The Definitive Guide to Content Mapping (2024)

Looking to create a contented strategy for your business? Or amended an existing one? Content mapping is simply a awesome spot to start. 

Why?

Done right, it’s helps you much efficiently shape the contented you request to support your leads, prospects, and customers arsenic they interact pinch your brand. That way, you cognize what you have, what you need, and wherever it should each spell connected your site. 

With a contented map, your contented trading efforts are much targeted. And (hopefully) much apt to salary off.

In this guide, we’ll explicate what contented mapping is. And locomotion you done creating your very ain contented map.

What Is Content Mapping?

Content mapping is the process of mapping existing and early contented to align pinch the different stages of the customer journey.

There are aggregate ways of reasoning astir the travel customers return from learning astir a marque to yet making a purchase. But it’s usually divided into 3 chopped stages:

1. Awareness: During this stage, group go alert that they person a circumstantial rumor that needs to beryllium solved. For example, they mightiness recognize that they request to hole the tile connected their house.
2. Consideration: In the information stage, group are actively researching different solutions to their problem. For instance, researching different tile repair companies. 
3. Decision: In this past shape of the process, they determine whether to make a purchase. And from whom. For example, calling a tile repair institution and scheduling a tile inspection.

Benefits of Content Mapping

Content mapping tin thief you:

Understand the Customer Journey

Creating a contented representation requires you to get acquainted pinch the experiences your prospects and customers spell done erstwhile they're getting to cognize your brand. 

You'll place their symptom points and priorities, empathize pinch their mindset, get acquainted pinch their questions, and get to cognize their needs.

This will not only thief you representation contented successful a measurement that amended supports them, it will guideline each your contented creation and deployment efforts.

Ensure You Have Content for Every Stage

Content mapping ensures that your pieces are interdependent, complementing each different and reinforcing cardinal worth props, but besides answering the questions and considerations the imaginable has astatine each peculiar stage.

For example, successful awareness, you're astir apt reflecting their problem backmost to themselves—helping them understand it better, motivating them to reside it, and giving them dream that location are solutions available.

In the information stage, you're showing them much of what's possible, and helping them to get to cognize their options.

In the determination stage, you're giving them info they request to consciousness assured (comparison points, societal proof) and letting them cognize why they should take to bargain from YOU.

Uncover Content Gaps

By mapping your existing content, you’ll people uncover contented gaps—topics you haven’t covered successful your contented yet but that would beryllium highly beneficial to your target audience.

You tin past activity connected creating contented astir these topics to supply imaginable customers pinch each the accusation they mightiness request to make a purchase.

How to Get Started pinch Content Mapping

Follow these steps to get started pinch contented mapping:

• Identify your target audience. Get clear connected who you’re looking to scope done content.
• Define the customer journey. Identify the stages customers spell done earlier making a purchase. And the questions, feelings, and needs they person astatine each stage.
• Map existing content. Create a database of each your existing content. Map each contented portion to a shape of the customer journey.
• Find contented gaps. Identify topics you haven’t covered but are important for helping imaginable customers bargain from your business
• Create a contented plan. Turn the topics you’ve identified arsenic gaps into a prioritized contented plan. Use it to streamline contented creation.

Let’s spell complete each measurement successful much detail.

1. Identify Your Target Audience

Before you tin create a contented map, you request to place your target audience. In different words, you request to understand who you want to scope pinch your content.

In marketing, this is accomplished by creating a persona—a fictional practice of a personification who fits your target market.

Buyer Persona vs. Reader Persona

When defining your target audience, it’s important to differentiate betwixt buyer personas and reader personas. Depending connected your business and your contented strategy, these mightiness beryllium 2 wholly different people.

For example, let’s opportunity your institution sells a package solution designed to thief income teams amended their productivity and adjacent much sales.

The personification who will yet make a determination whether to acquisition your package is the VP of Sales astatine a target company.

But, based connected market research, you understand that you request a company’s income reps to acquisition the benefits of utilizing your package first-hand. So that they could past power the VP of Sales to make the purchase.

Because of this, you want to scope income reps pinch your content. And amended them connected the benefits of your package solution.

In this case, your purchaser persona would beryllium the VP of Sales. But your scholar persona would beryllium a income rep.

B2C vs. B2B Personas

The extremity of a persona is to limb your imaginative squad pinch each the accusation they request to trade contented that will compel the personification represented by that persona.

What accusation you see successful the persona will dangle connected who your assemblage is, what your merchandise is, and what benignant of marque you have.

There’s a large quality successful personas created for business-to-consumer (B2C) brands and those created for business-to-business (B2B) brands.

For example, if you person a B2C ecommerce brand, useful accusation connected your target assemblage mightiness see age, gender, income level, aliases interests. But if you person a business that sells to different businesses, you mightiness want to attraction connected specifications specified arsenic industry, institution size, and occupation title successful your personas.

Type of business	Business-to-consumer (B2C)	Business-to-business (B2B)
Buyer persona attributes	Age, gender, income level, interests	Industry, institution size, occupation title

Market Research

A communal correction marketers make: reasoning they cognize everything location is to cognize astir their target audience. 

One of the fastest ways to find retired really overmuch you don’t know, and genuinely get to cognize your imaginable customers, is to talk to them.

Here are a fewer ways you tin do that:

• Conduct interviews. Interview group who fresh your target assemblage to find retired what problems they face, what topics they’re willing in, and what they’re looking for successful a solution for illustration yours
• Organize a attraction group. Hold a attraction group pinch individuals who fresh your target assemblage description. Ask them those aforesaid questions and fto them talk among themselves. Note the insights that look to resonate most.
• Check retired online discussions. Read done online discussions related to your manufacture to study what imaginable customers are reasoning and talking about.
• Talk to customer-facing teams. Get successful touch pinch your company’s income and customer support representatives. Find retired what benignant of concerns prospects and customers have. And what questions they are asking.
• Survey existing customers. If your business already has customers successful the marketplace you’re reasoning astir targeting, nonstop them a study via email. Learn much astir them and their acquisition pinch your products aliases services.

2. Define the Customer Journey

The adjacent measurement is to specify the circumstantial stages your customers spell done earlier making a acquisition from your business.

For each stage, you’ll want to list:

• The customer’s situation: What issues aliases symptom points are they dealing with? What benignant of resources do they person astatine their disposal?
• The questions customers have: What answers are they actively looking for? What answers will they request but haven't thought to inquire astir yet?
• The astir suitable types of content: Based connected the customer’s business and the questions they have, which types of contented would beryllium the champion to present the accusation they need?

Keeping up pinch our earlier example, here’s really this mightiness look for illustration astatine each shape of the customer journey:

Awareness

The target customer is dealing pinch a leaking roof. At this moment, they’re looking to study much astir tile leaks, why they happen, and really to hole them.

They mightiness beryllium asking their neighbors, reference online articles, aliases posting questions connected forums.

Some questions they mightiness person astatine this shape include:

• How do I hole a leaking roof?
• How to spot a tile leak?
• How to forestall tile leaks?
• How overmuch does a tile inspection cost?

Some suitable types of contented to create successful this lawsuit mightiness beryllium acquisition blog posts aliases videos answering your imaginable customer’s questions. This mightiness beryllium a how-to-guide for tarping your tile aliases step-by-step instructions for starting a declare pinch their security company.

Consideration

At this stage, a personification is considering options for fixing their leaking roof. Perhaps they’re considering fixing it themselves. Or they’re researching different tile repair companies.

Questions they’re looking to find answers to include:

• Should I hole a tile leak myself?
• What to look for successful a tile repair company?

At this stage, applicable contented mightiness see elaborate guides to thief them take the correct solution to their problem. In our example, that would impact helping them understand that it’s champion to prosecute a master to hole their roof.

Decision

Once they scope the determination stage, group are fresh to make a purchase. All they request is simply a small nudge to spell up and do it.

Some questions they mightiness request answered astatine this shape include:

• What makes your tile repair institution amended than different akin companies successful my area?
• How overmuch do your services cost?
• How agelong is it going to return you to hole my roof?

There are tons of different types of contented that tin thief successful the determination stage. But 1 often utilized action is simply a landing page wherever you reply immoderate questions that mightiness beryllium preventing group from buying from your company.

3. Map Existing Content to Stages of the Customer Journey

Once you’ve defined the stages your customers spell done earlier making a purchase, it’s clip to representation your existing contented to each stage.

To do this, create a spreadsheet. Make a statement for each portion of existing content. Make judge to statement the pursuing for each portion of content:

• The title
• The link
• The type of contented (e.g., blog post, ebook, etc.)
• The shape of the customer travel it’s intended for
• The persona it’s targeting

This will service arsenic your first contented map.

Here’s really it mightiness look:

4. Find Content Gaps

Now that you person your contented map, usage it to uncover immoderate gaps successful your existing content.

Sort your contented representation by customer travel shape and past reappraisal each the contented pieces you person for each stage.

Are location immoderate questions customers mightiness person astatine a peculiar shape that your contented hasn’t answered? These are gaps successful your contented that you should look to capable arsenic soon arsenic possible.

Some questions mightiness beryllium evident to you based connected your erstwhile customer research. But Semrush’s Keyword Magic Tool tin thief you uncover questions you haven’t thought about.

Here’s how:

Log successful to Semrush. In the left-hand menu, click “Keyword Magic Tool” nether “KEYWORD RESEARCH.” 

Start by typing successful a keyword intimately related to your business and click connected “Search.”

The instrumentality will make a database of keywords related to your topic. 

From here, click connected the “Questions” tab. You’ll spot a database of questions related to your topic. Sort these by hunt measurement to understand which questions get asked astir frequently. 

Another measurement to find contented gaps is to look astatine your competitors’ content. See if they’ve covered immoderate important topics that you haven’t. You tin do this manually. Or velocity up the process by utilizing Semrush’s Keyword Gap.

Here’s how:

Log successful to Semrush. Click “Keyword Gap” successful the left-hand paper nether “COMPETITIVE RESEARCH.”

Enter your domain and the domains of up to 4 competitors. Click “Compare.”

The instrumentality will make a elaborate study showing each the keywords the entered domains rank for. 

To spot each the keywords competing domains rank for (but yours doesn’t), scroll down to the “All keyword specifications for:” section.

Click the “Untapped” tab.

Add these keywords to a keyword database successful Semrush. Or export them to a .CSV aliases Excel file. That way, you tin create contented astir them, answering your imaginable customers’ questions.

5. Create a Content Plan

Your contented spread study from the erstwhile measurement apt provided you pinch a batch of topics to cover.

The adjacent measurement is prioritizing them.

Here are a fewer questions that tin thief you determine which topics should return priority:

• Are location stages of the customer travel that are underserved?
• Which personas are underserved?
• If personas are arsenic well-served, is location 1 associated pinch a higher ROI that should get a larger finance of content?
• Are location channels that are underutilized?
• Are location plus types that are underutilized?
• Are location plus types that should beryllium prioritized based connected conversion aliases debased costs to make?

Put immoderate thought into the supra questions and usage the answers to guideline your contented plan.

Ensure Content Marketing Success pinch Content Mapping

Content mapping is simply a important measurement successful creating an effective contented strategy.

Use our guide, on pinch devices for illustration Semrush’s Keyword Gap and Keyword Magic Tool, to representation contented and create a scheme for addressing contented gaps.