Create a Content Matrix in 8 Easy Steps

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A content matrix is a visual tool that helps brands organize their content according to their audience’s needs. It provides you with a better understanding of your audience’s perception of the content and allows you to develop high-quality content relevant to your audience.

A content matrix arranges content based on where it will fall in the conversion funnel and what tactics you need to use to reach your target audience. So, the first part will measure where your piece of content falls along the conversion process, and the other part measures how that piece of content will resonate with your audience.

The content matrix tool is a framework that assesses the content and plans where you can take it. It helps you to highlight strengths and locate the weak spots as well.

Benefits of a Content Matrix

Developing a content matrix may seem too much work. However, it is definitely worth all the time and effort to get your content matrix to act together. Here are some of the benefits of a content matrix:

1. Identifies areas that need improvement

A content matrix helps organize content in an easy way to read. You can simply scan through the content matrix to identify areas where content needs exist or are lacking. For example, you may notice that there isn’t much content available for a particular stage of the buyer’s journey compared to the other stages. So, the content matrix tool allows you to improve and make changes to your marketing strategy.

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2. Sales enablement strengthened

A content matrix will ensure that you always have quality content for every stage of the buyer’s journey. It helps to move leads in the right direction due to well-targeted content. Once you have your content matrix in place, you will notice that the buying process will improve, and you will soon see an increase in conversion rates.

3. Generate new ideas

A content matrix allows you to evaluate and check what type of content you have already written before and helps you generate new and fresh ideas for your future content. So, with a content matrix tool, you can find topics that you can delve deeper into or probably think of content that’s relevant to your audience.

A Step-By-Step Guide to Developing a Content Matrix

1. Define your buyer personas

Before you start creating a content matrix, you need to define your buyer personas. Once you create your buyer personas, you will better understand your audience. Buyer personas are fictional representations of your customers. Some details that make up a buyer’s personas include age, gender, job title, goals, hobbies, needs, etc.

2. Map the buyer’s journey

Once you’ve done defining your buyer personas, the next step is to go ahead and map your buyer personas. A buyer’s journey consists of the awareness stage, the consideration stage, and the decision stage. So, you must map your buyer’s journey to get a clearer picture.

3. Decide on the right content medium

The next step is to pick up suitable content mediums to reach out to your buyers at each stage of their journey. You must determine which types of content will work best for you.

4. Put it all together

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The next step in the content matrix is to import and map all the information you’ve collected in a spreadsheet. The buyer journey stages should be shown on the horizontal axis, and the buyer personas should be on the vertical axis.

5. Identify the approach

In the awareness and education stages, engaging content will have the most significant impact. This can be in the form of attention and engaging content that will grab attention immediately. However, in the later stages, you need to focus on content that justifies the value of the solution.

6. Conduct a content audit

To understand what content you currently have on hand and what content can be altered or changed to meet your needs in the content matrix, you must look at conversion rates and perform a data-driven content audit. Identify the gaps and make changes accordingly.

7. Set your content production plan

Once you’ve understood your content gaps, you must create a content production plan to address the areas lacking. Consider your past content creation efforts when building this plan. To identify the content that must be shared with your audience, use the go-to-market version of your content matrix in conjunction with the content production matrix.

8. Keep your content matrix current

Once you publish content on the content production matrix, you must move this content to your go-to-market version of the content matrix. It’s essential to keep the go-to-market matrix current and updated so that you can easily audit the existing content and adjust the content marketing strategy accordingly.

Having a content matrix put in place will give you a better idea of your existing content. It will also give you a clear picture of how things work together to nurture leads through the buyer’s journey.

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