The Content Marketing Matrix – Why good ideas are not always new ideas
- Written by
- Deepika Sulekh
Stuck in a content marketing maze? Not sure on the ‘how’ when it comes to reaching customers and promoting your products/services effectively and through the right channels?
Tried and tested, the Content Marketing Matrix isn’t a new idea, but remains a reliable tool to help direct your content marketing actions.
Great marketing starts with great content, and great content needs purpose, direction and goals. The matrix is a framework to help direct your marketing based on your specific content goals, whether you want/need to entertain, inspire, educate or convince your audience. It’s a tool that guides customers along their path to purchase in the most direct and effective way.
How do you use it?
It’s simple. Think about whether your product, service or marketing initiative is based on a rational or emotional spend. Now think about what you want your customers to achieve from the content you’re producing. Do you want to generate awareness of something new? Lead them to purchase a product? Or share useful information? Based on the corner of the matrix you think your answers are heading, it gives you ideas on the types of content marketing you should be using. You can also use it in content planning and ensure it caters for a wide variety of interests.
Let’s break these down:
Entertain
Making content fun, engaging and even viral is the best way of creating a buzz and generating awareness. Content like competitions, quizzes, games, and videos gets people talking, actively engaging with your brand and gives you data for follow up content.
Inspire
Inspirational content is great in connecting with emotional decision makers especially in the later stages of the buying process. Make it about people and relate to them. Show them reviews and ratings about how other people felt or let them tell it for themselves in a public forum. Endorsements also associate your brand with an inspiring person, bringing their following to your business too.
Educate
If you have a lot of fact-based content or technical information to share, you need to make this clear and easy to understand for your customers so they can continue to the conversion stage without hesitating. Guides and infographics are often easy to follow and add a visual impact. Reports, articles and press releases work well for giving more information and detail.
Convince
Prove that your product or service works. Show off your product features, let people try things via interactive demos and make calculations and guides easily accessible and understandable for everyone. Convincing content has a huge influence on purchase decisions and is often one of the last considerations before a customer converts.
Towards the centre of the matrix, you can find e-news, ebooks, demo videos and events. These types of content often have potential to go any way you like because of their flexible nature. See if you can add your own spin here and make it relevant to what your customers want.
So, next time your mind goes blank when you think about your content marketing, try using this framework. Think about a specific customer demographic to start with, and the awareness stage or emotion type that would apply to them.
Looking for help around planning, strategy and implementation? Contact ninetyblack to see how we could be the perfect design, web and marketing fit for your business. Call 0800 90 25 22 or visit www.ninetyblack.com.