On day six of their mission, the Artemis II astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen made history by flying farther away from Earth than any humans have before – 252,756 miles, to be exact.
One of their more exciting objectives was to observe the surface of the dark side of the moon (and I don’t mean the vinyl grooves of the Pink Floyd album).
Fun fact: We Earthbound humans only see one side of the moon at any given time because it remains tidally locked to the Earth.
The far side of the moon can only be observed by human eyes through manned spaceflight, which the Artemis II crew completed last Monday (6 April 2026). Together, they analysed the surface, took some pics, named a couple of craters, and returned home.
It was a huge effort, but the data they collected makes future missions, like a seventh Moon landing and the first-ever voyage to Mars, possible.
When it comes to content marketing, I’m not suggesting you fork out $4.1 billion and shoot your fellow advisers and paraplanners into space to seek out your company’s blind spots.
But putting in the effort now to identify your strategy’s weak points can help you improve the overall efficacy of your content, whether that’s to:
- Improve client retention
- Boost referrals
- Enhance traffic and conversion rates.
Here are some tips on how you can discover the far side of your content marketing.
1. Revisit your content marketing goals
As time goes on, it’s easy to lose sight of your content marketing objectives.
Business needs can get in the way and soak up your time and attention. Or maybe early success caused you to loosen your grip on your content marketing strategy, only to find that it has run in a completely different direction later on.
Losing sight of your content strategy goals is often the first step to creating blind spots with content marketing. Therefore, a review is a natural first port of call.
For example, if your goal was to acquire 50 new clients in a specific timeframe, did your content marketing help you achieve this objective?
If not, why? Maybe the content focused too much on placating existing clients instead of prospective ones or discussed topics that failed to grab attention.
Whatever the problem, understanding your goals in tandem with your current content marketing can help you discover any potential blind spots and make steps to rectify them.
2. Look at the data
The numbers don’t lie, but they’re easy to overlook.
Data is one of the most convenient and accurate ways of spotting content marketing blind spots. Using software like Google Analytics, you can discover a plethora of useful information about your content strategy.
This includes:
- Open rates
- Click-through rates (CTR)
- Click-to-open rates (CTOR)
- Top-performing articles
- Unsubscribes
- Hard bounces vs soft bounces
This data can determine whether your content marketing strategy is hitting the spot or whether you need to shake things up a bit.
For example, if your numbers are low, you can use your top-performing articles to discover what your clients want to read and then angle your strategy to cover topics within this ballpark.
If you’re a Yardstick client using our newsletter service, we send you a detailed report after each campaign, so you don’t have to hunt for the data yourself.
3. Check out the competition
As with any business, it’s always good sense to check on what your competitors are producing, particularly if they are seeing results from their marketing.
Look at the content they put out on their website and compare it to your own. What tone are they conveying? What topics do they discuss? What is the frequency of their articles?
If there are any gaps, this can inform the direction of your content marketing strategy.
Remember, it’s not about copying their content, but using it as inspiration for your own. Assess their strengths and weaknesses to refine your own strategy.
Competitor benchmarking can also save you a lot of the legwork by borrowing some of the effort that they have made in refining their own content strategy.
4. Look for a different perspective
When you’re stuck on the ground, it’s often difficult to identify your blind spots.
At Yardstick, we take an Artemis II approach to content marketing, observing your strategy from a new angle to identify and counter your weaknesses using a bespoke plan.
Together, we will:
- Get to know your business and goals
- Identify your target clients and establish personas
- Conduct a comprehensive review of your existing marketing
- Agree on key messages and benchmarks
- Produce a plan to achieve your goals.
If you’d like to know more about how we can help you shine a light on the dark side of your content marketing, get in touch by emailing us at hi@theyardstickagency.co.uk or calling 0115 8965 300 today.
