How can you create a successful content map?

You need to know your destinations, these are your key content topics. What does your audience want to read about? It’s like choosing cities to visit based on what you love. Then, map out the routes. These are the different content types - blogs, videos, infographics. Each type is a different path to your destination, offering a fresh way to explore your topics. It's about variety & keeping the journey interesting. Don’t forget the pit stops.. these are your call-to-actions. What do you want your readers to do after consuming your content? Maybe it’s signing up for a newsletter or checking out a product. Just like a good road trip, a content map should be exciting, clear, and lead to memorable stops.

It's all too easy to jump straight in and start creating content with only a vague idea of who it's for. But that's unlikely to deliver the results you want because you don't know what the ideal audience wants. It's a bit like creating a meal with no idea whether the people its for are vegetarian, have any allergies, or actually like French food. It won't matter how good the food is, there is a chance it won't be a hit with the diner.

La compréhension des profils de clients idéaux est fondamentale pour élaborer une stratégie de contenu ciblée et pertinente. Les buyer personas, en étant basés sur des données concrètes et des recherches approfondies, offrent un aper?u précieux des besoins, motivations, défis et comportements des clients. L'utilisation de méthodes comme les enquêtes, les entretiens, les analyses de données et l'observation des médias sociaux pour recueillir ces informations est cruciale. Cela permet non seulement de créer un contenu plus personnalisé et engageant, mais aussi de guider les décisions, de ton et de format de contenu.

Too often companies only think of the top of funnel content to drive awareness or purchase decision content. The mid-funnel content is a core missing piece that must be addressed. It's important to think through common questions that someone might ask at the various buyer stages, so you can map content that answers those questions and points to your product as the solution.

If you're a SaaS company you'll want to include a post-purchase stage as well. It's an important part of your content strategy, if you value retention, which you should. This will become more critical as Google moves further towards a Search Generative Experience (SGE).

Based on the TG that you've identified and the buyer persona created, you have to understand the exact psyche of your customer. What does my customer think in the awareness stage of my product? What is my customer thinking now that they are aware this solution exists and can solve their problem? What is it that my customer is looking for in this solution and does my product have it? Answering these questions through online content is going to help you map your content. It ultimately all get distributed into the 4 stages that a customer will travel through: awareness, consideration, consultation, and conversion.

One thing to watch out for is that you don't over emphasize a particular state. Marketers wanting traffic typically aim for top-of-funnel while those wanting sales target bottom-of-funnel. You need content to support the entire buyer journey. I think that will become even more important moving forward with Google's Search Generative Experience. At least for those marketers who value search traffic.