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Content marketing & business go hand-in-hand, just like business & investing go hand-in-hand. There are certain characteristics that can connect people and speak to who they are on a human level. That’s why developing a content iteration road map is a necessary step on your path to success.

As a business owner, entrepreneur, creative, what ever the case maybe for you. There’s comes a point in time where you can’t skip over steps to get to your goals. Just like when you realize you can only go so far by doing things on your own or the importance of book keeping.There’s certain power in embracing a collective perspective.

Creating a content iteration road map is a process that will allow you to have a deeper understanding of your business and your customers. By having a concrete process in place, you can save valuable time and energy. Like anything in business, it always starts with the people.

From the outside to inside, it’s about perspective. A piece of content might not have connected with your audience, but what can you learn from that experience?

A content iteration roadmap can be broken down into three facets:

1. The Evaluation Stage
2. The Content Stage
3. The Operational Stage

All three of these facets include an overall review of your efforts focused around content marketing. Which should be the people (inside & outside), the content (platforms, channels & distribution) & how to effectively operationalize what you’ve learned through execution.

Below I’m going to deep dive into these three stages to help you create a content iteration roadmap that best works for your situation.

Let’s get started.

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The Evaluation Stage

I like to preach that content marketing is 100% people, process & technology. With that being said, it’s imperative that you have a clear system in place that promotes growth surrounding your content, people and business. The whole idea surrounding content iteration is constantly looking for those moments that can take you higher. Most of the time these moments can be found through failure, followed by a simple conversation surrounding getting better.

The evaluation stage should be apart of your content marketing development as much as the act of creating content itself. Why? Your most constructive growth will come from asking:

How do you evaluate? Is your process numbers-driven or results-driven?

What are your objectives? Where can we focus our energy to get the best results?

What’s your biggest achievement threshold? What’s your smallest achievement threshold?

The evaluation stage is the cornerstone of experimentation.

The Content Stage

The evaluation stage leads into the content stage, where you will take an objective look at your overall content marketing efforts. Most importantly, what worked in the past vs. how this information is being applied to your most recent campaigns.

Topics to touch on during your content review are as follows:

• Content & Distribution (Did you engage your target audience? Were the right channels used for distribution?)

• Content Formats (Did your content translate well from format to format? Is there a better approach to the process? Who are some creatives that can create content for us?)

• Business Objectives & Goals (Was there clear communication surrounding your goals? Was the plan followed by your team?)

• Measurements (Did you create the appropriate timelines for content creation? How were expectations managed? Is the data telling a clean story?

• Return On Time & Investment (Is your content continuing to live or did it die off? Did your content enhance your business objectives & goals?)

The Operational Stage

Just like anything in business, taking a concept and pushing it through the operational stage takes time and effort. After you’ve went through the evaluation and content stage. It’s time to apply your newly found insights in an operational capacity.

This stage is the bread and butter of the content iteration road map because it’s where you form habits and promote a culture within your business. A big key is to hold meetings where your entire team can celebrate the wins & learn from the losses. This will help everyone to have a deeper understanding surround what works within your campaigns and how to continue form a winning routine.

It’s all about embracing a growth mindset and ‘Failing Forward Fast’.

It’s sounds counter-intuitive but much success is found in seeking out failure in order to find the right solutions. Content marketing is about figuring out what worked and what didn’t in any given situation and being able to use that edge to your advantage in the future. Effectively using data gives you the opportunity to apply information from previous campaigns to improve your operations in the future.

Train your mind around growth and consistently asking the question, “Does this work? Does this speak to our target audience?”

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