Mapping Content Strategy to

the Modern Customer Journey

Gary DeAsi Senior Manager, Digital Marketing & Brand @gdaz

Ryan Pinkham Content Marketing Manager @RyanPinkham

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4M+ users

25K+ organizations

194 countries

15+ products

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Marketing Organization

Demand Gen

Creative

Web

Operations

Functionally

“Market Manager” & Product Marketing

X4

Vertically

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READY! FIRE! AIM! 30% B2B Marketers say they are

effective at content marketing.

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Limited Supply of Ammo to Hit Targets

(Content)

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RANDOM

ACTS OF

CONTENT

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1 Adopting a Stages Model & Key Factors to Consider

Mapping Content Strategy to the Customer Journey

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Understanding your Customers

SmartBear Confidential and Proprietary

Individual

Job roles, personas

Motivators

Problems, pain points

Terminology & language

Buying triggers

How solve problem before?

Organization

Industry vertical

Company size

Business model, strategy

Technology stack

Org structure

Geo locations

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Understanding your Business

Product or Service

Value propositions

Key features, capabilities

Differentiators

Complexity of solution

Use cases

Technical specifications

Technology partnerships

Sales

Pricing model

Sales model

Length of sales cycle

$ ASP

Barriers & objections

Complexity of buying decision

Market

Market maturity

Demand type

Market share

Competitive landscape

Positioning

Market trends

SmartBear Confidential and Proprietary

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Information

• Search and browsing behavior • Research and nurture needs • Messaging • Barriers to overcome • Questions to answer

INTELLIGENCE

Content

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ROAD TO ADVOCACY

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Adopting a Customer Journey Stages Model

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“Hello, brand, do I like you? are you relevant to me? Do I want to hear more from you in the future?”

Engagement Brand Awareness

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“I have a problem?”

Education Problem identification

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“What solutions are available? What factors should I consider? What alternatives are there?”

Research Evaluate Solutions

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“Does this product solve my problem(s) and meet my specific needs & requirements?”

Evaluation Assess satisfaction of needs

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“Why should I choose this? How can I get my boss and team members on board?”

Justification Quantify & justify value, internal buy-in

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“How do I get it? How difficult will it be to implement and change current process?”

Purchase Transaction & Transition Factors

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“How do I successfully implement, get training, and start realizing value asap?”

Adoption Onboarding & implementation

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Retention Satisfaction and Success

“Does SmartBear care about my success? Value adds? Long-term? Why do I love being a SmartBear customer?”

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“What additional value can I get from SmartBear? What other problems can you help me solve?”

Expansion Up-sell, Cross-Sell

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“What I can do to help SmartBear?”

Advocacy Loyalty & Evangelism

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2 Content Planning with the Customer Journey in Mind

Mapping Content Strategy to the Customer Journey

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Feeding the Content Beast

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Metrics Goals &

Objectives Content

Audit Content

Plan

Aligning Content Strategy: Planning Process

Traffic Free tool downloads

Leads Generated Content Downloads

QLs Trials

Trial Activations Opportunities

Opportunities Won Renewals

Upsell, Cross-sell

%

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Content Overflow

28 28 SmartBear Confidential and Proprietary

Aligning Content Strategy: Content Audit

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Content Audit: Identify Content Gaps

SmartBear Confidential and Proprietary

Number assets / stage Types of assets / stage Performance of assets Age of content Location of content Distribution strategy Optimization, enhancement,

and re-purposing Keyword research

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Metrics Goals &

Objectives Content

Audit Content

Plan

Content Strategy: Planning Process

Traffic Leads Generated

Content Downloads QLs

Trials Trial Activations Opportunities

Opportunities Won Renewals

Upsell, Cross-sell

%

Topics Formats Timeline Budget

Resources

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Lifetime Value: Repurposing Content

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Make the investment

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3 Aligning Multi-Channel Content Distribution

Mapping Content Strategy to the Customer Journey

Website

Social

Blog Email

Nurture

Paid

PR

Events

Community

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Web: Learning/Resource Centers

SmartBear Confidential and Proprietary

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Properties and Communities

Blog & Social

Resource Centers

Product Sections

Community & Support

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Paid Advertising

Paid Social

3rd party Email Sponsored Content

adwords

Re-marketing

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Lead Scoring and Nurturing

SmartBear Confidential and Proprietary

Top Funnel

During Trial

Bottom Funnel

Customer

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Stages Metrics

Engagement, Education, Research

Blog traffic Resource traffic Content Downloads QLs (Non-trial score-ups)

Evaluation

Product section traffic Trials Trial Activations

Justification,

Purchase

Opportunities opened Opportunities closed won

Adoption, Retention, Expansion, Advocacy

Renewals Up-sell, Cross-sell opportunities Influitive members/activity

Thank you!

Gary DeAsi Senior Manager, Digital Marketing & Brand @gdaz

Ryan Pinkham Content Marketing Manager @RyanPinkham