Once you create content, you need to decide how you are going to distribute it. To figure this out, you need to consider the context in which your audience will view the content and then use that to alter the content accordingly. In short, you need a content marketing channel plan that considers these seven factors:
Situational analysis
Channel objectives
Content/conversation plan (how you’re telling your story)
Metrics
Personas addressed
Content management process
Editorial calendar
1. Situational analysis
This is your first step and the universal one that addresses all the marketing channels. This is where you use the information from your persona and engagement cycle mapping to look at your current “situation” to determine where you can have the most impact with your story.
Obviously some of your existing marketing efforts (e.g., your blog and website) will come into play here. The idea is to map what you currently have to what you need to effectively tell your story. Ask yourself:
What do we already have that helps us tell this story (e.g., an existing website, blog, Facebook page, Twitter account, corporate materials, article marketing effort, etc.)?
What must change in order for us to tell this story (e.g., do we need to add a blog, develop a separate blog, create or revisit our social web strategy)?
What must stop (if anything) for us to tell this story (e.g., do we need to stop using Facebook and divert our energy to a blog)?
Out of this situational analysis will come some prioritization, budget consideration, and more tactical things that need to get done.
2. Channel objectives
This is where you map objectives of the marketing channels to the engagement cycle (remember these are tightly woven with your ultimate goals). And it’s perfectly okay if a channel only “contributes” to another channel.
For example, based on the goals of your content marketing and the story you are telling, you may decide that the primary objective of your Facebook page is to create increased and loyal traffic to your ultimate content (let’s say it’s a blog). In order to drive that traffic, you may need to create a following on Facebook. So your first “objective” for the Facebook page will be to “build your ‘likes’ ” to create that community.
3. Content plan
This is how you map the channel to the larger story structure. This will usually take the form of an outline or narrative and is used to organize your content plan for the channel.
For example, in the situation described above — because your primary objective for the Facebook page is to increase loyal traffic to your blog, you want to build a community. So the first part of your content plan for Facebook might be a “contest,” email marketing program, or some other type of community-building action to build your Facebook subscription. The second part of the plan might kick in once you’ve reached some “goal” (e.g., conversions, number of subscribers, etc.); then you’ll begin refocusing your content to drive specific personas to your blog. You can use your imagination to see how this step might be multilayered, as you continue your community building and refocusing of content.
You need to consider context here as well.
For example, let’s say you’re talking about a “mobile channel” and your channel objective is to build subscribers to your blog or website. And let’s say you post lots of really valuable, long-form content on that blog. Maybe an initial content plan for that “mobile channel” would be to produce a different, shorter, or more mobile-specific category to that channel, knowing that your mobile persona only has time and bandwidth for a very short version of content that they may want to read later. Here, you are fulfilling the “contextual need” of your mobile persona.
4. Metrics
We use the word metrics here very specifically, as opposed to key performance indicators (KPIs) or “results.” With as many marketing channels as you already have working, against all the different campaigns — and as your content marketing will inevitably overlap into your marketing channels — metrics are what you want to track here.
Here, metrics are “goals” that will align with your story. For example, you might say “with this contest we’re running on Facebook, our goal is to get 1,000 subscribers over the next two months before we move into the second phase of our story.”
5. Personas addressed
Looking back at your persona mapping, certainly not every channel will address every persona. So for each channel you are considering, you should identify which personas will be addressed.
Once you are done with your channel plan, look at it holistically and make any adjustments that are needed. You may find that you have done a great job of creating a channel plan that fails to address your most critical persona. Whoops. Or, you may find that you’re trying to address too many personas through one particular channel — and it makes better sense to split them. For example, Dell has multiple Twitter accounts used for customer service, discounts and general information.
6. Content management process
For this stage, you need to ensure that you have a method and process (e.g., people and tools) to manage the content and conversation for this particular channel. What will you manage? Who will do it — and how?
7. Editorial plan
Lastly, you’ll need an editorial plan for the channel. This will map to your global editorial calendar — but doesn’t identify dates or times yet. The purpose of the editorial plan is to define velocity, tone, desired action, and structure for the content for this channel.
For example, for your Facebook page you might have the following:
Velocity: Three posts per day Tone: Friendly, funny, and with a tongue-in-cheek attitude Desired action: We want them to click through to the blog Structure — 10 to 20-word post, plus pictures (if applicable) and a “conversion link.”
So there you have it — the seven basics of a content marketing channel plan. As mentioned above, just keep in mind that you can create multiple channels. You’re allowed to have more than one blog, or multiple Facebook pages — and you don’t have to launch them at the same time. For example, you may find that two different types of blogs are more appropriate than just one. Or you may find that you want to later add a Twitter account specifically for a subsequent “chapter” of your content marketing story. There is no one right way to do things, so experiment, get feedback and continue to evolve your channel plan.
The content strategy defines the channel strategy — not the other way around.
This piece was excerpted and edited from Managing Content Marketing by Robert Rose and Joe Pulizzi.
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