In recent years, electronic documents have emerged as powerful tools for engaging customers and prospects with relevant, compelling and informative content. Today's businesses are distributing literally millions of brochures, data sheets, case studies, white papers and research reports online in the PDF file format.
The lack of commonly used processes and technology solutions for measuring the behaviour of document readers has made it difficult for these businesses to assess how effectively their documents are performing. Consequently, many companies are finding it extremely difficult to effectively manage their content distribution campaigns.
What is reader behavior?
The term "reader behavior" refers to how readers consume and interact with content. This includes the behaviour of a document's total readership (as a group) and the behaviour of individual readers within documents. To get a complete picture of how well any given document is doing its job, a company must measure all aspects of reader behaviour.
When measuring the overall behaviour of a document's readership, a company might gather statistics such as
- Total number of readers who opened the document
- Average number of pages viewed by readers
When measuring the behaviour of an individual reader within the document, a company might gather statistics on
- When the reader opens and closes the document
- How long the reader spends on particular pages
What are the benefits to measuring reader behavior?
By measuring reader behaviour in detail, a company can gather metrics on how effectively its content is engaging customers and prospects. This reader engagement data can help the company to truly realize the full potential of its electronic documents.
For example, a company that measures reader behaviour might
- Discover which parts of its documents most engage a particular market sector
- Be empowered to target future content more precisely
What does reader engagement data look like?
Reader engagement data may include
- How far into a document readers go
- How many readers are opening the document more than once
- How often readers are sharing the document with friends and colleagues
What is reader engagement data used for?
The more closely a company monitors reader behavior, the more precisely it will able to fine tune the performance of its documents for maximum return on investment. Gathering reader engagement data can empower a company to adjust all aspects of its documents (including text, images and layout) to improve the effectiveness of its content.
The following example illustrates how a company might use reader behavior data to optimize the performance of its content
A market research company publishes a report featuring a large number of charts and tables. The company observes that, when these figures are placed together in a single block, most readers only get as far as the charts and tables before closing the document.
The company revises the document, distributing the figures more evenly throughout the text. This ensures that readers remain engaged through the entire document and receive the full benefit of the content – increasing the likelihood that they will purchase future reports.
Docmetrics: Measure and Optimize Your Marketing Content
Vitrium Systems has designed the docmetrics system to fulfill the need for technology that allows companies to measure the behaviour of PDF document readers. To learn more about the web-based docmetrics system and how it can benefit your business, simply click on the link below.
Learn More About Docmetrics
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