An essential planning tool, the content marketing matrix provides a framework to allow you to plan and map out all of your content to meet consumer needs at different stages in the purchase process.

It helps highlight what content is most relevant to a customer based on the stage they are at of their buying journey.

The content marketing matrix helps business owners and marketers plan out optimal engaging content for each of their target audiences.  For example, a content marketing matrix would help a technology software company know to create and distribute content like webinars and demo’s if the target customers have been viewing software specifications and downloading white papers.

How do marketer’s use a content marketing matrix?

Essentially, a content marketing strategy should not only be formulated with elevated ideas, but more importantly, needs to be relevant to each of your target audiences. The content marketing matrix allows you to audit your existing content assets, develop ideas for new content that will generate leads, nurture prospects and then plot your content against each of your target audiences. All of this is completed with lead generation and growth objectives driving the strategy.

Step 1: Develop a content matrix for your target personas.

• Who are you creating content for? Identify and profile your target audience personas
• Determine what types and range of content (e.g. videos, podcasts, guides) are going to resonate best with your target personas
  • What subject areas are of value and interest to your target audience?
  • What are their pain points and needs?
  • Check out what the monthly search volumes for the subject area you are creating content for and this will give you an indication of interest level
• Define the tone and messaging that will engage with your target audiences

Step 2: Develop content types aligned to the nature of the goods and services you sell.

What content types are most important and relevant to your business? There are some content types that go across the board like landing pages, social media posts, reviews and testimonials although the importance and significance of each content type will vary from industry to industry.

For a company selling weight loss products it may be critical that reviews, case studies and testimonials are placed in each quadrant of the matrix. Product descriptions of the weight loss products sold could also be determined as a critical content type to this type of business. Whereas as a company selling creative services may rely more heavily on videos and landing pages as critical components to its matrix.

Step 3: Define Your Content Types For Content Marketing.

There is a world of content marketing types out there. Here is a list of typical ones but is not exhaustive.

Step 4: To identify the purpose(s) of each bit of content.

Develop a content marketing matrix that identifies the purpose of each bit of content.  The purpose will be determined by who your target audience is.

Establishing your objectives first will help to formulate your content.  For example, is the content serving to provide entertainment, inspiration, education or impetus to take action or purchase?

Content Purposes.

• Entertain – engaging content that creates awareness and interest – the first stage in the consumer buying process.
• Inspire – content that succeeds in emotive response, often best used later in the buying process. The goal is to make the potential customer ‘feel’ something from relatable content, that ultimately drives purchase.
• Educate – providing thought leadership content helps to position your business as a trusted and reliable source, raising or reinforcing consumer opinion of your product/service. Educational content should provide customers with new information either about your own products and services, or a relatable topic, and should be well-researched to provide significant value.
• Convince/Purchase – the last stage of the buyer’s journey, should focus on content that already understands your target audience needs and wants. The aim is to satisfy these needs with accessible and influential content.

Step 5: Use the grid to plot the different content types (formats).

This will help your company to figure out what works best and why. You can then edit the grid as part of a test, track and measure process to see what content is working best at what stage and for your specific target audience.

Each format falls in a different place on the grid and some even fall in multiple places on the grid.  For example, videos can both educate and entertain (depending on nature of the content of said video) but may not convince.

Step 6: Expand your pool of content marketing assets.

Ensure you have a range of content that can be used to take people through the sales funnel and enough variety of content formats to reach people in different ways.

Measuring the impact of your content marketing mix.

Establish which KPI’s you wish to track so that you can measure the effects of your content marketing strategy. Typical KPI’s include: unique page visits, downloads, time spent on page, links, shares, comments, interactions.  For paid campaign activity, metrics would include cost per click, cost per lead, lead generation, conversion rates, influencers, followers, subscribers and channel growth.

It is only through tracking, monitoring and measuring your content marketing efforts that you start to develop a full understanding of the success of your efforts.