The Periodic Table of Content Marketing, by Chris Lake.

One of the most beautiful and useable resources that we are happy to recommend and enjoy using ourselves here at Culture Republic is Econsultancy’s Periodic Table of Content Marketing.

Created in spring 2014, the resource breaks down the basic components of Content Marketing into seven categories – underpinned by a stand-alone key element, your own Content Strategy which will drive and define how you mix and match elements from the table.

Presented in the familiar clustered grid, the key categories of: format, content type, platforms, metrics, goals, sharing triggers and checklist (for final checking) are colour coded for clarity. The Periodic Table is a handy resource, especially for early-stage content planning and at the final stage of production. The individual items in each section act as prompts for content creation reminding users of the range of possibilities in each category, whereas the items in the checklist section – from copy editing ‘plain English’ and remembering calls to action – are handy reminders for that most frantic final stage, so that things are less likely to be forgotten.

With the growth and growth of content marketing the drive to keep pushing out new pieces that will stand out for your key audiences and connect with them is not abating. In that context a reminder of the possible range of emotions that prompt sharing – from shocking to moving to disgusting – are present to prompt new thinking to marketers wondering ‘what kind of content might be the most engaging for my audiences?’ (We especially like the chemical symbol for ‘cute’ Aw. Aww indeed.) Equally the reminders around the range of impacts you can measure (by mixing elements from the metrics and goals categories) is a functional resource for making sure that what you measure is meaningful.

And what about that core element – the digital strategy? Here’s a link to our article on recommended tools to create your own strategy. Get cracking!