InboundWriter Updates Its Content Management App
InboundWriter, a provider of predictive analytics for content, today announced its next-generation predictive analytics software for content. The software enables users to forecast how their content will perform based solely on an article topic or proposed headline, prior to any content development. It also suggests tightly-related topic alternatives with a higher probability of success for the publishing Web site, thereby providing simple and powerful guidance on how to craft the content for maximum impact online.
"InboundWriter's new predictive capabilities address major pain points for content marketers, digital publishers, and agencies in a way that constitutes a significant advancement in removing guesswork and inefficiencies from online content production," said Skip Besthoff, CEO of InboundWriter, in a statement. "We believe that we've not only answered the question, Why does most online content not perform?, but we've also developed a disruptive yet simple solution that removes key unknowns, such that online content performs as intended."
InboundWriter has completely revamped its software platform to focus entirely on topic research and ideation. The new Web-based application allows users to do the following:
- Identify the factors that determine the success of an article before it is written;
- Forecast expected performance of a given article topic in terms of the Web traffic it will drive to a given Web site;
- Suggest a menu of related, alternative topics that allow the user to balance editorial goals with expected performance;
- Provide precise guidance on title and content composition that will maximize impact yet not disrupt the writing process; and
- (For advanced users) Offer sophisticated analytics and data regarding the root cause of projected topic performance, including insights on reader demand for that content, competitive content, topic uniqueness/cannibalization, optimal content type for the given topic (multimedia, e-commerce, text-based, etc.), and more.
While sophisticated algorithms are operating on the back-end, the Web application’s user interface is very straightforward and intuitive -- a content producer simply enters the topic(s) of interest into InboundWriter and minutes later gets a score on a scale of one to 100 that indicates the topic’s ability to perform, along with supporting data and logic behind the score, and also alternative topic suggestions for consideration.
"The goal of the new InboundWriter platform is to bring science to the earliest stages of content planning such that the natural writing workflow and creative process are not disrupted," Besthoff added.
The InboundWriter score and recommendations are most relevant for content developed with the explicit purpose of driving traffic to a website, such as evergreen content (reviews, how-to guides, feature stories, profiles, etc.). When content has another purpose, such as news reporting, communicating a specific message, or taking a stance on an industry issue that is necessary for the brand, the message may be more important than the traffic it generates. However, the software can still help manage expectations and balance trade-offs by providing a data-based forecast regarding how the content is likely to perform, prior to investing significant resources into writing, publishing and promotion.
InboundWriter has verified the accuracy of its predictive analytics model for content by running more than 20 pilots with enterprise and media organizations in an invite-only beta program. The Web traffic and related metrics in the pilots were closely aligned with the software's projections.
"We have been participating in a pilot with InboundWriter, and the company's new predictive analytics capabilities are truly unprecedented in the digital publishing market," said Josh Smith, managing editor at GottaBeMobile.com, in a statement. "In comparing articles that leveraged InboundWriter topic recommendations versus a control group, we have seen a dramatic traffic increase with InboundWriter guided content."