8pxlwww.pxl8create.com

How to get the results you want from your

content marketing.

CREATING A CONTENT MARKETING

ROADMAP

WHY CREATE A CONTENT MARKETING ROADMAP?

8pxl

Create a repeatable process for success

allowing you to rinse and repeat your digital

marketing

Get the most out of your budget

focus your spend on the tasks that will have

the most impact

Get a competitive advantage

few businesses will take such a

comprehensive approach to content marketing

Organise and educate your team

everyone from executives to writers will know

what needs to be done and why

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A lot of success in marketing can be attributed to planning. Content marketing isn’t complicated

but there are many approaches, techniques and tools that need to be used effectively for success

to happen. That’s why we created this roadmap for success using our own experiences and

industry best practices.

Our roadmap will help you:

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HOW SHOULD YOU USE THIS DOCUMENT?The outline of this document is for a 4 month content marketing plan. The first month will be spent setting

up the workflow in this document with the next 3 months used to produce and distribute content.

We’ll look at:

How to lay out your roadmap

What structure it should have and what the key stages are

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What you need at each stage

Why do we have each stage and what content you need to

produce for them

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A checklist for each stage

Standardise your process by understanding what the key

steps are at each stage

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How to measure performance

How do you know you’re on the right tracks?

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HOW SHOULD YOUR ROADMAP BE STRUCTURED?

Stages

Each of these stages

is a section of the

content marketing

roadmap used in this

document.

Actions

These are the

three actions you

must take to get

visitors, leads and

customers.

Sales Funnel Design

We model your marketing roadmap

on your sales funnel. As prospects

move further down your funnel they

become more sales ready.

TARGET AUDIENCE RESEARCH

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The first thing you need to do is identify who your target

audiences are, what

characteristics they have

and where they can be

found online.

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1.1 WHY RESEARCH YOUR AUDIENCE?

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What your most valuable customers look like

We want to create a clear picture of who your products and

services appeal to most.

It’s definitely not the most exciting part of marketing, but taking the time to research and understand

your audience is extremely important. By researching your audience you can find out:

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What their characteristics are

What types of behaviour and habits do these audiences

have? What are they passionate about?

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Where they spend their time online

What do they read? Whose opinions do they care about?

What do they share?

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How best to reach and engage them

Where should we be talking to these people and what should

we be saying?

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1.2 CREATE BUYER PERSONAS

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Aim for 2 or 3 personas

You want enough to effectively segment your audiences but

not too many.

Buyer personas are holistic representations of who your target audiences are and how they behave.

Every piece of content we create should be written with one or more of these people in mind.

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Background

What’s their job title? How long have they been at the

business? What’s their marital status?

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Demographics

Are they primarily male or female? What’s their age range,

income and where do they live?

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Identifiers

What are they like at work? Calm? Busy? Do they have an

assistant to screen calls? How do they communicate?

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1.3 IDENTIFY INFLUENCERS

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Start by listing relevant topics to your industry

What does your business do? What services does your

business offer?

Who are the movers and shakers within your industry? We want to build relationships with these

people online so they can help us distribute our content and raise our profile.

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Find the key voices for those topics

Using tools like followerwonk or socialears use your topics to

find the people with the biggest social influence.

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Look for individuals rather than businesses

It’s easier to build a relationship with a single person rather

than a business account.

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Identify specifically what they talk about

Socialears can show you the keyphrases your influencers

discuss the most. You want to be using those keyphrases in

the conversations you have online.

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1.4 CREATE SIMPLE SCHEMA’S

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Search by your persona’s job title

Use a tool like followerwonk to find examples of people that

have the same job as your persona’s.

It’s not enough to have a holistic view of your audience, we also want to find real world examples of

who these people are so we can see where they spend their time online and what they share.

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See who they are influenced by

Use followerwonk to see where there is an intersect of people

that our personas follow.

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Find out what they are sharing

Enter the twitter handles of your personas and influencers into

Tweetarchive to see the URL’s they share.

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Compile the data

Download a copy of all the URL’s your personas and

influencers have shared and put them into a graph so you

can see where you need to be to get seen by them.

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1.5 IDENTIFY TRIGGERS & GOALS

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Aim for around 3 triggers and 3 goals

We want simple, broad goals so that we can start

thinking about the questions your personas will have when

confronted with these goals.

What would trigger someone from your target audience to search for the services you offer? If

one of your buyer personas experienced one of these triggers, what goal would they be looking to

accomplish?

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Create a detailed list of questions for each goal

We want to make sure that our content answers the basic

questions that your personas will have. It will help to talk to

your sales team to understand what the

common questions and barriers prospects have.

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DEMAND GENERATION

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Once we know who your audience is and where they are

online, we are then ready to raise awareness of your company

and drive information

seeking traffic to your

website.

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2.1 WHAT IS DEMAND GENERATION?

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People are searching for information to help them solve their problems. Demand generation is the

process of creating demand for your products and services by introducing your solution as a way of

solving their problems.

Demand generation serves two main purposes:

To connect with people looking right now for a solution

to their problem

Right now there are people looking for a product or service

like yours. These people have a problem that you can help

solve for them.

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To educate a wider audience about what your

business does

Some people may not have a problem you can solve right

now but they may do in the future. We want these people to

be aware of what we do.

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2.2 WHAT STYLES OF CONTENT DO WE WANT?

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You want content that is going to engage and inform your readers but also helps to make your

business more visible.

To do that we’re going to use two different styles of content...

Evergreen content

Evergreen content is content that will remain relevant for

a long amount of time so that it’s shelf life is as long as

possible. Tutorials, lists and product reviews are a good

example of Evergreen content.

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Topical content

Whilst Evergreen content allows you to cover topics which

will stay relevant for a long time, you also want to take

advantage of current news and trends. If you’re quick and

have an opinion, you can capitalise on topical news and

boost your traffic.

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2.3 WHAT TYPES OF CONTENT DO WE NEED?

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Blog posts

The cornerstone of content marketing, blog posts can be

published both on your site and to others for backlinks.

Content comes in many shapes and sizes. For B2B’s we recommend focusing on 4 different types of

content:

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Infographics

A great source of backlinks, infographics explain a topic by

using graphical representations of statistics.

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Ebook’s

Ebook’s provide more in-depth information than blog posts and

are used to gather email addresses from prospects.

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Slideshows

Slideshows are a great way for B2B’s to create shareable

content that doubles up as thought leadership.

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*videos are also a great type of content but due to their relative cost we’ve left them out of this roadmap

2.4 CREATE A PLAN FOR DEVELOPING CONTENT

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What will you do each month?

For each content type (and depending on your budget) draw

out all the blog posts, infographics, ebooks and slideshows

you’ll be creating over the coming months.

A key part of the roadmap is having clear direction on what content needs to be created and by when.

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Focus on one topic at a time

Try focussing all your content production on one topic each

month, so for month 1 all our content would be around the

first goal/trigger your audience has. This will help you to

‘own’ a topic at a time.

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Come up with example titles

Using a mixture of evergreen and topical style content,

create example titles for your content. Your content should

be focussed on the goals and triggers we discussed in the

last chapter and should answer the common questions you

drew up.

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2.5 PLAN HOW TO DISTRIBUTE YOUR CONTENT

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Guest blogging

Guest blogs provide a way to raise awareness of your

business, share ideas with an audience which is different to

your blog and to generate backlinks. Use the information

you gathered about what your personas read and share to

find the ideal platforms to publish on.

Creating content is important but you also need to plan how to distribute it to your audience. Our

roadmap is going to focus on two distribution methods:

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Social media

Social media is like a cocktail party, it’s a great place to

meet lots of people but you can’t just talk about yourself.

As well as planning how and when to publish links to your

own content, you also want to plan how you will help and

engage with other people, and who the reliable sources are

within your industry that you can share content from.

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2.6 EXECUTION CHECKLIST

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How will you develop content?

We want simple, broad goals so that we can start

thinking about the questions your personas will have when

confronted with these goals.

Each time we create a piece of content we want to make sure it meets a set of requirements and

standards of quality. To do that we want to create an execution checklist. The checklist should cover:

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How will you prepare content?

We want to make sure that our content answers the

basic questions that your persoans will have. It will help to

talk to your sales team to understand what the common

questions and barriers prospects have.

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How will you distribute content?

Which platforms will you use? What will you say, how

often will you say it?

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2.7 HOW TO MEASURE PERFORMANCE

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What is the scope of work you’ll need to complete for this stage? What tools will you need? and what

metrics should you use to track performance?

CONVERSION STAGE 1

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Conversion stage 1 is the start of the lead nurturing process.

We want the email addresses of people who might be

interested in our product or service so that we can continue

a dialogue which will help

solve their problems with

our solutions. We do that

using ‘premium content’.

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3.1 WHAT IS CONVERSION STAGE 1?

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Each blog article you write will promote one piece of aligned premium content. When a prospective lead

fills out the form to get access to your premium content, they become a registered lead in your contact

database.

These leads are “information qualified” because they have

identified themselves to you because of the value of the

information provided in your premium content. As the lead

consumes your content, you begin to establish trust and thought

leadership.

» Plan for a new conversion stage 1 ebook every month

These top of the funnel ebooks are critical for turning

website visitors into prospects. With every ebook that

you create you can target a narrower segment of your

audience

3.2 WHAT TYPE OF CONTENT DO WE NEED?

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We suggest that a series of premium content ebooks are produced, each aimed at converting new traffic

by providing more information about the 3 goals your buyer personas have.

We use ebooks because of their less formal approach to a subject, their cheap relative cost to produce,

and the ease in which we can atomise content from them.

Make sure it focuses on benefits to the reader

Not just the topic you want to write about.

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It needs enough quality information

The promise of the value of the information within your

premium content must be high enough to persuade a

visitor to give you their contact information.

Your content then needs to deliver on that promise.

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Plan and research your topic

You want to present information on your topic in an

original and structured way.

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3.3 EXECUTION CHECKLIST

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Establish trust by demonstrating you understand the

reader

Who will be reading this ebook? What problems do the

readers have? What are they currently doing to solve the

problem?

Rather than a checklist, think of this as a starting point for thinking about the structure of your 2,000-

3,000 word ebook. The three step approach below will ensure that the need for helpful information is

met, establishing trust and thought leadership, before your positioning is introduced to the lead.

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What are the alternatives in your industry to solve the

reader’s problem?

What free solutions are available? Are there any

drawbacks to this approach? What professional

solutions are there?

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Introduce your recommended approach for the

problem and why

Ebook’s provide more in-depth information than blog

posts and are used to gather email addresses from

prospects.

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3.4 HOW TO MEASURE PERFORMANCE

8pxl

What is the scope of work you’ll need to complete for this stage? What tools will you need? and what

metrics should you use to track performance?

EMAIL STAGE 1

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Once we have a prospect’s email address we then want to

encourage them to move further down your sales funnel. We

do this with a series of

initial emails sent over a 15

day period.

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4.1 WHY DO WE USE EMAILS?

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Emails allow you to suggest other relevant content to your prospects which can educate them

further about their problems and the solutions available to them.

Answers common questions/pushbacks

Often your leads will have questions that they want

answered before feeling comfortable enough to

proceed.

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Keeps you at the forefront of their minds

They won’t just forget about you. Emails give your leads

further interactions and opportunities to proceed with

your business.

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Suggest relevant content

They continue to provide a helpful resource to your

lead after they’ve left your website.

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4.2 WHAT EMAILS SHOULD YOU SEND?

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Initially we’ll use a series of 3 emails sent 5 days apart suggesting relevant targeted blog articles or other

content assets. This process of “lead nurturing” ensures that Marketing Qualified Leads will identify

themselves to your business without feeling pressured. The goals of your initial emails are to:

Promote your conversion stage 2 content

We want to encourage your prospects to become

‘marketing qualified’ by moving further down your sales

funnel. We can also gather some more information

from your prospects at this stage.

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Answer common questions

You want to be answering common questions which

also validate the credibility and viability of your

business.

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Help leads become unstuck

A combination of answering common questions and

suggesting relevant content will help prevent leads from

becoming stuck at the stage they’re at.

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4.3 SO WHAT DOES STAGE 1 LOOK LIKE?

8pxl

So to recap, this is what the first conversion offer and email stage looks like:

4.4 HOW TO MEASURE PERFORMANCE

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What is the scope of work you’ll need to complete for this stage? What tools will you need? and what

metrics should you use to track performance?

CONVERSION STAGE 2

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This is a critical point in your sales funnel. If a prospect

continues past this point then they have verified themselves

as a marketing qualified

lead and are ready for

information specifically

relating to your businesses

products and services.

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5.1 WHAT IS CONVERSION STAGE 2?

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All of your leads should be directed towards your Conversion stage 2 offer. This creates a “filter” in

your sales process and leads that move through the filter can be considered Marketing Qualified.

Leads at this stage should be communicated to and nurtured differently, as they are clearly interested

in your offering, rather than the information you provide.

Sill provide helpful, actionable information

Your offer at this stage still needs to be helpful to your

audience only you can control the conversation a little

more and start telling the reader what you want to say.

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Create more offers over time

When starting out a business only really needs one

‘Conversion Stage 2’ offer. As you create more

‘Conversion Stage 1 offer’s’ you may want to consider

creating and matching them up to other targeted

‘Conversions Stage 2’ offers.

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5.2 WHAT TYPE OF CONTENT DO WE NEED?

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This offer should be centered around your product or service, rather than only providing valuable

industry information. When a lead takes action on an offer that is “mainly about you”, we know that

they are ready to consume product specific information that would be considered “salesy” if presented

earlier in the sales process.

Create a targeted ebook

We use ebook’s again at this stage to create insightful

documents at a relatively cheap cost.

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Make the guide more in depth

Remember, people at this stage have indicated that

they are looking for more in depth information on your

topic. You can afford to make your document feel more

substantial.

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Sell them your way of thinking, not your products

It’s tempting to introduce your products and services

as the saviors to your audiences problems. Instead

focus on the reasons why your approach is better, if a

reader understands and agree they’ll come to their own

conclusion that your product uses that appoach and is a

good match.

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5.3 EXECUTION CHECKLIST

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Establish trust by demonstrating you understand

the reader

Which types of businesses or individuals do you typically

work with? What problems or challenges do you solve?

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The role of the Conversion Stage 2 offer is to educate readers about how, specifically, your company/

brand will solve their problems. It should give them a taste of what the experience of working with you will

be like, preparing them for a more direct interaction with sales at the bottom of the funnel.

What services do you offer

How can they help your clients solve their problems?

How are your services different from your competitors?

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Describe the relationship

What’s it like working with you? What does the process

look like, how does a relationship with you proceed?

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Introduce the next step

If a reader wants to start working with your business or

learn more, how can they take the next step?

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5.4 HOW TO MEASURE PERFORMANCE

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What is the scope of work you’ll need to complete for this stage? What tools will you need? and what

metrics should you use to track performance?

EMAIL STAGE 2

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Our marketing qualified leads are close to being sales ready,

but there may still be issues and questions that we’ll need to

address.6

6.1 WHAT EMAILS SHOULD YOU SEND?

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This set of emails should be designed to address the common pushbacks or objections to working with

you or purchasing your products. Once you address these objections, your leads will be more likely to

take action on an offer to engage with sales and become a “Sales Qualified Lead”.

These objections often surface later in the sales

process

Talk with your sales team to understand the common

objections leads have before committing to a sale.

What are these pushbacks? What’s the best way of

handling them?

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Again use gaps of around 5 days per email

Spacing out suggestions of relevant content alongside

your sales offer gives your leads time to get the

information they need to move further down your sales

funnel.

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6.2 SO WHAT DOES STAGE 2 LOOK LIKE?

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So to recap what the second conversion offer and email stage looks like:

6.3 HOW TO MEASURE PERFORMANCE

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What is the scope of work you’ll need to complete for this stage? What tools will you need? and what

metrics should you use to track performance?

SALES OFFER

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This is the last part of your digital marketing roadmap. After

this stage your sales team take over, and using the information

we provide, close the

sale. At this stage we’re

aiming to provide value to

leads who are considering

purchasing your products

or services.

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7.1 WHAT IS THE SALES OFFER?

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Leads at this stage will be ready to interact directly with a member of sales, so it is important that the

offer results in a phone call or email follow up between your sales department and the lead.

This is the end of the digital marketing process. When a lead takes action at the bottom of the funnel

it means that they are “sales qualified” and they should be passed

over to your sales department to be converted into a customer.

A free consultation

Recommended for any B2B’s that sell services, a free initial

consultation gets your lead on the phone and talking about

their business.

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A project assessment/diagnostic

Some leads will require a higher level of value in order to take

action, such as a detailed project assessment or diagnostic.

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A free trial/demo of your services

If you sell products, a free trial or demo can get your leads to

start interacting with your products whilst you nurture them

further to turn them into customers.

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7.3 EXECUTION CHECKLIST

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The handoff of a Sales Qualified Lead from your marketing automation system to your sales team

is the most important piece of your content marketing strategy. Without revenue, your content

marketing engine isn’t delivering the value it’s capable of.

Validate sales readiness

Do they have questions? Do they not understand how

your products/services can help them? Were you not

able to contact them at all? These are symptoms that

the “sales qualified lead” is not actually ready for a sale.

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Upgrade lead to an opportunity

If the lead is educated, and actively considering your

products and services, your sales team must mark them

as an opportunity. Your sales team should be judged by

the conversion rate of opportunities to customers.

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Track revenue back to the source

Successful implementation of the blueprint will result

in an opportunity for your company to benefit from

“closed loop analytics”, meaning that all revenue

generated through this measurable process can be

attributed to a specific marketing activity.

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7.4 HOW TO MEASURE PERFORMANCE

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What is the scope of work you’ll need to complete for this stage, what tools will you need and what

metrics should you use to track performance?

RECAP

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A look at the whole

content marketing

roadmap

The diagram on the right

maps out the entire journey

from intial contact with your

business online through to

arranging a sales call.

We find it helps clients to see

their workflows mapped out

this way, especially for sales

teams and executives who

want to see the whole picture

at a glance.

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Conversion Stage 1

Conversion Stage 2

Sales Offer

Demand Generation

IMPROVING EFFICIENCY

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Marketing automationWhilst the roadmap and workflows that we’ve

created in this document can be executed

manually, it’s far more efficient to use marketing

automation software.

Marketing automation software allows you to

set-up and forget your marketing sales funnel,

freeing up more time and resources to spend

creating content.

The solution that we recommend and use

is Hubspot’s marketing system which allows

complete automation for the roadmap we’ve laid

out in this document.

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If you’re thinking about using marketing automation in

your business, speak to one of our specialists who will

be able to advise you on what solution is right for you.

NEED HELP?Pxl8 are a B2B digital marketing agency. We create marketing that draws the right people towards

your business, using content to guide prospects from total strangers through to delighted

customers.

8pxl

We help B2B businesses create their story, learn and

understand their key audiences and create content that

turns website visitors into leads and sales.

Visit us at www.pxl8create.com

or contact hello@pxl8create.com

Like the idea of creating an eBook like this rather than

another dull whitepaper? Or need help creating a

roadmap like the one we laid out? Get In Touch.

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