Content Marketing in less than 300 steps

Digital Content Marketing Roadmap (A Step-by-Step Guide)

Posted on by

After publishing various articles on content strategy and content marketing, finally, I’ve decided to compile them into a more comprehensive, conclusive and structured article. I’ve titled it “Digital Content Marketing Roadmap,” though I know still it takes a long time till it the content fits the title.

Digital Content Marketing: A step by step guide

What is content marketing: Is it what are you looking for?

  • What is the definition of content and what do we mean by digital content?

  • Definition of content marketing

    • Content marketing and permission marketing are not the same concepts

      Many content marketers insist on using permission marketing mindset in designing a content marketing campaign.

      Sure it’s a better approach to pull the audience instead of pushing them through the sales funnel. However, still, you can design an interruption marketing campaign based on content marketing tools and methods.

    • Any content marketing plan should pursue the goal of changing or enhancing the consumer behavior.

      You can take a look at the models I have quoted for the consumer behavior concept to find some ideas about the targets which are possible to set in this regard.

    • It’s part of your digital branding strategy

  • Where can I find a better or more comprehensive definition of content marketing?

    Heidi Cohen has collected a collection of 21 different definitions of content marketing from the content marketing experts. This article is one of the best sources if you want to have a better understanding of the concept.

  • Is it useful to me / my company?

    • What’s your digital strategy?

      Before developing a content strategy or content marketing plan, you have to think about your digital strategy. As have mentioned in my article on developing a digital strategy, there are five critical topics to consider before developing any content plan:

      • What do we mean by the term digital in our business?
      • What are the “real” opportunities there?
      • Whether we look for a better digital presence or deployment of more digital processes.
      • What is our time horizon?
      • Do we consider digital technology as a core competency or just as a strategic enabler?
    • Why do you want to use it?
      • Increasing Brand Awareness
      • Increasing Brand Preference
      • Greater reach at a lower cost
      • Attracting new prospects
      • Overcoming objections (existing ones, future ones)
      • Exploring prospects’ pain points
      • Inviting Strategic Partners
      • Lead conversion
      • Lead nurturing
      • Customer Conversion
      • Building trust and rapport with audience
      • Retention (loyalty)
      • Upsell
      • Passionate Subscribers
    • Are you able to create content?

      It may look like an easy challenge. However, content creation is the most critical bottleneck for content marketers.

    • Are you suitable for this skill?
      • You need a content marketer mindset
        • Consider integration
        • True customer value
        • Customer Centric Approach (Curve)
      • You need to have some skills
        • Storytelling
      • You need to have some traits
        • analytical aptitude
        • patience
        • persistence
        • generosity
        • Conversational
        • creative

Think about your content strategy

  • What is the content strategy?

  • What’s your content mix?

    • What combination of evergreen / topical content fits your needs?
    • What proportion of your content should be original? What’s the best share for the curated content?
    • What combination of content types would be better for your purpose?
    • Which types of content presentation methods would be more effective for your audience?

  • What’s your core purpose?

  • What’s your preferred content strategy theme?

    • Inbound?
    • Outbound?
    • Hybrid?

  • How to design The Content Ecosystem

    • Combining the components
    • Choosing the primary platform and the content hub

The most important questions to ask before starting content marketing

  • What are your objectives?

  • Who are your audiences?

    • Persona
      • What do they need?
      • Where do they look for solutions?
      • Demographics
        • Age
        • Location
        • Gender
        • Income Level
        • Education Level
        • Marital Status
        • Occupation
      • Psychological Factors
        • Personality
        • Attitude
        • Values
        • Interests
        • Hobbies
        • Lifestyle

  • What can you do for your audience?

  • How can you differentiate yourself from them?

    • Competitor Analysis
    • Content Research
    • Designing a differentiated offer
      • content
      • price
      • value
      • structure
      • wrapping
      • Identity

It’s all about customer base (Developing, Maintaining, and Managing)

  • Minimum Viable Audience

  • Empathy in the digital world

    • Why it’s core of content marketing
    • How to draw an empathy map
      • Think, Feel, Act, See Model

  • What are your Key Performance Indicators?

    • Classification of the key performance indicators (KPIs):
    • ROI is just of the indicators and even not the most important one!

  • What are your Key Operational Indicators?

    I’ve listed some of the most important Key Performance Indicators in content marketing. Besides KPIs, there are other type of indicators called KOI (Key Operational Indicators) concerned with the efficiency of the process. The conversion ratio is considered as one of the most important KOIs.

Operational Aspects of Content Marketing

  • Corporate Content Machine

    • Why do we call it a content machine?
    • How to design your content machine
      • Content Production Capacity Management (CPCM)

  • Choosing the right platform for your content machine

    • Are you going to be a pure digital player?
    • Channels
      • Medium vs. Media
      • The classical make or buy dilemma
    • The Web vs. App
    • Future of mobile and mobility
    • Which screen is smarter for you?
      • Forget about smart devices, look for smart screens
    • Social networks: structure or infrastructure?

  • The Content Creation Process

    • Do you have any content?
      • What kind of resources do you have for your content factory?
      • Creation or Curation?
      • Relevance
      • Value
      • Originality
    • User Generated Content vs. Branded Content
    • Questions to ask about each piece of content
    • The content fine tuning process
      • Form is the content (The new version of the old phrase: Medium is the message)
      • SEO is not about keywords anymore:
        • Information content of the message
        • Information structure
      • Content Identity

  • Content Distribution & Delivery Process

  • Process Optimization & Auditing

  • Content Management System

    • Internal Content Management System
    • External Content Management system
    • Managing content in different stages of the content life cycle
      • Goal Setting
      • Creation
      • Publishing
      • Promotion
      • Maintenance
      • Retirement

How to design a content-centered marketing campaign?

Agile Content Marketing: Fad or Fashion? (Sorry. There’s no third choice!)

  • Rethinking agility concept in content industry context
  • Collaboration: Tips and Traps

How to build a content-based business?

Future of content marketing

  • Trends

    • Expansion of Social Media
    • Multiple Devices and Multiple Screens
    • Distrust of Advertising
    • Content Shock: Fact or Fiction?
    • People to follow
    • Blogs to read

  • Megatrends

Future of content

  • Emergence of the global mind and content-less community

My other posts