It's that time of year again when many of the marketers and business development folks I work with tell me that they're readying reports of annual marketing metrics to be shared with executive committees, partners, and their firms at large.
When it comes to showing the impact of thought leadership for the year, I always recommend to go beyond total numbers and report on the firm's visibility in specific areas in order to start internal conversations 
that tie your content investment to strategic initiatives and business development objectives.
How?
Include metrics about your firm's top readership within industries and companies, as well as your top subjects for the year, in your annual recap. Thanks to Beacon Insights on JD Supra, that's super easy to do.
For JD Supra clients:
- Log into JD Supra and click to "View Analytics"
- On your analytics dashboard, look for the Beacon Insights module on the right of the page, reporting top industries, companies, and subjects
- Click on any item in these reports for more information, including lists of top authors, topics, content, and readers per category
Doubtless, partners and other internal stakeholders will be interested in seeing the total visibility earned by all of your thought leaders during the year (as reflected by "total views of your work" in your analytics dashboard), but don't stop there. As I said above, by also framing your metrics around engagement in key companies, industries, and subjects, your annual report becomes the start of an internal, strategic conversation about your content efforts at large. And that is a smart way to start the new year!
And, of course, if you'd like deeper access to premium reports on key industries, companies, and subjects within Beacon Insights, let me know. Fill in the contact form to the right of this page.
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[This post appeared originally as a JD Supra Tip of the Week, emailed each Thursday morning by VP of client service, Paul Ryplewski. Clients: to receive Paul's tips by email, log into your account dashboard and select Tip of the Week on your Subscriptions page. ]
