content.creation.guide (650kb)

Six Templates for B2B MarketersReading Time: 20 Minutes

CONTENTCREATION GUIDE

A PARDOT

GUIDEQuick

A Pardot Quick Guide

Content Creation Guide

Benefits of a Content Strategy

Identifying Business Goals

Worksheet: Identifying Goals

Identifying Buyer Personas

Worksheet: Buyer

Basic Planning

Worksheet: Planning

Mapping out Content Needs

Worksheet: Content Mapping

Planning Content Distribution

Worksheet: Content Distribution

Making an Editorial Calendar

Editorial Calendar

Conclusion

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Today’s B2B marketers are under constant pressure to create a steady stream of worthwhile and relevant content. When you are busy, sitting down to map out a content marketing strategy may seem like a waste of valuable time, but taking this extra step can benefit you in several ways:

Save time and money.Understanding how the content you are creating relates to your overall business goals can help you to rule out projects that aren’t going to be beneficial, ultimately saving your business invaluable resources.

Focus your content.Defining the needs of your customers ensures that your content emphasizes the points that will be most important to them, focusing your efforts on closing the deal.

Get organized.Planning a timeline for the distribution of your content ensures that your content is relevant and flows logically. It also allows

you to establish cadence in publishing content.

The wrong content (or the right content at the wrong time) is a waste of your efforts. The worksheets in the following kit will help you to focus and organize your content marketing initiatives, paving the way to more effective content.

Why Map Out a Content Strategy?

With inbound marketing on the rise, the popularity of content marketing has exploded into a widespread phenomenon. But how

important is it to map out an official content strategy?

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Content examples

case studies

blog posts

white papers

demo videos

customer testimonials


Before you begin mapping out a content marketing plan, it’s a good idea to lay out the basic components of your business, product and target audience. Having this information laid out in a worksheet can help you to identify key messages and strengths around which to build content.

The worksheet on the next page will ask you to do the following three things:

1. Determine overall goals.Does your business have a slogan, mission statement or set of defined business goals? Any content you create should tie back to these fundamental business goals.

2. Define your customer.It’s important to gain an understanding of your buyer personas. What are some key characteristics of your target audiences? What company size is the best fit for your product? Who are your key decision makers in the sales cycle and what is the best way to reach them? Answering these questions will help you to determine some of the greatest challenges you will face in reaching your target audiences, and how these challenges can be overcome.

3. Identify your strengths.What sets your company and your product apart from competitors? Knowing your strengths can help you identify key messages around which to base content, and defining your company culture can help you to develop a consistent voice across your content.

01Identifying GoalsIdentifying overall business goals and key messages can lead to

more focused and effective content that highlights your company’s strengths and meets your target customer’s needs .

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Mapping out your goals can help you anticipate your greatest challenges.



01 Worksheet:Identifying Goals

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Overall business goals / mission statement:

Describe your target customer(s):

What are the basic needs of your target customer(s)?

How does your product meet these needs?

Briefly describe your company culture and some of your greatest strengths.

What sets your product apart from competitors in your field?

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02Buyer PersonasTake a moment to identify the questions and concerns of different

buyer personas at each stage of the sales cycle.

The greatest challenge in content marketing is making sure that the right person receives the right content at the right time. To make this task a little less intimidating, use the template on the following page to identify concerns and questions to be answered for buyer personas at each stage of the sales cycle. Depending on how many buyer personas you will be working with (initiator, influencer, decision-maker, buyer, user, etc.) you may need to print off several copies.

Consider concerns at each of the following stages:

EarlyAt the beginning of the sales cycle, your potential buyers may not even be aware that they have a problem. It is extremely important to understand the individual needs of each of your personas at this stage, and be able to identify the strongest selling points of your product for each.

MiddleOnce a prospect has a general understanding of how your product will help solve their problem, it’s time to identify the aspects of your product that set you apart from competitors, and apply it to each persona’s specific needs. For example, a “user” persona may be particularly concerned with your product’s ease of use at this stage.

LateIn the later stages of the sales cycle, each persona will have specific needs that need to be met before the sale is closed. For example, an “influencer” at this stage may be looking for content to help them sell their CEO on your product. Also, remember that some personas, such as the “decision-maker,” may not enter the sales cycle until later stages.

Make sure the right person receives the

right content at the right time.



02 Worksheet:Buyer Personas

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Middle

Early

Late

Early

Middle

Late

Early

Middle

Late

Questions/Concerns

Persona

Persona

Persona


Having a concrete content plan mapped out can help to keep your efforts focused and on track.

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Planning a new content marketing initiative may seem like a straightforward enough task, but taking the time to map out a concrete plan can help to keep your efforts focused and on track. When approaching a new content marketing initiative, use the template on the next page to map out your plan.

Some key points to address in this stage:

How will this initiative meet your business goals?It’s important to ask yourself this question with any project. In defining your reasoning for taking on a project, you may find that you are adopting a project strictly because other businesses have adopted it, when in fact it doesn’t really apply to your business plan. Taking a moment on this extra step

can ensure that you are only pouring company resources into projects that contribute to your overall business goals.

Who is responsible?When filling out this portion of the spreadsheet, be sure to think through the entire process of completing the initiative.

What do you need to do before you begin? Who will be responsible for each portion of the project? Will the project require regular updates or maintenance after it is completed?

03Basic PlanningPlanning out content marketing initiatives adds structure and

organization to your projects, and prevents you from wasting time on initiatives that will not benefit the bottom line.

A Pardot Quick Guide9

03 Worksheet:Basic Planning

One sentence description of objective

Who is in charge?

How will this objective meet our business goals?

Potential costs

Anticipated total cost

Goal for completion date

Delegation of tasks

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04Content MappingUse a content mapping template to determine the most effective

content for each stage, and identify areas where new content is needed.

Once you have identified your different buyer personas and the concerns that your personas may have at each stage, it’s time to map out which content will best address these concerns. Use the mapping template on the following page to determine which content will be sent to each persona and when. This method of laying out your content strategy can also help you to identify areas where more content is needed.

Refer back to your former template to make sure your content is directly addressing concerns at each stage (early, middle and late).

For a general guide to appropriate content at each stage, see the chart below.


Map out content that will address concerns

at each stage.

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CONTENT & THE NURTURING PROCESS

industry studies

blog posts

case studies

demo videos

product-specific blog posts

buyers guide

reviews

customer testimonials

success kits


04 Worksheet:Content Mapping

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321

Stages

Persona

Content

Content Content

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05Content DistributionGreat content can go to waste without proper methods of

distribution. Determine the appropriate outlets through which to disperse your content.

You’ve identified each of your buyer personas, their specific needs, and the best content to address these needs and concerns. It’s time to determine the best outlets for distributing your content.

Here are a couple of points to keep in mind:

Know your audience. Reconsider all that you know about your different buyer personas. What is their preferred outlet of communication? Are they active on social media? Do they frequent specific websites?

Consider the format. Can your content be organized into a fun infographic and sent out over social media? Keep in mind that a single piece of content can be distributed through more than one channel. Cross-sell your content: if you post an infographic to your blog, be sure to announce the posting on Twitter, send out an eblast with blog updates, etc.


Understand the ways in which your target audience interacts with each distribution outlet. Channel examples

email

Twitter

LinkedIn

blog/website


05 Worksheet:Content Distribution

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Persona Questions/Concerns Content DistributionStage

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1

1

2

2

2

3

3

3

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06Editorial CalendarCreating an editorial calendar to determine what

content is distributed and when helps to keep content marketing efforts organized.

When it comes to content marketing efforts, timing is everything, and using an editorial calendar is one of the most effective ways to stay organized. Editorial calendars can vary depending on the type of content. The generic template on the following page is a great way to keep up with content of all types.

A few things to consider when filling out your editorial calendar:

Establish themes. Once you have amassed a certain amount of content and have a good grasp on the type of content that is most useful to each of your audiences, consider planning your content around a particular theme each week. This will give your content an organized feel. For example, focusing your blog posts around a particular theme on a given week will allow you to include teasers for the next day’s blog post, enticing readers to come back.

Schedule postings.Mapping out the outlets through which you want to promote your blog posts is a great way to stay organized and save time, particularly when you are able to schedule your promotions through a marketing automation system. If you know which outlets (social media outlets, daily digest emails, etc.) you want to use to promote your content through and when, you can schedule posts to go out when you want them to. This saves time and makes your efforts easily trackable.


When it comes to your content marketing

efforts, timing is everything.

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A Pardot Quick Guide15

06 Worksheet:Editorial Calendar

Scheduled?Day

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

Sunday

Title(s) of Content Twitter Facebook Other

Outlets for Promotion

Y / N

Y / N

Y / N

Y / N

Y / N

Y / N

Y / N

Week of: Theme:

Pardot offers a best-in-class marketing automation platform that manages prospect interactions such as site visits, email, forms, and more. The on-demand suite solves the integration challenges faced by B2B marketers by allowing control of once disparate online and offline marketing tools in one central interface.

In today’s inbound marketing world, content marketing is more than a trend --it’s a necessity. The valuable information you distribute helps prospective buyers educate themselves to a sales-ready state, saving time for everyone involved. With so much resting on effective content marketing, taking the time to map out a detailed strategy to ensure that you’re getting the right content to the right leads, in the most efficient way possible is a worthwhile effort.

Contact us:Tel: 877.3.B2B.ROITel: 404.492.6845Online: www.pardot.com

Nice to Meet You!

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Pardot LLC950 East Paces Ferry RdSuite 3300Atlanta, GA 30326


In Conclusion

content.creation.guide (650kb)

Marketing

wrong content

relevant content

right content

publishing content

effective content

content needs worksheet

content marketing strategy

content marketing plan