[TEMPLATES] B2B Content Mapping Example for Digital Strategy

What’s the most common cause of failure for a B2B digital marketing campaign? Most often, it’s either poor understanding of how inbound marketing works, or lack of commitment to a plan.

The first point is a monthlong course in itself, so today’ let’s tackle the latter: bad planning (or good planning with poor follow-through).

While only you or your boss can 100% fix your issues with follow-through, we can provide content planning tools to save you time.

Companies that rely on a SMART marketing goals template –are more likely to see inbound marketing ROI. Companies that strategize and develop content ideas off-the-cuff almost always see slower and inferior traffic and lead generation vs. competitors.

Creating your next digital marketing plan? Use the (two!) content mapping templates below. These are shining examples of being organized, efficient, and capable of easily tracking progress. Customize yours based on your company goals and buyer persona:

In a hurry or viewing on mobile? Grab a free, editable content plan/calendar template here:

How to Use Your Content Mapping Templates

You can skip ahead to the digital marketing plan templates by clicking here. If you're a novice, review these inbound marketing best practices before starting a B2B content calendar:

1. Persona rules all
2. Keep 12-month goals in mind …
3. … But limit planning to 3-month blocks
4. Leave wiggle room
5. Be able to explain the “why”

“Content calendar” is a bit misleading, as you should leave time each month for SEO (search engine optimization) checkups, strategy reviews, and other tasks unrelated to actual content creation.

1. Persona Rules Everything

Welcome to the golden rule of how to create a content map.

A huge reason why traditional marketing has lost effectiveness – and old-school marketers struggle with inbound marketing – is the continued overreliance on “me” messaging.

The “always be selling/closing” mindset tends to turn away B2B buyers who are now more interested in self-educating through internet research. Today, an “always be helping” approach is more likely to build trust and authority during the long B2B sales cycle.

Since effective B2B inbound marketing strategy leans so much on educating the prospect, you’ve got to know:

• Who needs the information
• What information they need
• Why they need it
• How they want to receive it
• Where they’ll see it
• When they want it

If you haven’t already, you’ll need to research the answers:

• Buyer persona workshop with internal stakeholders (exec, marketing, sales, & customer service)
• Buyer journey workshop with internal stakeholders 
• Interviews with great-fit customers (past or present)
• Audit of past content & keyword performance
• Analysis competitors who use inbound marketing

The answers you get will influence the keywords you want to rank for, and the topics you want to include in your content strategy map.

2. Keep the Next Year in Mind

Have your “where you’d like to be in a year” goals in mind while creating. Working backwards can be incredibly helpful for figuring out where to begin. 

For example, if you’re on the hook to increase your website’s lead conversion rate by 85% in the next year, invest extra time in:

• Adding more “premium” offers (i.e. e-books) to the site
• UX – simpler menu navigation, and linking relevant pages to each other
• Making sure every page has a conversion opportunity

Harken back to your company’s long-term marketing, sales, and overall business goals frequently and make sure your road map matches those objectives.
 

3. … But Limit Yourself to 3 Months’ Advance Planning

There’s a 1% chance that your yearly marketing calendar will go 100% as planned. If this is your first year of trying an SEO or content marketing plan, the odds are more like 0.1%.

A smaller road map keeps you organized and efficient while allowing you to measure success and adjust tactics without having to wait a whole year. Keep your annual marketing plan handy for reference, but only lay out your execution schedule 3 months at a time.

4. Leave Room for Flexibility

Depending on how often your industry shifts (and how much your exec team meddles in marketing affairs), consider leaving at least 10% of your monthly capacity open. This allows wiggle room for unplanned work (i.e. an article that addresses breaking industry news) and miscellaneous requests (i.e. your boss wants a target industry highlighted more on the website).

Don’t leave too much room for flexibility, and don’t constantly rework your quarterly plan. You still have previous, mutually agreed-upon goals to meet. Inefficient planning and interruptions will delay you meeting your set digital marketing goals and metrics.

5. Be Able to Explain the ‘Why’

Bake an “explainer” section into each strategic move and tactic. This has two benefits:

• Shows stakeholders why the task is important
• Helps the “doer” (the writer, designer, or SEO staffer handling the task) how to approach it

Here’s an example:

• To-Do: New Blog Site Creation
  
  
• Activities: Create a subdomain for the blog and add it to the
  main navigation of the site.
  
  
• Impact (Analytics): Creating a subdomain allows us to grab analytics quickly for individual blog posts, and more easily adapt our strategy based on the data.
  
  
• Impact (Efficiency): Our content team will be able to easily publish and edit approved blog posts, without the overhead of getting the web developer involved. 

If you’re constantly feeling in “prove-it” mode with stakeholders, call back to the big-picture goals frequently. Remind them as clearly as possible of how each marketing asset will help meet those goals.

For your content-creation team, give examples where pertinent. The team will work more quickly and effectively if it has successful examples of the assets you want created. Take an extra moment to find that great example of a Services webpage, e-book design, etc. – it’ll save rework time later.

B2B Content Mapping Templates

With that out of the way, here are two free-to-use templates. The first is a strategy/execution road map, and the second is an editorial content calendar example.

For the examples, we’ll pretend to be a metal fabrication company called MFG that serves industrial customers America-wide:

Marketing/Sales Strategy Road Map

Use strategy road maps as guideline to what you’ll complete each month, who will be involved, and how much effort you’ll invest in each aspect of inbound marketing:

Month 1

Month 2

Month 3

A few notes about what you see above:

• Including a “Who?” section ensures it’s clear early on who’s responsible for what.
  
  
• The “Effort” helps keep expectations in check and ensures you’re not overextending your team. In our example, “1” = an estimated 1 hour of effort.
  
  
• We excluded it for the sake of space, but you may want to add a “Notes” column for leaving special instructions and resources.
  
  

Blog Content Calendar Example

This calendar is where you get specific about the topics and keywords you’ll use to reach potential customers. For simplicity’s sake, this will be a blogging-only calendar (with exceptions for when supporting content is necessary):

A few notes about the calendar:

• Make sure everyone responsible for content has access to the document to ensure there’s no confusion over who’s doing what.
  
  
• If you want to record/analyze the different content types you use (i.e. infographic, “how-to” article, video-based post), add a “Type” column.
  
  
• The “Stage” column helps you keep track of how much content you’re creating for each step of the buyer’s journey.
  
  

Supplement Your Content Mapping Template With This:

With a documented plan in place, you’ll be more prepared to stay organized and on-time, and hold all parties accountable.

Remember: The examples above are just that – examples. There‘s no one-size-fits-all approach you can copy for your inbound/content marketing plan template

If a tactic doesn’t feel right for your company, don’t do it! If you’re not sure, refer to your buyer persona and company goals as your guiding light. Or, if you lack the time or experience to build a B2B content marketing plan, consider outsourcing strategy and/or execution to a full-service inbound marketing agency.

To see how your website efforts stack up vs. your competitors’, try a free marketing assessment: