, that according to a survey by

translation service provider Global Lingo,

74 percent of respondents are conscious

of the quality of spelling and grammar on

company websites. Of them, 59 percent

indicated that bad grammar and careless

spelling mistakes would prevent them from

making a purchase from a website because

they wouldn’t trust the company to provide

good service.5 How’s that for the impact of

content quality on effectiveness?

Not only does content quality impact

audience perceptions, search engines like

Google and Bing are just as unforgiving.

Bing’s Duane Forrester notes, for example,

that “just as you’re judging others’ writing,

so the engines judge yours. If you struggle

to get past typos, why would an engine

show a page of content with errors higher

in the rankings when other pages of

content exist to serve the searcher?”

Of course, content quality is about a lot more

than just spelling and grammar. It’s also

determined by other critically important,

and yet often overlooked factors, like style,

tone, and clarity, which are just as essential

to engage your audience, build trust, and

create a better overall customer experience.

It was against this backdrop that Acrolinx

launched this research initiative focused on

measuring content quality. For this initial

report, we used our linguistic analytics

software to evaluate the content from 340

companies spanning a variety of industries,

from retail and financial services, to

aerospace and automotive, to high tech

5 Global Lingo, Research Report, November 2013.

Content quality matters. According to a recent survey, 59 percent of respondents said that bad grammar and spelling mistakes would prevent them from

purchasing from a website.

3

and manufacturing. We focused on larger

organizations with more than $250 million

in annual revenue, most of which are brands

you will be familiar with, such as Gucci,

Exxon Mobil, and Harley-Davidson. We also

looked at various types of content, including

marketing and customer support content

as well as corporate communications and

technical product content.

We evaluated and scored the content

based on its quality and clarity and

established benchmark targets based on

best practices. Collectively, this data forms

our Global Content Impact Index, which we

are introducing in the pages that follow and

that we will update and extend on a quarterly

basis going forward. Creating this index is

our way of casting a light on a very important

yet often underappreciated aspect of content

marketing: the value of creating engaging,

impactful content.

OUR APPROACH

We evaluated the overall quality of the

content by analyzing it across two main

dimensions: grammar and style. To assess

a company’s grammar usage, we examined

its content against best practices for

standard grammar conventions and then

calculated how many errors it contained

on average per 1,000 words. Examples of

the types of issues we looked for include

subject/verb agreement and use of

pronouns and double negatives.

Similarly, we evaluated each company’s

style based on 62 separate rules and

writing practices (the kind that you find in

The Chicago Manual of Style) and on our

years of linguistic experience.

Our software looked at the companies’

use of language and structure to identify a

variety of style issues.

Next we looked at clarity, which is a

measure of how easy a piece of content

is to read and understand — something

that’s particularly important when you’re

trying to communicate complex ideas. We

evaluated the clarity of each company’s

content by looking at various factors, such

as sentence length, structural complexity,

and word choice.

As part of our analysis, we gave each

company a score for quality and clarity

using a 100-point scale. Using a proprietary

algorithm, we then used these results to

derive an overall content impact score

for each company — a measure of how

effective we believe that their writing is. In

our more than a decade of experience, we

have determined that companies need to

achieve an overall content impact score of

72 or higher in order for their content to

be effective. As we’ll see, most companies

have not yet reached that level of content

sophistication.

4

A Connection Between Content Quality and Alexa Rankings?

In addition to our own content scoring, we looked at an external measure of content performance — Alexa website rankings. Among the companies we reviewed, we found that those with the highest content impact scores saw on average a 22 percent improvement in their Alexa rankings over the past six months. Conversely, the companies with the lowest content impact scores saw on average a 9 percent decrease in their rankings over the same time period (see Figure 1). Admittedly, many factors go into computing a website’s Alexa score, but it’s an interesting observation nonetheless.

Figure 1 Alexa Website Rankings – Six-Month Trends

Oct ‘14 Dec ‘14 Jan ‘15 Oct ‘14 Feb ‘15 Mar ‘15

Sample from companies with

low content impact scores

Sample from companies with

high content impact scores

5

A LOOK AT THE RESULTS

Among the 340 companies whose website

content we evaluated, overall content impact

scores ranged from 55 through 85 points as

shown in Figures 2 and 3, representing a

substantial variance. Importantly, only

31 percent of those companies reached or

exceeded our target benchmark score of 72.

Based on this data we see that despite the

growing adoption of content marketing glob-

ally, maturity levels differ significantly. And,

considering that more than two-thirds of the

companies we reviewed (69 percent) had an

overall content impact score of below 72,

we believe there’s a tremendous need for

content marketers to renew their focus on

improving content quality and clarity.

Figure 2Scatter Plot of Content Impact Scores

by Company

85

65

80

60

75

55

70

50Im

pact

Sco

reIndividual Companies

Figure 3Content Impact Score Distribution

Num

ber

of C

ompa

nies

50-55

160

80

140

60

120

40

100

20

0

Impact Score56-60 61-65 66-71 72-80 80-90

Companies need an overall content impact score

of 72 or higher for their content to be effective.

Most of the companies we reviewed didn’t

meet or exceed this threshold.

6

Analyzing the data from a regional and

industry perspective further underscores

that this is a global problem. As Figure 4

shows, while content quality tends to be

relatively consistent from region to region

(with scores of 69.5 for the Americas; 69.8

for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa; and

68.1 for Asia Pacific), they’re all below the

72 point benchmark.

It’s a similar story when you look at the

industry breakdowns with one exception —

the retail sector — earning a score of 73.2.

It’s important to point out that these findings

are preliminary. As we accumulate more

data, our intent is to refine, update, and

expand this index on a quarterly basis,

offering new and more detailed insights in

future installments of this report.

Figure 4Content Impact Scores by Region and Industry

Americas 69.5 �High 85.7 �Low 49.3

US 70.2

EMEA 69.8 �High 85.7 �Low 54.6

Germany 70.2 France 69.6

UK 67.4APAC 68.1�High 81.6�Low 57.6

Australia 66.9

Industry Scores

Retail 73.2

Fashion 71.3

B2B Tech 71.2

Banking 69.8

Automotive 68.1

Manufacturing 68.0

Food & Beverage 67.5

Telecom 66.2

7

While our objective at this stage isn’t to call out specific top-performing companies, we did

want to showcase a few examples of companies that are creating high-quality, readable

content that we believe is extremely effective. These companies include:

American department store Kohl’s has clearly taken care to create content with a warm,

friendly, and inviting style:

“Enjoy a refreshed and refurbished home with home decor and furniture from Kohl’s! Whether

you’re overhauling your space or just tweaking your home’s design, you’re sure to find pieces

and accents in the styles you want. From feminine shabby chic to more masculine sleek and

modern, Kohl’s home furnishings add color, texture and function to your home.”

Another top performer, Caterpillar, is a company that’s known for implementing

content strategy on a massive scale. Despite the high-tech engineering detail that their

content needs to communicate, the company excels at connecting its technology with

specific needs as seen in this recent blog post.

“Like much of the northeastern United States, the town of Afton, New York, has been buried —

literally — with snow this winter. Good thing the community has a new Cat® CT681 Vocational

Truck on the job. ‘The town wanted to borrow it for the Christmas parade,’ says Kirk Hoyt, the

truck’s operator. ‘We said they couldn’t — we were using it to plow snow!’”

8

From Down Under, National Australia Bank provides a great example of how financial

services firms can go beyond the numbers to provide practical advice for their audience.

“Think of your car like your body — would you carry a backpack if you didn’t need to? Of course

not: it’d make you tired, thirsty, grumpy and give you a sore back. Your car’s the same — the

more weight it carries, the more fuel it uses (and the more wear and tear there is on tyres, the

chassis and suspension). The long-term effects mean a rest break at the mechanic, and more

money spent on maintenance.”

European mobile carrier EE also provides an excellent example of an engaging,

conversational tone. In the “Clever New Tech” section of its site you’ll find content like this:

“Tech should make your life simpler, faster, more entertaining. It should make you fitter,

happier, smarter. And most importantly it should be exciting and fun. So what are you waiting

for? Make friends with tech and unleash a digital you with more amazing possibilities.”

9

IS YOUR CONTENT YOUR COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE OR YOUR DOWNFALL?

Although content has proven itself to be a critically important component of successful

marketing in today’s online world, all too often companies are sacrificing the quality of

their content for quantity. As we’ve seen, most of the 340 companies we reviewed as part

of our initial look at global content quality are producing content that doesn’t measure up.

We believe those companies, and the countless others just like them, will be handicapped

if they don’t start paying more attention to their content quality.

In upcoming editions of this report, we will take a much deeper dive into various aspects

of content quality as part of our ongoing goal to help companies create better content.

www.acrolinx.com