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Content Mapping Tools and 5 Mind Map Steps

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Content Mapping Tools and 5 Mind Map Steps

You spent hours sweating over a blog post to make it appealing and complete. You spent weeks of intensive preparation to produce an eye-catching video. You finally have your content in shape and publish the end result.

You promote it with a few tweets and updates on LinkedIn, Instagram, and your newsletter. And then?

Don’t cross your fingers and hope for the best. Turn to mapping to ensure your content makes the biggest impact possible.

Let me walk through the process with the example of a video presentation I did for the hybrid Content Marketing World event in 2021: What If Creating Single-Use, Disposable Content Were a Crime?

Decipher content mapping

In this case, I use the term “content mapping” to talk about mapping content to other content. Content mapping is a logical derivative of the phenomenon of mind mapping — drawing a diagram to visually organize information, frequently around a single concept represented as a circle in the center of the map.

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#Content mapping lets you visually organize information around a single concept, says @carlijnpostma via @CMIContent. Click To Tweet

An experienced content mapper can easily chop the topic into separate thoughts or ideas. But less-experienced content mappers should brainstorm, using the map as a physical manifestation. I like to draw a tree and jot down all the different categories, subjects, and content types that come to mind as branches.

You can download the example and create your own version.

Content Mapping Tools and 5 Mind Map Steps

Click to enlarge

Map your content in 5 steps

Follow the mind-mapping process with these steps, and see how to do it with the topic of “evergreen content” – the core message in my Content Marketing World video.

1. Select your core content

Base your map on a piece of high-quality, long-form content that will gain your target audience’s attention. Though it needs to be relevant content, you don’t need to start from scratch. Have you posted an interesting article? Does your podcast contain an episode about which you would like to focus more attention?

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Start your #content map with a high-quality, long-form asset, says @carlijnpostma via @CMIContent. Click To Tweet

Specify the source of this long-form content – its landing page. Will you link to a page on your website? Or is the ultimate goal to attract more subscribers to your YouTube channel?

Example: My goal for the evergreen content video is to attract more visitors to my website and convert them into newsletter subscribers. My primary content source is this page on my website featuring the video, What If … Creating Single-Use, Disposable Content Were a Crime.

2. Divide into five subtopics

Detail five subtopics related to your primary long-form content. Bear in mind these subtopics likely won’t be in a ready-to-share format.

Example: The topic of “evergreen content” can be split into these five subtopics:

  • What is single-use, disposable content?
  • Why is creating evergreen content beneficial?
  • Tips on how to create evergreen content
  • What you can learn from Netflix regarding evergreen content
  • Don’t forget …

3. Create four perspectives for each subtopic

Think, too, about the way to convey each subtopic’s message. Does it work best as an interesting headline or a quote, a trailer video, or should it be an infographic or a photo collage?

Create 20 linking messages (five subtopics multiplied by four perspectives) for the primary topic to draw in your audience. You also can use these to create additional content for your topic.

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(Example is incorporated with step four.)

4. Specify the content types and channels

Think about how to distribute your messages. Take into account the characteristics of the chosen network or medium. For example, Instagram and Pinterest require images, while TikTok demands videos. Or the tone of voice on Facebook can be informal, but LinkedIn users still expect more formal language.

Example (steps three and four):

  • What is single-use, disposable content?
    • Perspective: What is single-use, disposable content?
      • Formats: title, still image, short summary, link to page
      • Distribution: Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook
    • Perspective: What if creating single-use, disposable content were a crime?
      • Formats: trailer video, link to page
      • Distribution: Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, newsletter
    • Perspective: How do you identify single-use, disposable content?
      • Formats: title, trailer video of Unidentified Single-Use Content, link to page
      • Distribution: Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok
    • Perspective: Command to the audience, “Stop creating single-use, disposable content. Start creating evergreens.”
      • Formats: poster, link to download
      • Distribution: Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram
    • Perspective: Explanatory summary with a cliffhanger ending
      • Formats: text, quote, link to page
      • Distribution: Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram
  • Why is creating evergreen content beneficial?
    • Perspective: Six reasons why creating evergreen content makes sense
      • Formats: text, link to page
      • Distribution: LinkedIn, Facebook, newsletter
    • Perspective: How evergreen content keeps drawing audiences
      • Formats: infographic, link to page
      • Distribution: Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest
    • Perspective: ROI on evergreen
      • Formats: infographic, link to page
      • Distribution: Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest
    • Perspective: Short summary of SEO benefits of evergreen content
      • Formats: text, link to blog post on website
      • Distribution: Twitter, LinkedIn, website
  • Tips on how to create evergreen content
    • Perspective: How to create evergreen content
      • Formats: text, link to additional blog post on website
      • Distribution: Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, website
    • Perspective: Five don’ts to become a pro in creating evergreen content
      • Formats: list, link to additional blog post on website
      • Distribution: Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, website
    • Perspective: Examples of brand evergreen content vs. campaign content
      • Formats: text, stills, link to page
      • Distribution: Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram
    • Perspective: Case study of a brand showing the value of evergreen content
      • Formats: text, link to additional blog post on website
      • Distribution: Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, website
  • What you can learn from Netflix regarding evergreen content
    • Perspective: What you should learn from the creators of films and series
      • Formats: text, blog post, link to page
      • Distribution: LinkedIn, Facebook, newsletter
    • Perspective: Why a new season attracts new audiences to previous seasons
      • Formats: text, link to additional blog post on website
      • Distribution: Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, website
    • Perspective: How to develop an evergreen strategy
      • Formats: Book Binge Marketing, summary and reviews, link to page
      • Distribution: Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram
    • Perspective: Six easy-to-apply tactics for your marketing strategy learned from Netflix
      • Formats: list, link to page
      • Distribution: Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram
  • Don’t forget …
    • Perspective: Quote from existing podcast – Unlimited Shelf Life, episode about evergreen content
      • Formats: audio quote from podcast, cover podcast
      • Distribution: Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram
    • Perspective: Review quotes from enthusiast audience
      • Formats: quotes, slideshow
      • Distribution: LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram
    • Perspective: New trailer video to promote the full video
      • Formats: talking head trailer
      • Distribution: Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok
    • Perspective: Collect all shareable visuals that are relevant to the topic
      • Formats: photos, slideshows
      • Distribution: LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest

5. Schedule your posts over a longer period

Now that you’re ready to schedule your content, decide on what period you want to focus attention on your topic and schedule updates accordingly. Vary the times of day at which you post your updates to social media. This way, you’ll get the most viewers (unless your aim is a small audience and you’ve decided you want to repeat your message).

No time to waste

I sometimes get asked whether all this content overwhelms the audience. And if you look at all the different types together, it could seem that way. That’s why it’s so important to create a content map that allows you to manage the publishing carefully across multiple channels over time.

Updated Jan. 9, 2023
 

Want more content marketing tips, insights, and examples? Subscribe to workday or weekly emails from CMI.

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Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute



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How To Combine PR and Content Marketing Superpowers To Achieve Business Goals

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A figure pulls open a dress shirt to reveal the term PR on a Superman-like costume, reflecting the superpower resulting from combining content and PR.

A transformative shift is happening, and it’s not AI.

The aisle between public relations and content marketing is rapidly narrowing. If you’re smart about the convergence, you can forever enhance your brand’s storytelling.

The goals and roles of content marketing and PR overlap more and more. The job descriptions look awfully similar. Shrinking budgets and a shrewd eye for efficiency mean you and your PR pals could face the chopping block if you don’t streamline operations and deliver on the company’s goals (because marketing communications is always first to be axed, right?).

Yikes. Let’s take a big, deep breath. This is not a threat. It’s an opportunity.

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Reach across the aisle to PR and streamline content creation, improve distribution strategies, and get back to the heart of what you both are meant to do: Build strong relationships and tell impactful stories.

So, before you panic-post that open-to-work banner on LinkedIn, consider these tips from content marketing, PR, and journalism pros who’ve figured out how to thrive in an increasingly narrowing content ecosystem.

1. See journalists as your audience

Savvy pros know the ability to tell an impactful story — and support it with publish-ready collateral — grounds successful media relationships. And as a content marketer, your skills in storytelling and connecting with audiences, including journalists, naturally support your PR pals’ media outreach.

Strategic storytelling creates content focused on what the audience needs and wants. Sharing content on your blog or social media builds relationships with journalists who source those channels for story ideas, event updates, and subject matter experts.

“Embedding PR strategies in your content marketing pieces informs your audience and can easily be picked up by media,” says Alex Sanchez, chief experience officer at BeWell, New Mexico’s Health Insurance Marketplace. “We have seen reporters do this many times, pulling stories from our blogs and putting them in the nightly news — most of the time without even reaching out to us.”

Acacia James, weekend producer/morning associate producer at WTOP radio in Washington, D.C., says blogs and social media posts are helpful to her work. “If I see a story idea, and I see that they’re willing to share information, it’s easier to contact them — and we can also backlink their content. It’s huge for us to be able to use every avenue.” 

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Kirby Winn, manager of PR at ImpactLife, says reporters and assignment editors are key consumers of their content. “And I don’t mean a news release that just hit their inbox. They’re going to our blog and consuming our stories, just like any other audience member,” he says. “Our organization has put more focus into content marketing in the past few years — it supports a media pitch so well and highlights the stories we have to tell.”

Storytelling attracts earned media that might not pick up the generic news topic. “It’s one thing to pitch a general story about how we help consumers sign up for low-cost health insurance,” Alex says. “Now, imagine a single mom who just got a plan after years of thinking it was too expensive. She had a terrible car accident, and the $60,000 ER bill that would have ruined her financially was covered. Now that’s a story journalists will want to cover, and that will be relatable to their audience and ours.” 

2. Learn the media outlet’s audience

Seventy-three percent of reporters say one-fourth or less of the stories pitched are relevant to their audiences, according to Cision’s 2023 State of the Media Report (registration required).

PR pros are known for building relationships with journalists, while content marketers thrive in building communities around content. Merge these best practices to build desirable content that works for your target audience and the media’s audiences simultaneously.

WTOP’s Acacia James says sources who show they’re ready to share helpful, relevant content often win pitches for coverage. “In radio, we do a lot of research on who is listening to us, and we’re focused on a prototype called ‘Mike and Jen’ — normal, everyday people in Generation X … So when we get press releases and pitches, we ask, ‘How interested will Mike and Jen be in this story?’” 

3. Deliver the full content package (and make journalists’ jobs easier)

Cranking out content to their media outlet’s standards has never been tougher for journalists. Newsrooms are significantly understaffed, and anything you can do to make their lives easier will be appreciated and potentially rewarded with coverage. Content marketers are built to think about all the elements to tell the story through multiple mediums and channels.

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“Today’s content marketing pretty much provides a package to the media outlet,” says So Young Pak, director of media relations at MedStar Washington Hospital Center. “PR is doing a lot of storytelling work in advance of media publication. We (and content marketing) work together to provide the elements to go with each story — photos, subject matter experts, patients, videos, and data points, if needed.”   

At WTOP, the successful content package includes audio. “As a radio station, we are focused on high-quality sound,” Acacia James says. “Savvy sources know to record and send us voice memos, and then we pull cuts from the audio … You will naturally want to do someone a favor if they did you one — like providing helpful soundbites, audio, and newsworthy stories.”  

While production value matters to some media, you shouldn’t stress about it. “In the past decade, how we work with reporters has changed. Back in the day, if they couldn’t be there in person, they weren’t going to interview your expert,” says Jason Carlton, an accredited PR professional and manager of marketing and communications at Intermountain Health. “During COVID, we had to switch to virtual interviewing. Now, many journalists are OK with running a Teams or Zoom interview they’ve done with an expert on the news.”

BeWell’s Alex Sanchez agrees. “I’ve heard old school PR folks cringe at the idea of putting up a Zoom video instead of getting traditional video interviews. It doesn’t really matter to consumers. Focus on the story, on the timeliness, and the relevance. Consumers want authenticity, not super stylized, stiff content.”

4. Unite great minds to maximize efficiency

Everyone needs to set aside the debate about which team — PR or content marketing — gets credit for the resulting media coverage.

At MedStar Washington Hospital Center, So Young and colleagues adopt a collaborative mindset on multichannel stories. “We can get the interview and gather information for all the different pieces — blog, audio, video, press release, internal newsletter, or magazine. That way, we’re not trying to figure things out individually, and the subject matter experts only have to have that conversation once,” she says.

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Regular, cross-team meetings are essential to understand the best channels for reaching key audiences, including the media. A story that began life as a press release might reap SEO and earned media gold if it’s strategized as a blog, video, and media pitch.

“At Intermountain Health, we have individual teams for media relations, marketing, social media, and hospital communications. That setup works well because it allows us to bring in the people who are the given experts in those areas,” says Intermountain’s Jason Carlton. “Together, we decide if a story is best for the blog, a media pitch, or a mix of channels — that way, we avoid duplicating work and the risk of diluting the story’s impact.”

5. Measure what matters

Cutting through the noise to earn media mentions requires keen attention to metrics. Since content marketing and PR metrics overlap, synthesizing the data in your team meetings can save time while streamlining your storytelling efforts.

“For content marketers, using analytical tools such as GA4 can help measure the effectiveness of their content campaigns and landing pages to determine meaningful KPIs such as organic traffic, keyword rankings, lead generation, and conversion rates,” says John Martino, director of digital marketing for Visiting Angels. “PR teams can use media coverage and social interactions to assess user engagement and brand awareness. A unified and omnichannel approach can help both teams demonstrate their value in enhancing brand visibility, engagement, and overall business success.”

To track your shared goals, launch a shared dashboard that helps tell the combined “story of your stories” to internal and executive teams. Among the metrics to monitor:

  • Page views: Obviously, this queen of metrics continues to be important across PR and content marketing. Take your analysis to the next level by evaluating which niche audiences are contributing to these views to further hone your storytelling targets, including media outlets.
  • Earned media mentions: Through a media tracker service or good old Google Alerts, you can tally the echo of your content marketing and PR. Look at your site’s referral traffic report to identify media outlets that send traffic to your blog or other web pages.
  • Organic search queries: Dive into your analytics platform to surface organic search queries that lead to visitors. Build from those questions to develop stories that further resonate with your audience and your targeted media.
  • On-page actions: When visitors show up on your content, what are they doing? What do they click? Where do they go next? Building next-step pathways is your bread and butter in content marketing — and PR can use them as a natural pipeline for media to pick up more stories, angles, and quotes.

But perhaps the biggest metric to track is team satisfaction. Who on the collaborative team had the most fun writing blogs, producing videos, or calling the news stations? Lean into the natural skills and passions of your team members to distribute work properly, maximize the team output, and improve relationships with the media, your audience, and internal teams.

“It’s really trying to understand the problem to solve — the needle to move — and determining a plan that will help them achieve their goal,” Jason says. “If you don’t have those measurable objectives, you’re not going to know whether you made a difference.”

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Don’t fear the merger

Whether you deliberately work together or not, content marketing and public relations are tied together. ImpactLife’s Kirby Winn explains, “As soon as we begin to talk about (ourselves) to a reporter who doesn’t know us, they are certainly going to check out our stories.”

But consciously uniting PR and content marketing will ease the challenges you both face. Working together allows you to save time, eliminate duplicate work, and gain free time to tell more stories and drive them into impactful media placements.

Register to attend Content Marketing World in San Diego. Use the code BLOG100 to save $100. Can’t attend in person this year? Check out the Digital Pass for access to on-demand session recordings from the live event through the end of the year.

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Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute

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Trends in Content Localization – Moz

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Trends in Content Localization - Moz

Multinational fast food chains are one of the best-known examples of recognizing that product menus may sometimes have to change significantly to serve distinct audiences. The above video is just a short run-through of the same business selling smokehouse burgers, kofta, paneer, and rice bowls in an effort to appeal to people in a variety of places. I can’t personally judge the validity of these representations, but what I can see is that, in such cases, you don’t merely localize your content but the products on which your content is founded.

Sometimes, even the branding of businesses is different around the world; what we call Burger King in America is Hungry Jack’s in Australia, Lays potato chips here are Sabritas in Mexico, and DiGiorno frozen pizza is familiar in the US, but Canada knows it as Delissio.

Tales of product tailoring failures often become famous, likely because some of them may seem humorous from a distance, but cultural sensitivity should always be taken seriously. If a brand you are marketing is on its way to becoming a large global seller, the best insurance against reputation damage and revenue loss as a result of cultural insensitivity is to employ regional and cultural experts whose first-hand and lived experiences can steward the organization in acting with awareness and respect.

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How AI Is Redefining Startup GTM Strategy

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How AI Is Redefining Startup GTM Strategy

AI and startups? It just makes sense.

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