What is Content Mapping and Why is it Crucial for Your Business?

If you are interested in creating a specific strategy for the content associated with your business – whether it be improving the one that you currently have or a brand new one – you should consider the implementation of content mapping.

If you take care to ensure that the strategy is done correctly, you will find that you are capable of organizing the content that your business depends on for potential leads, prospects, and each of your customers more efficiently and more effectively. In this comprehensive guide, you will learn what content mapping is and why it is a crucial component for your business.

What is Content Mapping?

Content mapping is a specific process of taking the time to aligning content used for your business with the needs and interests of your target audience. It starts moves throughout the purchasing journey – starting with awareness and all the way up to conversion. It helps to identify the most effective forms of content and the formats to utilize at each stage throughout the purchasing journey.

The current content and the future content is mapped with the different stages that customers go through through the journey that they have with their journey. This starts with the introduction of the brand of your business to committing to a purchase.

Most content mapping professionals agree that the process of content mapping includes three stages. These are outlined below with a short description of each:

1. Awareness – It is at this stage that the customer learns that they have some type of issue that needs to be solved. For example, perhaps they discover that they need to build a website for their business.
2. Consideration – This is the part of the journey that the customer is searching for various types of solutions for their problem. For example, the business is an online business, but has no online presence. So, the business needs to find a company that will build a website that includes their products and/or services that they offer.
3. Decision – In this stage of the content mapping process, the customer will decide if they will commit to a purchase from the company that specializes in website construction and content marketing for that business.

What All Does Content Mapping Involve?

There are several components associated with content mapping. The following provides a basic overview of these components:

1. Pinpointing the personas of the customer and/or determining the target audience.
2. The creation of a list that points out the problems that customers have that may be addressed with the content that your business is able to provide.
3. The determination of the needs of the buyer’s journey – at each stage of that journey.
4. Measuring the effectiveness of the content when it comes to reaching the target audience and the ability to convert that customer or triggering a specific action.

What are the Benefits Associated with Content Mapping?

There are numerous benefits associated with content mapping. The following highlights these benefits and offer a brief explanation of each:

1. Learning about the Customer’s Journey – One of the main benefits to content mapping is to allow you to gain an understanding of the experiences that customers experience When learning about your brand. In this, you will learn what problems they have, gain an understanding of their mindset, and learning all about their needs. By learning about the journey of the customer, you can help in determining what type of content that needs to be created and how that content should be pushed out to the customer.
2. Improved Engagement with the Customer – Content mapping will allow you to experience improved engagement with your customers. The content that you share with your customer targets their problems with solutions that your customers need.
3. Lead Generation – Being that there will be higher levels of engagement with your customers, you will find that content mapping is highly beneficial in increasing lead generation.
4. Having Content at All Stages of the Customer’s Journey – Content mapping helps to make certain that all of your content pieces are unique and they complement one another. This helps to make sure that your target audience knows how your products and services will benefit in solving the problems that they experience. During this part of the customer journey, you will outline how your business is capable of helping them in resolving the issues that you face.
5. Content mapping creates a type of alignment between the marketing team and the sales team. It allows for problems to be used by both of the teams to result in maximum impact and benefits.
6. Brand Awareness and Loyalty – Content mapping helps to increase the awareness of the business brand and also helps to ensure optimal loyalty from creating and delivering content that is high quality.
7. Pointing Out Content Gaps – By engaging in the process of content mapping, you will be able to pinpoint any type of content gaps that your business has. This will allow you to understand which topics you have not covered, but would prove to be highly beneficial in terms of your audience. You will then be able to determine what type of content that you need to create because you will want to make certain that your business is able to give customers all the information that they may need in order to gain the motivation for making a purchase.
8. Utilizing Resources – The next benefit is that content mapping helps in making more efficient use of the resources by placing an emphasis on content that is high in quality and performance. It will ensure that high performing content reaches all of the customers in your target audience.

Getting Started with Content Mapping

Now that you understand the benefits associated with content mapping, it is time to learn how to engage in the act of getting started with content mapping:

1. First, you must identify your target audience. By determining who you want to reach, you will be able to come up with content topics more easily.
2. Next, you should outline the journey of the customers that you have.
3. Create a list of the content that you have that currently exists. Then, map and match that content with some part of the customer journey.
4. Determine if your content has any type of gaps. If it does, outline a creation plan that will help in prioritizing your content so that you can actually outline and streamline the creation of your content.

What are the Best Practices Associated with Content Mapping?

The following outlines the best practices associated with content mapping:

1. You should create personas associated with the customers that you want to attract. You should never make any type of assumptions; you should outline who your target audience is by solid research.
2. Always take the time to map out the journey of the customer and determine what type of content that you need for each stage of the journey.
3. You should use a variety of data to measure out the content’s level of effectiveness. Be flexible, if necessary.
4. Make certain that your marketing team and your sales team are working in collaboration with one another to make sure that the content is properly aligned with the pain points or problems that your customers are experiencing.
5. You should review and update the strategy that you are using with your strategy for content mapping to make sure that your content is remaining relevant.
6. Always make certain that you are creating content that helps your potential customers and increases the engagement of those customers.

Getting More Returns on Content Mapping

By engaging in the art of content mapping, you are able to identify a purpose behind each piece of content that you create. By creating content that customers need and want, you will increase engagement with your customers, ensure that you are invested with your customers, and will increase the brand loyalty of your customers. By delivering wonderful products and/or services, you will hook your potential prospects immediately. Create brand ambassadors, create happing and raving fans, and ensure that all of your clients are delighted.

Contact Us

If you are looking to increase your brand awareness online, contact us here at Brick Road Media for assistance. Not only can we help in creating a website that hooks your customers from the beginning, we can also assist in composing relevant content that will help in increasing your customer base and will help to increase your sales.

Custom website development is considered to be our specialty here at Brick Road Media. We specialize in modern websites that will aid in the branding and the rebranding phase of the development of your online business. We offer monthly services, too – such as building custom content, monitoring your website regularly, and building strong relationships with out clients. We offer a mutual collaboration that will help your business perform more than you ever thought it could! Call us now at: 765-439-4029