4 content buckets every serious content creator should know

You’ve probably read a few articles on keyword research and seen a few YouTube videos (more than you needed, most likely), and now you’re all set to become a content creation monster. But when you start creating content, it quickly becomes overwhelming and confusing. You’re not alone. It’s just a matter of understanding content buckets and strategically creating content for these content categories.

Ever wonder how some brands always have the right content you need? They are designed to help the customer move through the stages of their buyer journey without any friction and facilitate a sale. We’ll look at various content buckets and what type of content should be created for them.

What Are Content Buckets?

Content buckets

Content buckets are pre-defined categories to group your marketing content. These are broad themes your content follows to achieve a particular goal or to make your customer feel a certain way. These themes allow you to create content that you can share on your social media accounts, blogs, and email channels.

Why do you need content buckets in your content marketing strategy?

Having content buckets ensures you strategically create information that your customer needs in every stage of their buying cycle. In addition, it gives you a roadmap that you can follow.

How to create content buckets?

Here are some content categories and examples of posts you can use to create a content bucket strategy:

Browse/Research

Consideration

Decision (product pitch)

Retention/Upsell

How-to articles (using your product for the demo)

Comparison and reviews 

Case studies/ Project showcase 

Appreciation

Info content (Best product for)

Win stories

Product pitch (hard sell)

Branding and values

List post (top, best, best x for y)

Branding and values

Corporate social responsibility

Interview

FAQ

Worth it? (content shows why it's worth the investment)

User-generated content, reviews and testimonials

Customer special freebies

Problem solution

Thought leadership (challenge, issue, industry news)

Whitepaper

Spread the word (to promote referral)

Ultimate guide

Entertain (story post, satire, meme, cartoon)

Research post

Training and support

News/trend post

Product pitch (soft sell)

Behind the scene (employee spotlight)

Events

You can read more about the different content marketing types here.

Four social media content buckets you can use:

Browse/Research content bucket:

In this stage, your customer has a problem and a lot of questions surrounding that problem. They’re usually in research mode (or casually browsing) to find more details about their current situation. They might be able to articulate their pain in some cases, but not so much in others. The question your customers ask should serve as the seed for your content idea bank. You can use keyword research to come up with content topics. Tools like Answer the public or Topic mojo can help you find these questions.

For example, if you have a flat tire, then it’s evident that you have a problem — the flat tire. Other times, things might not be so obvious. For instance, if you’re running Facebook ads but not getting‌ ‌any‌ ‌sales, the problem might be your interest targeting or your sales page. You need educational content for your target audience in this content category, and you need to show them the solutions available in the market — your product being one of them.

Consideration content bucket:

So you’ve provided your potential customer with information that educates them and answers their questions. Now they know they have a problem and that solutions exist in the market.

In this stage, your customer is actively weighing their options, trying to identify a solution that solves their problem. They will consider a lot of factors like price, brand value, functionalities, and so on. Therefore, you need to create material to address their objections and position your product as the best solution.

Decision content bucket:

our customer is warm and almost ready to pull the trigger on their purchase decision at this stage. They’ll be looking for in-depth information about your product or service. Customers want in-depth information to make sure they’re making the right decision. Case studies, white papers, project showcases, and so on are perfect for this stage. Make use of user-generated content like reviews and testimonials in this content bucket.

Retention/Upsell content bucket:

It’s easier and more cost-effective to keep your existing customer than to acquire a new one. Unfortunately, some companies slow down their marketing effort once they make a sale, which can affect your customer’s lifetime value. You need valuable content that reassures your buyers they made the right choice and eliminates any buyer’s remorse; it also allows you to upsell/cross-sell and reduce refunds. You can also show your appreciation and reiterate your brand values to turn existing customers into super fans.

The length of the buying journey depends on your product price and the pain level of your customer’s problem. For example, someone buying a new car will not have the same urgency as a person calling the repair service when his car breaks down in the middle of a highway.

Pain level is directly proportional to the length of the buyer’s journey.
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In other words, the higher the customer’s pain, the shorter the buying cycle.

For maximum efficiency, you can start with long-form content and then repurpose that to small pieces which can be used as your social media content. Your content buckets don’t have to be this elaborate if you’re running an affiliate site. In such cases, you can keep it simple and focus on the first two categories. You can also make use of social media content created by the affiliate company.

Awareness levels

In his book Breakthrough Advertising, legendary copywriter Eugine Schwartz proposed different awareness levels your customer goes through. The book highlights the importance of a customer’s awareness level. Below are the various stages of awareness, according to Schwartz’s system:

Most Aware:

These are your super fans. They know your brand and your products; they readily buy anything you put out in the market—your most valuable asset.

Product Aware:

These prospects know your product exists, but they’re still weighing other options available in the market.

Solution Aware:

In this stage, your prospects are aware of products/services that can solve their problems, but they might not know your company. This stage is typical for smaller brands and might rare for well-known brands.

Problem Aware:

 Problem-aware prospects feel the pain, but they might not be able to pinpoint the issue. So they need to be educated about the problem first.

Unaware:

These prospects don’t feel the problem. They are oblivious to the fact that there is a better way to do things. The easiest way to educate these customers is to present your product/service when answering their questions. You can compare your solution to the ones they are currently using so they can easily relate.

Your ideas can take the form of emails, blog posts, Instagram stories, or anything you can think of, but it should speak directly to your audience and move them through each stage of the customer journey. 

The length of the buying cycle and topics may vary based on your business, product, followers, and clients, but as long as you have a content strategy for all these categories, you will be fine. 

Now that you have your editorial plan, let’s look at some communication channels.

Channels you can use

Website 

Your homepage should direct prospects to the stuff they’ll find most useful. Your above-the-fold content should clearly state what your business can do for your customers. Finally, make sure your homepage passes the grunt test. You pass the grunt test if a cave dweller can understand what your business does within 3 seconds of landing on your homepage.

Blog 

Blogs can be beneficial to move your audience through the buying stages because you can structure your content and layout to make it easy for people to take action.

Social media 

Most businesses can take advantage of social media channels because every kind of audience will be on at least one social media channel, whether LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook, TikTok, or Instagram. However, many B2B companies shy away from social media because they feel it’s too informal for their business. They forget that even if they’re selling to a business, people make decisions for those businesses. So pick a social media channel, put out great content, and reap the reward. You can alter the tone of your social media posts to suit your business and the platform.

Landing pages

This is where you should create laser-targeted content because landing pages usually get traffic from ads where you know the exact buyer persona and awareness stage of the people visiting your page. Therefore, you should carefully craft your content and copy to evoke a single action from your audience.

Email 

Email is another channel where you can select your audience’s awareness, given you’ve appropriately segmented your audience.