Five Tips for Mapping Out Your Content

Is your content good… or great? Great content can transform your conversion rate. But it’s not just about the content itself. You need to plan it all out for maximum impact.

If you’re doing content marketing the right way, you likely already have a great library. You spend time collating content so that your audience always has something to read. And you know that your content is valuable. You know that it makes you stand out and offers impactful information. 

Great content is one of the best ways to build authority. And we think this is so important that we call it a marketing and sales Superpower. 

To leverage your content in this way, you need to think ahead. You don’t just randomly post things online. Good content is well-organised. And it’s always created with important topics in mind. 

So, how do you create great content? You start by thinking about your audience.

Ask yourself, “What are the fears and aspirations of my ideal client?” 

Try to find their hot-button issues so you know exactly who you’re writing for. To create an impressive content library, you need to cover the right topics. It’s also important to understand that you have many tools at your disposal. They can help with content delivery, too.

So, what types of content can you collate for your collection?

You can tap into case studies and statistics. You can find quotes and create ideas. Everything is fair game if it makes a valuable contribution.

The following tips will help you create content that emphasises how VITAL your accounting services are.

Tip #1 – Map Out Your Next Six Weeks of Content

We mentioned above that you need a content library to create great content. There are several reasons for this. First of all, a content library really helps you map out your content. It allows you to schedule your uploads for maximum impact and exposure.

To help you map out your content weeks in advance, ask yourself some questions.

• What time of day do I want to post?
• How many times per week do I want to post?
• When do I post videos?
• When do I upload short posts and long posts?
• How many platforms do I want to use?

All of these questions will help you understand how to map out your content.

Now, in the past we believed it was best to map out content months in advance. But times are different today.

One aspect of a VITAL accounting firm is its agility. This means the ability to adapt. Nowadays, it’s best if you only plan your content for a few weeks in advance. After all, who knows what will happen three months down the road? 

You can’t expect to prepare for the whole year, or even six months.

Focus your efforts on the goals that you’d like to reach over the next six weeks. Who’s your target audience? What information do you have to offer? Six weeks is easier to plan out.

Tip #2 – Document the Client’s Journey (And the Best Types of Content for Each Step)

It’s essential to know your audience and your ideal clients. It helps you with the mapping process. Once you know who you want to write for, then you can connect with your audience.

One key aspect of content creation is documenting the client’s journey. This is the journey that clients take with you once they choose to work with your firm. It’s a description or explanation of your unique purchase funnel. It shows clients what happens every step of the way. 

The outline of a typical marketing funnel looks like this:

• Awareness
• Engagement
• Evaluation
• Purchase
• Post-purchase follow-up

You want your content to explain the customer experience. You can show your prospects what to expect in each of these stages.

When you know what you need to show your audience, you’ll understand how to deliver your content. This will help you map out content for your ideal clients.

Tip #3 – Create Your Content Catalogue

You can’t map out your content without a proper catalogue. Gather all your content pieces and catalogue everything accordingly.

This is an essential step, as it helps you keep your writing relevant. If you do an audit of all your content, you can arrange your pieces by:

• Quality
• Type
• Topic
• Title
• Publishing dates
• Conversion
• And so on

Organising your content will help you avoid repetition. You don’t want to create and post redundant content. It’s a waste of time and makes you look disorganised. Even worse, you look like you’re running out of knowledge to share.

Sharing new information every time will help to build trust. And it makes you look like you have a huge fund of valuable knowledge at your disposal.

It’s important to know your existing content by heart for another reason. It helps you identify what you’re missing.

Once you have a complete catalogue, analyse it and ask yourself, “What is missing? Am I delivering posts that position my firm as VITAL?”

This brings us to the next step in content mapping…

Tip #4 – Look for Gaps in Your Content Plan

It’s hard to prepare for everything, even if you decide to follow a six-week rather than a six-month schedule. So if you want to stay on top of your game, always look for gaps in your plan.

With a complete catalogue, chances are you have content ready for every step of the client’s journey. At this point, you can look at strengthening your writing.

Do you have any content that doesn’t add enough value? Where can you make improvements in any of your pieces? Did you explain each stage of the journey well enough?

Are you ready with follow-ups for the post-purchase stage?

These are all fundamental questions. They can indicate if there are any gaps in your content. They can give you hints as to what information you might have forgotten to add.

If you do find gaps, you can approach them in two ways.

You can create new content or you can refurbish existing content. One or both methods work for specific situations. That’s why you need to know your offer, your audience and your topics inside and out.

When you know those things, you can save valuable time. You can avoid wasting resources by having to write or order new pieces. You can focus on repurposing other content assets. Or improve them to gain more leverage.

Once you fill in the gaps, you’re one step closer to mapping it all out. 

Now there’s one more thing you need to know. To finish up, you also need to figure out the ideal way to post your content.

Tip #5 – Figure Out the Best Places to Post Your Content

This is the final tip for mapping out your content for your ideal clients. Now you’re at the stage where you have content assets ready to go. But how do you post everything for maximum effect?

How do you ensure that the leads in your funnel benefit from your writing?

It often comes down to posting the information in the right channels. Doing this isn’t very hard – if you’ve identified your ideal clients.

When you learn about your clients, you learn more than their goals and fears. You also find out where they hang out.

To leverage your content, you have to post it where your clients can read it. The sooner the better, too. And remember that some channels can also empower your message. They can give it an air of authority and inspire trust.

Here are some of the ways you can show your audience that your firm offers VITAL services:

• Email marketing
• Social media posts
• LinkedIn articles
• Niche community forums

Each of these channels has its benefits. Email marketing is great when you have a client list. And when you want to follow up post-purchase.

Facebook is good for scheduling social media posts. Even better, you can create Facebook Groups to encourage discussions and feedback.

LinkedIn articles can shine a light on some of your signature services. You can explain how your unique solutions solve problems that your competitors can’t.

The thing to remember is this – always use more than one channel. In the accounting world, you can find your ideal clients browsing for information in many places.

It’s up to you to get to know your prospects. Find out where they hang out. See what times of the day you can best reach them. This allows you to fully leverage your content catalogue for every stage of the sales funnel journey.

Your Content Can Be Your Primary Sales Driver

When you develop your content assets for a new marketing strategy, you need patience. Without proper mapping, you may commit many mistakes.

But if you map out your content, you make it easier to see the big picture. You get to see things from your client’s perspective. You get a better sense of what the client needs and when they need it.

Following these simple steps allows you to organise your assets better and plan ahead. With planning, you can also save time and resources. And prepare the ground for later success.