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For your journey to be successful, you need to know where you are, where you want to go, and the routes you can take to get there. Much like driving a car with GPS, a content strategy roadmap can help you make complex decisions and reach your destination.
What is a content strategy roadmap?
A content strategy roadmap is a high-level plan designed to achieve your marketing goals. It provides a comprehensive view of content development and distribution at each stage of the marketing funnel (awareness, consideration, and decision). It should include key initiatives, who is responsible for each, and timelines for completing them.
While a content strategy roadmap is similar to a content calendar, it's more comprehensive. It focuses on the high-level steps to achieving high-level goals rather than the fine, tactical details of creating individual content pieces. Think of it as a macro view of your content marketing plan that helps you stay on track as you work toward success. (See the sidebar below for more information on how to create a content calendar.)
Essential components of a content roadmap
A content roadmap should provide a clear overview without diving too deeply into specific action steps. When you're ready to create it, look for the critical elements that should be included:
- Target group: Who you want to reach
- Goals: What you want the audience to do after engaging with your content
- Content plan: The type of content you will create and how you plan to distribute it (e.g. blog posts, white papers, social media)
- Project milestones: Important moments you will follow, such as kickoff, first draft, final draft, and release dates
- Interest groups: The team members responsible for each initiative and any other departmental partners you may involve as needed.
Create your content roadmap
The first step in developing your roadmap is to determine what priority goals you want to achieve. For example, do you want to grow your customer base, generate leads, convert prospects into customers, engage your audience to improve customer retention, or all of the above? The goals you select are the goals your content roadmap will lead to.
Next, evaluate your existing content – this represents where you are now. Identify evergreen assets that are usable as is, content that needs updating, and stories that don't align with your goals and can be discarded. This process will help you establish the starting point for your map.
From there, identify gaps along the way that need to be filled and the effort required to do so. This represents the possible routes you can take to your goal.
Your efforts may include keyword research, working with your sales team, and analyzing customer data to find out what content resonates with your audience. By evaluating these factors, you'll identify the milestones you need to achieve throughout your content journey.
Standard features of effective content roadmaps
Although their structure and design may vary from company to company, effective roadmaps typically have the following in common:
- Visual clarity: Your roadmap should be easy to understand at a glance, whether it takes the form of a flowchart, a timeline or a map.
- A well-organized structure: This ensures consistency when multiple team members contribute to the development of the roadmap.
- Accessibility: The entire path – and all the steps in between – should be easily understood by others, including senior stakeholders.
- Liquid: The roadmap should be easy to update or revise as your strategy, goals or customer insights change.
When you're ready to create your content roadmap, a robust content management system can help streamline the process and make it easier to update, organize, and optimize your content strategy.
How to create an effective content calendar
As industries evolve, marketing teams need to respond quickly while staying organized. A content calendar enables this by helping you keep track of the content you're publishing, where and when.
What is a content calendar?
A content calendar is a tool that represents your publishing schedule across different channels. It helps you track content for different purposes, including blog posts, social media updates, and press releases.
The level of detail may vary, but a well-structured calendar keeps everyone on the same page and ensures you provide your audience with a consistent stream of high-quality content.
Three steps to creating a content calendar
- Define results: Make sure all business goals and stakeholder priorities are taken into account and that all assets you plan are aligned with your strategic content roadmap.
- Set a schedule: Establish a realistic cadence for content creation based on available team resources. Consider using a content management system to speed up all steps of your publishing process.
- Create and fill: Fill your calendar with important information like topics, channels, due dates, and links to drafts. Don't forget to note important events or critical topics that resonate with your audience.
Once created, continually evaluate the performance of your calendar and make adjustments to optimize your strategy as new insights come to light.
About Brightspot
Brightspot is your CMS solution for delivering brilliant, modern digital experiences with a flexible, fast and secure platform you can rely on to continuously improve your content approach. A powerful enterprise-class tool and template package that can be tailored to your specific business needs today and tomorrow. Our robust, ready-to-use library is fully customizable to meet the needs of your business, content contributors and developers. But that's not all: we offer the flexibility to design front-end experiences to ensure content delivery exactly how you need it. For more information on why Brightspot is the right CMS platform for your business, visit our website here. Want to learn how Brightspot can support your digital strategy? Chat with an expert today!
Create your very own Auto Publish News/Blog Site and Earn Passive Income in Just 4 Easy Steps
