Content ideation template

Generate new ideas to improve your content with this clear, actionable template

How will this template help me and my business?

Content marketing is a powerful technique, both to engage your audience personas and to achieve the marketing outcomes you need throughout the customer lifecycle. This template will help you generate new ideas to improve your content. From improving lead magnet content to encouraging existing customers to engage, you’ll be able to unlock newfound performance with the help of this template.

You’ll find structures for mapping out your current use of content and how to compare it to your competitors. Once you’ve done this, you’ll find guidance on conducting brainstorming workshops to develop new ideas.

Who is the template for?

This ‘hands-on’ template is designed for anyone actively involved in creating and implementing content marketing strategies and marketing campaigns. This may include:

• Digital marketing managers and marketing managers
• Content managers
• Marketing or digital marketing executives
• Account managers in an agency working with clients to develop their strategy

Note: If you're an Individual Member with a monthly membership, you should be aware that the templates in this resource are taken from the Digital marketing plan workbook. To reduce the amount of credits you use, we would recommend downloading that resource instead. This set of templates has been created to help simplify strategy creation in response to member feedback.

How is this template structured and used?

This download includes two alternative templates, in Word and PowerPoint formats, that you can modify for your business and clients, including:

• Content marketing matrix
• ToFu, MoFu, BoFu (top, middle and bottom of funnel content review)
• Mental – content model mapping to review website effectiveness
• Examples of B2C and B2B content mapping (in the PowerPoint template)

How to use this template

This template has been designed for teams to use when reviewing content strategy. It would work well in a group workshop setting to encourage collaboration and idea generation.

The template has been structured using ‘gap analysis’ for different content assets and formats to:

1. Review current use of content against a framework
2. Assess how competitors use content
3. Brainstorm new ideas
4. Prioritize ideas for content. This is based on scoring using defined criteria for each content asset. For example, customer value, fit with brand, potential for evergreen benefits (e.g., organic search), and time/cost to create.

Resource Details

• Author: Dr. Dave Chaffey 
• Last updated: February 2022
• Format: Downloadable Word and PowerPoint documents
• Related resources:
  • Our customer persona guide and template provides a similar 3-stage content mapping technique for each persona.

About the author

Dr. Dave Chaffey

Dave is co-founder and content director of Smart Insights. He is editor of the 100 templates, ebooks, and courses in the digital marketing resource library created by our team of 25+ Digital Marketing experts. Our resources are used by our premium members in more than 120 countries to plan, manage and optimize their digital marketing.

For his full profile, or to connect on LinkedIn or other social networks, see the About Dave Chaffey profile page on Smart Insights. Dave is author of 5 bestselling books on digital marketing including Digital Marketing Excellence and Digital Marketing: Strategy, Implementation, and Practice. In 2004 he was recognized by the Chartered Institute of Marketing as one of 50 marketing ‘gurus’ worldwide who have helped shape the future of marketing.