An essential planning tool, the content marketing matrix provides a framework to plan and map out all of your content to meet consumer needs at different stages in the purchase process. It highlights what content is most relevant to a customer based on their position in the buying journey and helps business owners and marketers plan out optimal engaging content for each of their target audiences.
How do marketers 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 existing content assets, develop ideas for new content, nurture prospects and map your content to each audience with lead generation and growth objectives driving the strategy.
Step 1: Develop a content matrix for your target personas
- Identify who you are creating content for and profile your target audience personas.
- Determine what types and range of content (e.g. videos, podcasts, guides) will resonate with those personas.
- Consider subject areas of value and interest to your audience and their pain points.
- Research monthly search volumes to gauge interest and define the tone and messaging that will engage them.
Step 2: Develop content types aligned to the nature of your goods and services
Choose content types that are most important and relevant to your business. For example, a company selling weight loss products may rely heavily on reviews, case studies and product descriptions, while a creative services company might prioritise videos and landing pages.
Step 3: Define your content types
Here are some typical content marketing examples:
- Infographics
- Memes and GIFs
- Videos
- Podcasts
- Webinars
- Landing pages
- Infosheets & technical specifications
- Blogs and articles
- Reports or white papers
- Ebooks & guides
- Checklists and templates
- Calls‑to‑action (CTAs)
- Newsletters & social media posts
- Reviews, testimonials and case studies
- Quotes and statistics
Step 4: Identify the purpose of each piece of content
- Entertain – create engaging content that builds awareness and interest.
- Inspire – evoke emotion and inspire potential customers later in the buying process.
- Educate – provide thought leadership to position your business as a trusted and reliable source.
- Convince/Purchase – satisfy needs with accessible, influential content at the final stage of the buyer’s journey.
Step 5: Use the grid to plot the different content types
By plotting each content type on the matrix you can see what works best at different stages. Continually test and measure the grid and adjust based on performance.
Step 6: Expand your pool of content marketing assets
Ensure that you have a wide range of content to guide people through the sales funnel and reach them in different ways.
Measuring the impact of your content marketing mix
Establish KPIs to track and measure the effectiveness of your content marketing strategy. Typical metrics include unique page visits, downloads, time spent on page, links, shares, comments and interactions. For paid campaigns you may monitor cost per click, cost per lead, conversion rates and channel growth.
Original article: https://www.onbrand.co.uk/blog/what-is-a-content-marketing-matrix/
