The start of the year is a time for reflection, so it only seems fitting that we at Uberflip share with you, our fellow marketers, what we learned about content over the past year. We hereby present to you our ​​insights from 2021. *crowd roars*

With the use of our trusty Uberflip Analytics, we took a look back at our content over the past 12 months to give us leverage when creating future content. Insights like these help us maximize our reach, and improve visibility.

Now, without further ado, here are our top five insights from 2021.

1. We insist on a list

Before we even dive into this, disclaimer alert! We’re not here to talk about clickbait lists. Your content needs to be valuable to your audience, with helpful and relevant information. Now, although this heading might be a bit of a joke, the results are not. We saw that 20% of our most viewed content over the past year was in listicle form and included a number in the title. Of the 20%, all the items appeared in the top 25, and two were in the top 5. Not only that, but our data also showed that applying the numeral instead of the word performed better, with the added benefit of using fewer characters. 

2. Know your audience

It’s likely you read this title and said to yourself, of course, I know my audience. But we challenge you. Do you really? Do you know what they eat for breakfast in the morning? No, because that would be super creepy! But let’s be serious for a moment: do you know what content the different segments of your audience are looking at most?

Through the use of Uberflip Analytics Enrichment, we discovered that the type of content those with CEO, CMO, or COO as their job title looked at most were ebooks (39%) closely followed by blog posts (31%), and then video (29%). The best-viewed content for this sector were guides and reports focused on understanding the customer journey and how to improve it. This really reflects how executives value content: something data-driven that will help guide high-level strategies rather than tactical execution.

Now, if we look at those with Manager in their job title, the top-viewed type of content was blog posts (38%), followed by video (36%), and then ebooks (26%). The most-viewed content here was educational, including how-to guides and case studies. 

Gaining insights like this can help you ensure you're providing the right content for your audience and putting it in the format that resonates with them the most.

3. Knowledge is power

We know you've all heard this phrase before but stick with us here. There are some valuable nuggets to be gleaned. We've learned that customers are visiting brands to get actionable content; something they can use right away or that provides a solution to their pain(s). How do we know this? Twenty percent of our most-viewed content over the past year was educational. It showed the reader how to do something specific. These were how-to articles and guides, or content that provided concrete examples of how to do something specific. You need to know what your audience cares about, and then leverage this to deliver that information in the way they want to receive it.

4. Sales vs. marketing

Now, while sales and marketing are actually a team (and we stick by our opinion: sales and marketing need to work together), when it comes to what sales audiences engage with vs. marketing audiences, it's vital to know what engages each the most. Our marketing stream shows that our marketing audiences engaged most with video (46%), followed by blog posts (42%), finishing with ebooks (11%). The marketing audience's top 10 most-viewed items were educational. They focused on Uberflip and addressed best practices, personalization, campaign destinations, and building demand generation experiences.

For sales audiences, we saw a slightly different trend. They engaged with blog posts most (58%) and ebooks were the second most popular (28%), followed by video (14%). Topics in the sales audiences' top 10 most-viewed items focused around Uberflip, its customer stories, and use cases. The helpful thing about this kind of insight is it gives us an idea of what content different audiences want and engage with most. Not only does it help when building a stream, but when we create the content, it can help guide us as to what the most useful content will be, both in format and style.

5. Keep on top of your hygiene

This isn’t a personal attack, don't worry; we're talking about hub hygiene. You know, search engines factor the age and history of items into their search rankings. Yes, your old content may still be getting views. But beware… your old content may still be getting views! It could be great or could be a scary thought. This is why, if you want to benefit your SEO, we urge you to consider a refresh or retire strategy for your content vs. creating new stuff. 

Fun fact: we discovered only 9% of our top 100 most-viewed pieces of content over the past year was actually created in 2021. This just shows the importance of refreshing your old content, if 91% of content being viewed is our older content, we need to make sure it’s still up to date and relevant to both our branding and our customer pain points of today.

Stepping into 2022

While these teachings are from our content pieces, we encourage you to test and leverage your own insights. We shared ours with you, so don't be shy; let us know what you've learned about your content from 2021.