How to Create Truly Useful Content Maps
Content is critical in B2B sales lead generation. Content MUST be relevant to buyers. The best way to create relevant content is via buyer personas and a content map. This is how to create a useful content map (and how not to)
Recently, I was in a meeting with a division of a very large global firm. Our CEO (of a revenue marketing company) and my boss (at the time) wrote out a content map. It looked like this:
| Awareness | Consideration of Options | Evaluation | Selection | |
| Financial Buyer | ||||
| Operational Buyer |
Then the client asked my boss what content to use at each stage, so he suggested and wrote in things like white papers, videos, podcasts, etc.
| Awareness | Consideration of Options | Evaluation | Selection | |
| Financial Buyer | White papersVideosPodcasts | Lease vs. Buy article | ROI calculator | |
| Operational Buyer |
That was the wrong answer!
I bit my tongue and said nothing at all. I did not want to show up my boss, but this is NOT the right content to put in the boxes, and my former boss should have known better, since he says he’s the best marketing services person in the company.
What he just wrote are media types, not content messages.
Here’s a better way to do it:
First let’s rename the Awareness stage to what I used in the popular white paper, How to Find New Customers – Untroubled/Unaware. (Click the link to download this free white paper, if you’ve not already done so.) This person does not see the problem or they are not aware a solution to the problem exists – which is why we call this Untroubled/Unaware. To come up with key messages, let’s pretend you are having a conversation with a skeptical buyer:
Let’s pretend you are in a diner, having a cup of coffee with that prospective buyer. You mention your product or service to her. She says “I don’t need it.”(Your product or service.) But she’s still there and you continue to talk. In this relaxed setting, you might wish to share with her how big the problem really is or the results that her peers have gotten from solving it. There’s give and take. Finally she says “A-ha, I get it now. It makes perfect sense.”
That conversation in the coffee shop is what goes in the boxes – the gist of that conversation. Your content message have to move people to action. Those conversation snippets are what goes into your content to create relevant messaging.
Here’s the updated content map, but now with new column headings and much better messages.
| Untroubled/Unaware | Have Problem | Need Solution | Whom to Consider | |
| Financial Buyer | Size of the problem, what others have done to solve it. | How to quantify the problem. Impact of problem on people. | Results of solving the problem. | |
| Operational Buyer |
I also want to point out the need to develop deep buyer personas. The only way to have quality conversations is with a deep understanding of buyer motivations. Those come from unstructured phone conversations and the collection of important data. That means a plan to collect information like the 5 Rings of Buyer Insight (Trademark of the Buyer Persona Institute). As expert Adele Revella wrote “To succeed with buyer personas, you need new skills.” (For a top expert, check out Buyer Persona.) And I’m pleased to announce that Find New Customers now offers a Buyer Persona Service to craft best practices buyer persona programs for you – which feed highly effective marketing campaigns and sales enablement.
This key step was skipped in the example above and the client had problems crafting messaging. The bottom line: Failing to create quality buyer personas hurts downstream marketing activities.
We hope this helps you craft truly useful Content Maps. And we invite you to select our Buyer Persona Service. We love to read your comments and appreciate those who share on social media.
Jeff Ogden of Find New Customers is an award-winning B2B marketing expert who was twice named Top 50 Influencer in Sales Lead Management, and he’s Certified in Buyer Personas by the Buyer Persona Institute.
