Introduction
Content buckets are a way to visualise and organise your content marketing strategy. They help you think about the big ideas that will drive your content strategy forward, then break those down into pieces that can be used to guide your work. The idea is simple: You create content in four different buckets, what we call the "Four Ps" of marketing and then you take those buckets and customise them for your company's needs.
Content buckets are a way to organise how you think about content marketing.
Content buckets are a way to organise how you think about content marketing. They help your team visualise and align around your content strategy, so that everyone on the team is working towards the same goals.
Content buckets can be used to talk to your boss about what sort of content you need from them in order for your blog posts and social media updates to work better, or as a reminder when you're having trouble coming up with ideas for more pieces, or when deciding what kinds of pieces should take precedence over others (and why).
They're also a great way to talk to your boss.
Content buckets are also a great way to talk to your boss.
We all know that marketing needs to be strategic and data-driven, but those conversations can often get lost in the weeds or become so technical that they’re not actionable. You might as well be speaking in another language when you try to explain your strategy with terms like “personas,” “retargeting campaigns,” or “organic search.”
Content buckets make it easy for anyone (including your boss) to understand what you're doing with content marketing and why it matters for their business—and they're an efficient way of analysing performance across channels in one place.
What's the big idea?
Content buckets are a way to organise how you think about content marketing. They're also a great way to talk to your boss, because they help make the business case for why you need a content strategy at all.
Content buckets help your team visualise and align around your content strategy. You'll want to start by thinking about three different types of content:
Topic buckets: What topics does your brand want to talk about? What do people already associate with it? What's relevant today?
Channel buckets: Where will we publish these pieces? How can we reach our audience on these channels through varied formats (text, video, audio)?
Content type buckets (or "buckets" for short): This is where you'll decide what format each piece of content will take and why there's value in doing so.
What's the new idea?
With this new idea, we wanted to create a way for content creators to visualise their marketing strategy. We wanted to make it simple for marketers and managers alike to understand how different types of content fit into the overall strategy. We wanted everyone on the team to be aligned with each other so that everyone could work together toward a common goal.
We also wanted our system to help people think about what they were creating before they started writing or shooting video. This would allow them more time to focus on creating something that was relevant, valuable, high-quality and authentic, in other words: good.
How will we use this content?
Answering these questions will help you make sure your content bucket is accomplishing the goals you set out to achieve.
You might be able to answer all of them at once, or you may need to take some time to think about each question individually.
Customising this tool for your company.
Customising this tool for your company:
Make sure every member of your team understands the purpose of this tool and how it can help them.
Make sure that this tool is relevant to your company's needs and goals.
Make sure that the tool is easy for anyone on your team to use, update and maintain.
Content buckets help your team visualise and align around your content strategy.
Content buckets help you define your content strategy.
They help you organise your content. They help you communicate the strategy to your team, so they can understand it themselves.
Conclusion
Content buckets are a great way to think about the types of content you’re creating and how they fit into your larger marketing strategy. The tool helps you visualise what type of content each bucket is for, as well as who will be using it and why. This allows your team to focus on how they can help create more relevant and valuable content that meets their audience’s needs while connecting with them on an emotional level.