What Should You Track to Know Which Content Actually Sells?

By Leland RedfieldUpdated Oct 23, 20268 min read

Views won't tell you which posts sell. A dancing TikTok video might get lots of views and zero leads. A carousel might get very few of everything, but the people who click on it are probably buyers. The only way to tell those two apart is a scorecard. Here's the one we use, and how to build yours.

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What numbers should a coach track to know which content sells?

Track the steps a stranger takes to become a customer. That's traffic from your main platform, how many of those people take your next step each week, how many become leads, how many buy, and how many stay. Five to 15 numbers. Then you match each week's moves to the posts you made that week.

Here's how Leland lays it out for our yoga YouTube business: "If we get YouTube views, that's good. And if we get YouTube views that join our email list, that's good. And if we get people that are on our email list that join a free trial, that's good. If they join the membership, that's good. And then if they continue with us, that's good."

Every one of those is a number. "So we have numbers that we track along that line. All of those."

Your business will look a little different. Leland's take: "Every business is a little bit different, but not really. You're going to have a traffic number." A coach might have discovery calls where we have free trials. A shop might have carts where we have members. The shape is the same.

What is a content scorecard?

Definition: A content scorecard is a short list of 5 to 15 numbers that shows whether your business is healthy and which of your posts are moving it. It runs from first view to paying customer. It isn't a dashboard of every stat. It's the few numbers you'd want handed to you if that's all you got.

Leland's test for it: "If you're stuck on an island and you need to know if your business is doing well, and a bird flies you a little piece of paper that has 15 numbers... Is your business healthy? Can you tell from those numbers?"

If you can't tell, you've got the wrong numbers, or not enough of them.

Everybody knows they should have a scorecard. Almost nobody does. Leland: "Even the ones I work with that know they should."

The 5 to 15 range isn't just ours, either. EOS Worldwide's Scorecard guide uses the same range: "Fewer than five and you are missing important signals. More than fifteen and the team drowns." They also keep thirteen weeks of history on one page, so you can see trends instead of one-off weeks.

Why don't views tell you which posts sell?

Because views only measure one step. A post can win on views and lose on everything after it. It can pull in people who were entertained, not people who want what you sell. Without the rest of the numbers, that post looks like your best one. With a scorecard, you can see it didn't move anything that pays.

Leland's warning: "A video might do well, which might move one aspect of the scorecard, but it also might ruin all the other ones."

That's the dancing TikTok problem. It gets views. It also "is going to destroy your brand," because it attracts the wrong crowd. The quiet carousel looks like a flop on views. On the scorecard, it might be your best seller.

We wrote the longer version of this in why viral videos get you zero leads.

How do you build a content scorecard?

Pick one platform, write down every step from that platform to a paying customer, and give each step a number you can count every week. Add a call to action on every post so people have a next step to take. Then check the numbers weekly and write down which posts went out that week.

Here's the order we'd do it in:

1. Pick one platform. "I would dial in on one platform first. You're going to have one platform that you want to go all in on."
2. Name the next step. Where should people go from that platform? For us, Instagram traffic goes to our community.
3. Count the weekly hop. "How many people will go from Instagram to [our community] each week?" That one number tells you a lot.
4. Write the rest of the trail. List each step after that, all the way to customers who stay. Stop at 15.
5. Put a call to action on everything. If a post doesn't point anywhere, it can't move a number.
6. Check it weekly. Note which posts went out. After a few weeks, the trends start to show.

Here's what ours looks like, so you have something to copy:

That's six numbers. Plenty of businesses never need more than ten.

How do you know which post moved the number?

You watch the trend line and look at what you posted the week it moved. One week your community sign-ups jump. You look back and see the post that went out that week. Do that for a couple of months and the pattern gets obvious. Some posts move the numbers that pay. Some only move views.

In Leland's words: "Over time, you see trends. That number moved up, that number moved down, and you'll see that number moved up because of this post, that number moved up because of this post. And now because you have a scorecard, you can actually filter your content and see what moves your business forward and what doesn't."

That's the whole point. You stop guessing which content works. You let the scorecard filter it.

It also changes how you make content. "Our whole actions are designed around manipulating that scorecard. That's why we have calls to action on everything." Every post on Instagram, and every other platform, is there to move one number: did we get more leads?

If every post points somewhere different, you can't tell which one did the work. One destination keeps the math clean. Here's how we set up one link in our bio.

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Where should you put your focus once you have the numbers?

Put it where the work keeps paying after you stop. Leland ranks about 100 traffic activities on a heat map. Build-once work sits at the top, like long-form YouTube videos, a book, or a free tool. Treadmill work sits at the bottom, like daily comments. For most of our businesses, long-form YouTube is the lead domino.

"Instagram comment can be a good strategy, but it's a treadmill. A YouTube long form video can make you money forever."

Your focus is limited, so spend it like it is. "We only have like 10 points of focus. Let's say we have to allocate our focus accordingly." If long-form YouTube is build once and evergreen, that's where most of the points go. Everything else, TikTok included, comes downstream from it.

Leland calls it the lead domino. For a lot of coaches and one-person businesses, that's long-form YouTube. It tips first, and the other platforms follow.

Not everybody needs to be on YouTube, though. A few other build-once plays from the same chart:

• A book, even a short one. "If you write a book once, you become the expert in that industry." It can also capture emails for you.
• A free tool, calculator or quiz. Leland's sneaker example: "How much are your shoes worth?"
• Guest teaching in a paid community. "You're positioned as an authority. They're all buyers."

What does a simple content system that sells look like?

One build-once piece of content, one place to send people, and a short email sequence that sells. Someone watches the video, enters their email at the end, and gets a handful of emails that sell your thing. Your scorecard tracks each step. When a number drops, you know exactly where to look.

Leland: "They watch a YouTube video. Your YouTube video is going to be good forever. At the end, they enter their email, they get five emails that sell your thing. That's an entire business."

Then you keep the list warm on a schedule. We run ours monthly. On Leland's chart it's the 4-2-1 broadcast: "Four value emails, two partner emails for affiliate revenue, and then our product that we sell. It's a system. So every month we do that system."

Each piece of that has a number. Opt-ins from the video. Opens and clicks on the emails. Buyers from the product email. Put them on the scorecard and you can see which piece needs work.

FAQ

How many numbers should a content scorecard have?

Usually 5 to 15. Enough to see the whole path from first view to a customer who stays, few enough that you'll actually check it every week.

What's the first number a coach should track?

The weekly hop from your main platform to your next step. For example, how many people go from Instagram to your free community or email list each week.

How often should I check my scorecard?

Every week. Write down which posts went out that week, so when a number moves, you can see which post moved it.

Are views a bad number to track?

No. Views are the top of the trail and they belong on the scorecard. They just can't be the only number, because a post can win on views and lose on everything after.

Five to 15 numbers. One platform first. Check it every week, and let the scorecard filter your content.

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About the authors

Leland Redfield

Leland Redfield co-runs Bottleneck Breakdown. He builds scorecards, systems and AI bots that free owners up.

DJ Willingham

DJ Willingham co-runs Bottleneck Breakdown. He's been building sneaker and fashion content since his first sneaker page in 2010.

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