Content Gap Analysis: A Guide

Feb 09, 2021

“Content is King” was a very popular marketing catchphrase 10+ years ago. In his book, Duct Tape Marketing , our friend and colleague John Jantsch disrupted that thinking with his insight that content is more like air. Every business needs content to thrive.

Given how important content is to your marketing plan, it’s always smart to make sure your content strategy doesn’t have any holes. We call that a content gap analysis. The purpose of performing a content gap analysis is pretty self-explanatory; this strategy gives you a birds-eye view of topics and keywords that you’re missing in your content even though they are relevant to your target demographic. If you don’t have this content on your website or within your digital marketing assets and your competitors do, guess who they’ll end up shopping with.

Why Does a Content Gap Analysis Matter?

If you’re not seeing the conversions and engagement you’d hoped for from your content marketing, the type of content you think your customers want is probably much different than what they actually want. There’s no shortage of jargon, tips, tricks, and best practices floating around there when it comes to creating content that truly speaks to your customers, and many of them work, and when implemented correctly, they work well. That said, there are only a handful of those strategies that use quantifiable data to help guide content creation.

A content gap analysis will bridge the gap between your idea and your customers’ idea of content. Now more than ever, consumers are looking to be educated, and want brands and businesses to solve their pain points. When you give them those solutions, you empower them to make a purchase decision that ends at your bottom line. Additionally, a content gap analysis can uncover niche, underserved sub-demographics within your target audience. 

Performing a Content Gap Analysis

The good news is that a content gap analysis can be an easy, replicable process that you can perform consistently to keep tweaking your content strategy in real-time.

  1. Establish a buyer’s journey: It’s common knowledge that personalized content is more effective than generic content. Typically, the buyer’s journey exists in three distinct phases — awareness, consideration, and decision — but really depends on the type of products and services your business offers. Think about what questions shoppers are asking, where they’re looking, and how they finally decide to make a purchase. 
  2. Get feedback: Contact your loyal customers and interview them to see what you’re doing well, and where your business might be failing to meet their needs. Graft a Google survey with the interview questions and offer an incentive like a discount or gift card for participating. You can also tap into your professional networks to connect with industry experts to pick their brains about insight into the buyer’s journey.
  3. Research and establish keywords: Once you have the results of customer and industry expert feedback, you’ll be able to pinpoint the most common keywords and phrases that searchers are typing in when looking for businesses like yours. There are plenty of different ways to perform keyword research with countless tools available, so it doesn’t matter exactly how you do it, but it needs to be done.
  4. Review existing content: Just because you have content already, it doesn’t mean that it’s working to convert visitors to customers. Use a spreadsheet to compile a list of the content types and topics you currently have and identify the metrics that indicate how well (or how poorly) that content is performing and how to better connect it with the buyer’s journey you mapped out.
  5. Check out the competition: Take a look at what your competitors are putting out in terms of content. Is there anything your site is missing in comparison? Can you draw any inspiration from their out-of-the-box ideas? Take notes for your own content strategy, and talk to a marketing expert about tools to use to track the metrics of how well that content is performing.
  6. Put it all together: Using the data you gleaned from the first five steps, connect everything to brainstorm the best content topics to fill the gaps you’ve uncovered. You’ll also want to update your content strategy to avoid gaps going forward.

While the content gap analysis process is straightforward and effective, it can be time-intensive — especially for business owners who aren’t comfortable with hands-on marketing. It’s a great idea to bring in a team of marketing experts like the pros here at Cole-Dalton to tackle the work and remain your partner to implement other strategies along the way. 

Whether you just want your content to look professional to prospective customers or employees who are “kicking your tires” or if you also want to use your content to gain a steady stream of new leads and phone calls generated from Google searches that lead to your website, we can help.

The post Content Gap Analysis: A Guide appeared first on Cole Dalton.

Forecasting the Next Ten Years of Marketing

10 Apr, 2024
Marketing is gearing up for significant changes as we enter the new decade. With new technologies, shifts in buyer behavior, and changes in consumption culture, the way businesses reach out to customers will look very different in the coming years. While we can't say what marketing will look like in 10 years, we can examine emerging trends and strategies to forecast its future. Here are some predictions experts are suggesting could take shape moving forward. Increasing Personalized Advertising Personalized marketing should undergo even more profound transformations in the coming decade, leveraging advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence and data analytics to forge deeper customer connections. With the ability to glean insights from vast amounts of data, companies will craft highly tailored ads and messages that resonate with individual preferences and behaviors, fostering stronger brand-consumer relationships. From dynamic content customization to predictive marketing algorithms, the era of hyper-personalization will redefine how businesses engage with their target audiences on a one-to-one level. Advanced Device Communication The proliferation of voice-enabled devices and virtual assistants heralds a new era in consumer engagement, requiring marketers to adapt their strategies to communicate effectively through these mediums. As voice technology continues to gain traction, companies must anticipate the rise of voice commerce and tailor their approaches to accommodate this emerging trend. By leveraging conversational AI and natural language processing, brands can deliver seamless, personalized experiences that resonate with consumers, whether shopping, seeking information, or interacting with digital assistants. Wider Use of Virtual Reality Virtual reality (VR) is poised to become a ubiquitous tool in the marketer's arsenal, offering immersive experiences that transcend traditional advertising methods. With VR, brands can transport consumers into captivating virtual environments where they can interact with products and services unprecedentedly, fostering deeper engagement and brand loyalty. As VR technology becomes more accessible and sophisticated, expect to see a proliferation of immersive marketing campaigns that leverage the power of virtual experiences to captivate audiences and drive conversions.

The Power of Storytelling

12 Mar, 2024
Marketing tends to focus on analytics and systems, but we sometimes forget about one powerful tool that has existed since the beginning: storytelling. From our ancestors telling ancient myths to be passed down for the generations to come to modern-day brand narratives, stories have held the power to inspire and connect in all different ways. Today, consumers face a constant bombardment of advertisements and catered content; using the power of storytelling in marketing campaigns has become critical for businesses, especially smaller firms aiming to create meaningful connections with their target clients. Why Storytelling is an Effective Strategy When a brand uses storytelling to convey its message, it connects with the audience emotionally. By telling a compelling story, marketers can create a memorable experience for consumers, making them more likely to remember and engage with the brand. Additionally, storytelling allows marketers to communicate the brand's values and personality more authentically. Instead of bombarding consumers with sales pitches, storytelling enables brands to share their stories and build trust with their audience, increasing brand loyalty and customer engagement. The Emotional Resonance of Stories At the heart of storytelling lies its ability to bring out emotions and create profound connections on a human level. Unlike traditional marketing messages focusing solely on product features or sales pitches, stories can engage the audience's imagination, stir empathy, and spark genuine interest. By weaving narratives that resonate with their target audience's hopes, dreams, and challenges, small marketing firms can create a powerful emotional bond that transcends transactional relationships. Building Brand Identity and Authenticity Storytelling is a potent tool for small businesses to authentically define and express their brand identity. Through compelling narratives that reflect their values, mission, and vision, small firms can differentiate themselves from competitors and carve out a distinct identity in the minds of consumers. Whether recounting the founder's journey, highlighting customer success stories, or showcasing the company's commitment to social responsibility, storytelling allows small businesses to humanize their brand and foster customer trust and loyalty.

A Guide to Employee-Generated Content

13 Feb, 2024
In a world of "influencer marketing" and brand deals, companies can easily overspend their marketing budgets and get caught up in the frenzy. An influencer may feature your product or brand only for their videos to perform poorly. At best, you lose out on the money spent sending the product to the influencer and whatever you spent on hiring them. At worst, your business gets a bad reputation online, and customers don't take your brand seriously. Consider that influencer marketing is just the "shiny new toy" in marketing. In that case, companies should continue to produce consistent, cost-effective outcome. One source for this? Your Employees. Employee-generated content refers to any videos, pictures, or copy that employees publicly post about their position and the company. Find out the benefits of employee-generated content (EGC), what this content can look like, and how to implement EGC into your overall strategy. What Does Employee-Generated Content Look Like? The beauty of employee-generated content is that it can take many forms. Any content your employees make that involves details about their role, the company itself, or the relationships they've developed with coworkers or customers/clients can be EGC. A simple, straightforward EGC piece can be an employee spotlight for new hires or veteran employees. You can choose to craft employee spotlights as infographics with a picture of the employee along with some fun facts about them, write a long-form piece from an interview with the employee speaking about their time at the company, or even long or short-form videos with the employee speaking on their experiences. While these methods may require the help of a graphic designer, copywriter, or videographer, the idea is that the employees generate the content by speaking about their experiences and introducing themselves. Other ideas for EGC pieces might be "day in the life" videos following a specific employee throughout their day, reflections employees have from conferences or professional development opportunities, employment milestones or recognitions, or even just pictures employees take with each other or showing what happened that day. There are limitless options and iterations for employee-generated content, and the key is to find out what works well for your business and why.
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