Just a decade ago, content marketing seemed so much simpler, didn’t it? An article with an image did wonders and could be used in a direct mail piece of posted on the company website. Fast forward and it’s becoming quite a complex space. This visualization of the content marketing space as a Periodic table, is quite ingenious. It was produced by Chris Lake, Director of Product Development at Econsultancy.
Click on the preview on our site to get the full image, it’s worth printing and putting on your desk. Or perhaps on a board that you can toss a dart at and focus your attention that day on a specific strategy, format, type, platform, metric, goal, trigger or just go back and optimize existing content! In the last week, for example, we’ve gone through over 100 articles on Martech to update links, videos, content, or imagery. We’ve also deleted a couple dozen articles on technology or past events that no longer provide any value on the site.
How to use the Periodic Table of Content Marketing
On it, Chris walks through his 7-step guide to content marketing success, starting with the strategy and ending with double-checking and optimizing your work.
- Strategy – The fundamental key to success. Planning and focus is essential. You need a clear strategy, mapped to your long-term business goals. Econsultancy also has a very useful best practice guide on content strategy.
- Format – Content comes in many different shapes and sizes. Note that you can use multiple formats for a single piece of content.
- Content Type – These are based on the common types of content that work well for Econsultancy.
- Platform – These are content distribution platforms. You might own some of these (e.g. #59, your website). Others are social sites (your own, your network, third parties). All of these help spread the word about your content.
- Metrics – These help you to measure the performance of your content. For the purposes of brevity, metrics are grouped together (e.g. acquisition metrics).
- Goals – All content should support your primary business goals, whether that’s to generate lots of traffic, or to sell more, or to increase brand awareness. Laser-guided content will tick a few of these boxes.
- Sharing Triggers – This is largely inspired by Unruly Media’s triggers for sharing content. Think about the emotional drivers behind sharing, and make sure the content you create makes people feel something.
- Checklist – All content should be properly optimized for search, for social, and to support your business goals.
