Content Buckets: The “What” of DCE

The previous chapter was all about the “who” of Digital Communication Effectiveness (DCE). We discussed how to segment marketplaces into smaller segments that could more easily be targeted with well positioned messages that resonate with the target audience. To build upon this foundation, we must now consider “what” those messages should consist of to capitalize on your digital communications. This chapter moves beyond target market selection and into content selection, that is, what areas of content are most important to your target audiences. Just like in choosing the who, the what of content selection must also be well researched. Therefore, in this chapter, we will explain the overall philosophy behind content marketing. What is it and why is it important? We will demonstrate how content is the “engine starter” for The Digital Engine model, and how there is a symbiotic relationship between consistent content design and your inbound marketing success. Without content, there would be no digital communication effectiveness.

Finally, we will describe and demonstrate a useful tool, called the content matrix. It will help you discover the interaction between your target market selections and your content selections. The content matrix will be the catalyst for building a rolling editorial calendar in the next chapter that combines target market selection, content selection, and channel selection all up in another useful tool for your digital communication success. Once you learn how to use these tools to create harmonious and sequenced messages correctly, then you will be able to drive traffic from your selected communication channels back into your website for the purpose of lead generation through completed call-to-action forms on your website.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

• Understand how content marketing and thought leadership combine to create content leadership.
• Learn about the four criteria for building content leadership.
• Recognize the need for both content creation and curation.
• Discern how content serialization and content harmony improve content marketing success.
• Learn about call-to-actions and how to rely on a goal funnels to track the process of consumers inside the funnel from entry to goal completion.
• Understand the difference between reach and frequency in a digital context and why content analysis is critical.
• Conceptualize and create your own content matrix for your practicum.

Below you will see your chapter content and assignments. You need to check your course syllabus for the due dates for each of these assignments. Each assignment will have different instructions regarding the submission process, so please pay careful attention to the directions, including due dates, as to garner full course credit for the assignments.