Capri is over. So is infobesity. Today’s B2B marketers understand that performance isn’t affected by spamming prospects… but by offering them quality resources, personalized to their stage in the customer journey. The right content, at the right time, for the right prospect.
And if you’re thinking “This kind of organization is far from the dolce vita… ”, then you haven’t yet heard of Content Mapping. This method of organization and mapping consists of classifying all your content in a single place, by theme, stage in the funnel and type of prospect.
Simplify, structure and optimize your lead nurturing strategy. We tell you more in this article 🤌
On the program:
- What is content mapping?
- Why create a content mapping?
- How do you go about Content Mapping?
- What tools should be used for content mapping?
What is Content Mapping?
Content Mapping: definition
Content Mapping consists of mapping all your content according to theme, target and positioning in the decision cycle. The aim of this classification is to bring all your resources together in a single table.
Imagine a large library: this is your Content Mapping. Inside, each of your resources is arranged on a shelf, according to its type, the targeted buyer persona or the phase of the funnel addressed (Discovery – Evaluation – Purchase – Loyalty).
This method of organizing and classifying resources is the foundation of an effectiveB2B content strategy. It enables you to visualize your B2B company’s web assets… And to analyze those that are performing well (or not), identify targets or funnel phases that are over-solicited (or not), and set up marketing automation scenarios for your lead nurturing (now there’s a choice!).
Once created, here’s what your organization tool might look like:
Content mapping… A priority for marketers?
Between 2020 and 2024, the objectives of B2B content strategies have evolved enormously. Our 2024 digital marketing barometer underlines this. In 2020, converting web traffic into leads was the top priority in content marketing… Whereas in 2024, this objective is as important as generating website traffic. This evolution underlines the key role of content in the entire customer journey… At every stage.
To understand and track the impact of resources at every stage of the sales journey, we’ve come to this: good organization is essential. And this, even though our barometer reveals that the trend in B2B is towards “less, but better” (in terms of web content creation and distribution): 73% of B2B marketers who have launched their inbound strategy and implemented marketing automation software publish less than 5 pieces of content in 3 months, or 1 to 2 blog posts per month.
So you might be thinking “In that case, why create a map, categorize resources, plot their performance data…?”. Come on, we won’t leave you without an answer. Let’s talk about it in the next section.
Why create a content map?
Content mapping: impact on B2B marketing strategy
Content maps are useful on a number of levels. In particular, they enable you to :
- Organize upstream of content creation and distribution : whether you have in-house resources, or use an external service provider (freelance, agency, etc.), this tool enables you to list all the resources to be created. And prioritize their production and management over time. At Plezi, we even note next to each idea the main SEO keyword, the person responsible, the desired publication date… All this information is essential, to structure our briefs, for our copywriter!
- Reinforce the global vision of the content marketing strategy: by using a single document to list all topics, formats, buyer personas, funnel phases… It’s easier to analyze the themes covered or not by the company. This global vision also lasts over time. At Plezi, when a new marketing employee joins or leaves the company, there’s no loss of information and no handover difficulties… We can also create a simplified view for our sales team, to share this vision.
- Implement or optimize lead nurturing: the aim is to accompany each prospect to maturity (in other words, to purchase, and more if affinity!), thanks to quality web content. This web content must respond to the audience’s problems, all along their journey. At Plezi, thanks to our resource map, we can easily identify the holes in the racket… And we can act quickly, to come up with new ideas and adapt the strategy.
Content is the fuel of content marketing. It’s also the engine of lead nurturing: carefully crafted content tailored to prospects is key to capturing their interest and maintaining their curiosity, at every moment of their journey with you.
Now, fasten your seatbelts: after the theory, let’s get down to business.
How do you go about content mapping?
To create your own “map” simply and effectively, here are the steps to follow:
Step 1: Identify target personas
It all starts with defining your marketing buyer personas. This is a fictitious detailed portrait of your marketing targets: who they are, their tastes, habits, needs, problems, etc.
This work is essential and requires the participation of all functions close to the buyers (sales, technicians, project managers, etc.).
The objectives are as follows:
- To have a clear idea of who your customer groups are, their characteristics, motivations, desires, obstacles and data;
- Understand their issues & what interests them;
- Study their information consumption habits.
The ultimate goal is to target your offer and marketing actions to attract them to your website & blog. By addressing the right topics, at the right time, for the right audience.
Step 2: Mapping the customer journey
Once you’ve defined your audience in terms of buyer personas, the question arises: what is each prospect’s typical customer journey and buying strategy? To answer this question, we move on to the second phase of mapping: mapping the buying funnel (or buyer’s journey).
Its role is to define the actions and resources to be put in place to support the persona at each stage of the B2B buyer’s journey. There are 4 such phases:
- The Discovery phase: your mission is to show the audience that you understand their issues, through adapted content.
- The Evaluation phase : prospects evaluate the different solutions on the market, so your content must convince them at this stage.
- The Purchase phase: the prospect is ready to commit. It’s up to you to offer them content that validates their decision!
- The Loyalty phase : the prospect is now a buyer, and you’d like to keep him that way. The content of this phase should help to keep them committed over the long term.
The first three stages of the funnel are the most important for B2B companies. Think about listing and analyzing prospect behaviors at each phase. Here’s an example:
| Buyer Stages | Awareness | Consideration | Decision |
|---|---|---|---|
| Behavior | The visitor hasn’t identified their problem yet and is searching for information. | The solution is clearly identified, and the user is searching for alternatives. | The future customer is about to confirm their purchase decision. They are verifying final points: timing, price, etc. |
| Concrete examples | My website traffic is very low. What’s wrong? | Ok, so I can improve my traffic with content. What are my options? | I choose the blog, which seems the best long-term ROI and visibility solution for me. |
Step 3: Associate content types with different stages of the journey
Here, the role is to identify which marketing content to create and distribute, at each phase of the customer journey. Before rushing into a mission to produce new resources, start by listing and classifying all the existing ones.
Then link each piece of content to the most appropriate phase of the funnel. You’ll then be able to identify :
- Gaps in certain phases of the funnel (e.g. 10 blog posts in the Discovery phase, but no content in the Evaluation or Purchasing phase).
- Resources that have become obsolete (e.g.: a “guide to successful marketing automation in 2021” is no longer relevant!)
- Existing content whose tone no longer fits (e.g. if your editorial line has evolved towards a lighter tone, resources with an overly corporate style will no longer do).
This inventory of existing content should be accompanied by the following questions: are my resources of sufficient quality? Is the information they contain relevant and up-to-date? Can certain resources be optimized by rewriting or recycling content?
If you’re a Plezi user, we recommend you use your “resource library” to do this. Look at the creation date of your existing resources and their performance (in terms of visits, leads, etc.), to make the right decisions.
Then, if necessary, you can create new resources to classify in your map, by phase of the buying funnel. Here are some ideas for the types of content you could produce:
| Discovery Phase | Evaluation Phase | Purchase Phase |
|---|---|---|
| Blog post | Emailing | Pricing page |
| Infographics | Case studies | Testimonials page |
| Videos | White papers | Features page |
| Social media posts | Webinars | Case studies |
| Checklist | Comparison guides | Demo |
| Practical guide | Demo | FAQ |
| Studies |
Step 4: Set up a process to “maintain” your Content Mapping
Remember: the aim of content mapping is to organize your content creation by theme, prospect and decision phase. This tool saves you time throughout your strategic process:
- Ideation: by mapping all existing content, you can quickly identify missing ideas to add to the schedule.
- Copywriting: by adding a column “keywords”, you can identify the SEO potential of content to be created, and thus more easily brief the person in charge of copywriting. It will also enable you to find, with a single click, other sources of articles to add to the mesh, so that you can pass them on during the briefing.
- Performance tracking: within your map, you can add creation and publication dates, and regularly update one or more KPI columns (views, click-through rate, etc.).
With each new idea or new content created and distributed, remember to update the mapping. It must always be up to date, to maximize the reliability of the information… And to identify new opportunities for your prospects, at every stage of the buying journey.
Up-to-date content mapping = a virtuous circle forever!
Step 5: Set up or update your lead nurturing
Your mapping serves as the basis for setting up or updating your lead nurturing strategy. Our advice:
- Delete out-of-date nurturing content. They can always remain stored in your Content Mapping, for future content recycling.
- Add content that is present in your Content Mapping but not in your nurturing. With Plezi’s intelligent campaign, you can activate or deactivate content with a single click!
In fact, the smart campaign is our favorite feature for B2B marketers: it responds to a nurturing logic by personalizing the automation, and therefore enables you to build a bond with your contact, by automatically sending them the content that seems most relevant to their journey.
The use of the smart campaign is only relevant after you’ve done your Content Mapping. Content mapping is a working document that provides a clear vision and structure for your content strategy. The intelligent campaign is then used to exploit the content from within Plezi.
Unlike the classic workflows offered by marketing automation solutions, the intelligent campaign relies on your visitors’ data to understand their interests, issues and positioning in the thought process.
Rather than presuming visitor behavior on your site with workflows, the intelligent campaign enables you to send the right content, at the right time, to the right prospect.
And if your question is: “but does it really work?”, here’s what we’ve measured:
| Comparison | Workflow | Smart Campaign |
|---|---|---|
| Open rate | 22% | 25% |
| Click rate | 2.4% | 3.9% |
| Marketing qualification duration | 54 days | 45 days |
Study : the B2B digital barometer survey
Ready to take action? Here’s what you need to do:
- Structure your content strategy within a Content Mapping framework.
- Then, intelligently exploit this content from within Plezi, thanks to our intelligent campaign.
What tools should I use for content mapping?
There’s no need to break the bank to create your mapping. Use your everyday tools to simplify organization and audience data processing. For example, at Plezi, we use Google Sheet. We also like Excel and Airtable, Miro for mind mapping and Notion for centralization.
Here’s what our Content Mapping looks like. Each piece of content is categorized by type, prospect, phase of the customer journey, sector, person in charge, status, creation and publication date, keywords and URL, as well as content performance tracking!
Would you like to create simple, effective content mapping? Without juggling 12 difficult-to-use tools? Cut to the chase and simplify your life with our Content Mapping Kit. It’s compatible with all spreadsheet programs (Excel, Google Sheet, Airtable…).
