In the first post in this series, I suggested a three-part framework for answering a question I hear frequently from JD Supra clients: How is our content doing?
The first part of that framework looked at quantity: are we publishing enough?
My answer, in short: enough for what? There is no universally correct publishing cadence because frequency only becomes meaningful when you consider what you're writing about, what your audience needs, how crowded the field is, and what you're trying to accomplish. Which brings us to the second part of our content audit:
This seems like another question with a straightforward answer. If you work with clients in a particular industry and you write about issues that matter to that industry, are people in that sector reading your work? If yes: excellent. That's an important result to share internally.
But what if the answer is no? Or, what if the answer is: not exactly — but someone else is?
That's when your “readership” content audit gets interesting.
Imagine that your life sciences attorneys publish a series about an emerging intellectual property issue with the goal of reaching biotech investors. You look at your reader data and discover that the work isn't earning much attention from that audience. Instead, you're seeing significant readership from people working in higher education. It’s time to start asking questions.
First, why aren't we reaching the people we intended to reach?
Look closely at the content. Does the writing address the practical concerns of biotech investors, or is it principally explaining a legal development? Does the opening make clear what is at stake for that audience? Are the takeaways useful to the decisions those readers actually have to make?
Don't overlook your titles. If you want biotech investors to read your article, have you given them any reason to recognize themselves as the intended audience? Compare
New Developments in Intellectual Property Protection
with
What Biotech Investors Should Know About [Development]
... an intentionally simple example, but the point matters. One title identifies a legal subject. The other identifies a reader and begins to answer that reader's most important question:
Why should I care?
For JD Supra clients, this is a good moment to look beyond your own work. Using Beacon Insights within your analytics, look at what else is earning attention with readers in the subject or industry you're trying to reach. How are successful authors framing their work? What do their titles tell you about the intended audience? How quickly do they establish why the development matters?
Don't simply copy what works. Look for the differences and bring those observations back to your author. Now you have something far more useful for your next editorial conversation than: We need better readership.
The message: I don't think we're making the audience or the stakes clear enough. Let's try something different in our editorial framing.
That's an actionable conclusion from a content audit.
Why are those higher-education readers showing up? Perhaps university administrators and counsel are encountering the same IP issue because of research and commercialization happening on their campuses. Maybe technology transfer, licensing, university-industry partnerships, or ownership of research-related IP makes your lawyers' analysis relevant to an audience nobody had considered when the series began. I don't know the answer — and that's precisely the point.
Unexpected readership should generate questions before it generates conclusions.
Talk to your attorneys. Do they understand why this issue might matter to that sector? Do we already have clients there? Does another practice group at the firm serve universities? Could the subject be reframed specifically for that audience? Is there enough interest to justify a follow-up article, webinar, client conversation, or even a more sustained content effort?
The unexpected audience may turn out to be irrelevant, but it may also be the market telling you something you didn't know to ask.
Years ago, one of our clients noticed that content on a developing legal issue was earning unusually strong readership from legal teams at regional telecommunications companies. That wasn't simply an interesting number to put in a report, it prompted action.
The firm recognized that people in this sector clearly cared about the issue and shifted into a targeted email campaign to clients in regional telecoms, putting useful analysis directly in front of people for whom the data had already demonstrated a need. This led to new work from those existing clients.
That's the mindset to bring to an audit of readership. Target audience = good; other audience = bad is much too blunt a way to interpret reader data. Sometimes an unexpected reader is a clue to your next audience. Your primary question:
“What opportunity does this represent?”
Another useful way to audit audience success is to think about where different readership metrics sit in your marketing and business development funnel.
Start at the top with visibility.
Total reads is a foundational metric, and it has an important job to do. Being able to report that your thought leadership on data center issues reached 100,000 readers last quarter is meaningful. You are trying to build visibility around an area of expertise, and reach helps you understand whether that is happening.
But as you move down the funnel, your questions should become more specific.
Who were those readers?
Which industries showed the greatest interest? Which companies? Were you read by organizations already on the practice group's target list? Existing clients? Prospective clients? Referral sources? Media? Were particular topics disproportionately popular within an industry you care about?
And then:
What did they do?
Did people from a strategically important company return to the same piece? Are multiple people at one organization reading your work? Did someone follow the author or firm? Share the article? Is an existing client reading your content about an area in which the firm doesn't currently serve them?
The farther down the funnel you travel, the smaller the numbers may become — and the more strategically interesting individual signals can become.
A hundred thousand reads can tell firm leadership: the market is seeing our new practice.
Repeated readership from people at one target company can tell a BD team: something here has their attention.
Those are different measures answering different questions for different stakeholders within your firm. All matter.
Say someone at a financial services company reads one of your cybersecurity posts. Ask:
Do we already work with this company?
If yes, do we serve them on cybersecurity matters? If not, this may be useful intelligence for the relationship team. You don't need to turn a reader signal into an awkward sales call. You can use it to make the next client conversation better informed: We're seeing a lot of interest in this issue right now. Is this something your team is thinking about?
If you don't work with the company, is it a prospect? Has anyone at the firm pitched them before? Does someone have a relationship there? Is it in the CRM? Then zoom out:
Is this one company, or does the broader industry care about the issue?
Filter your reader data to look specifically at financial services. Are other organizations in the sector engaging with the same subject? Is this part of a larger pattern?
Go wider still. Beacon Insights dashboards let you move beyond readership of your own firm's work and look at what readers across JD Supra are engaging with in particular industries, companies, and subjects.
Now you're no longer asking only, Who read our cybersecurity article? You're asking: What cybersecurity issues are financial-services readers interested in right now? What are they reading across the market? Are there needs appearing in the wider data that our content isn't addressing yet?
That is a powerful content-strategy question. It might lead to your next article, or a series, or a webinar, or something for a client team to raise in its next meeting.
There's another step in an audience audit that's easy to overlook:
Who inside the firm needs to know what you've learned?
The answer will vary with the signal. If you find strong readership in an industry the firm is actively targeting, share it with the BD professional responsible for that sector.
If an existing client is reading about a service the firm doesn't currently provide to them, alert the relationship partner.
If a journalist or trade publication is engaging with an author's work, tell your PR team.
If one author's work is suddenly finding an audience in a new industry, tell the author — and ask why.
If multiple people at a target company are reading a particular subject, make sure the people responsible for that relationship or opportunity know.
This is one reason I like our Reader Highlight emails. They surface notable engagement as it happens — a reader at a particular company or in a particular industry engaging with a specific piece of thought leadership — so the information can reach the people who might act on it while the interest is current.
The goal isn't to admire a dashboard. It's to hear the voice of the market and decide who inside your firm needs to hear it too.
1. Pick one important piece of content and audit who actually read it
Choose a recent article or series written with a specific audience in mind. In your JD Supra analytics, look at the reader data and filter it by industry. Did you reach the audience you expected? If yes, quantify that success and share it internally. Then ask what else those readers engaged with and what you might publish next.
If the intended audience is missing, don't stop at disappointment. Look again at the title, opening paragraphs, topic focus and practical takeaways. Is the intended reader obvious? Is what is at stake for that reader clear? Compare your approach against popular work reaching the same audience and identify one thing you can test in the next publication.
2. Investigate one audience you didn't expect
Find an industry or company appearing in your readership that makes you say, Why are they reading this?
Follow that question. Look at which articles they read and what subjects connect them. Ask your attorneys and BD colleagues why the issue might matter to that sector. If you have access to a relevant Beacon Insights report, look at the wider interests of readers in that industry or company across JD Supra.
Then decide whether you've found noise — or an opportunity worth testing. If it's the latter, write specifically for that audience and see what happens.
3. Share one useful reader signal internally
Look through your Readers Report or recent Reader Highlights email and identify one piece of information somebody else should know.
A client reading outside the area in which you serve them? Send it to the relationship partner. A target industry repeatedly engaging with one author's work? Send it to the sector BD lead. A journalist reading a niche topic? Send it to PR. Several readers at a prospective client engaging with the same issue? Make sure the pitch or client-development team knows.
Don't simply report the data. Include the question it raises: Is this worth a conversation? Is there a follow-up we should publish? Does this tell us something new about what this client, company, or market needs?
That's how analytics becomes intelligence, and intelligence becomes action. Which brings us to the final part of this content audit. We've asked Are we publishing enough? We've asked Are the right people reading us?
Next, we put those answers alongside the firm's actual priorities and ask the question that ultimately matters:
Is our content supporting where the business wants to go? Stay tuned for part three...
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Paul Ryplewski is JD Supra’s VP of Client Services.