A MarketMuse Content Plan is step two in the Analyze | Plan | Brief workflow. This document contains everything you need to turn content ideas into content briefs. The content plan consists of the following sections:
- Executive Summary: A broad overview of the competitive forces affecting this plan and basic information about what’s been analyzed and recommended.
- Content Plan Recommendations: Contains the recommended number of items to create and update/optimize, along with a list of pages and corresponding topics.
- Content Strategy: A list of content groups and their descriptions indicating how to thoroughly cover the subject across multiple pieces of content.
- Cluster Details: The list of keywords that make up the cluster, along with your ranking URL and position (if available), monthly search volume, parent keyword, topic authority, personalized difficulty, and intent match.
- Competitive Overview: A marketshare analysis of your competitors for the keyword cluster.
- Content Groups and Ideas: Details about the individual content groups along with specific ideas that you can turn into content briefs.
Here are some tips on working your way through the sections.
Executive Summary
Take a quick look at this summary to get a lay of the land.
Content Plan Recommendations
Next take a look at this section to get an idea of how much effort is required. Marketshare analysis of the top 10 SERP competitors for this cluster helps inform this recommendation. It’s the optimal number that MarketMuse recommends to balance effort with reward. Changing this could affect your outcome.
This section also contains a list of update/optimization opportunities including the URLs and their respective keywords. When making these recommendations, MarketMuse analyzes intent, considering current rankings and the content of the page. Then we try to pick the best option. Keep in mind that this is concept/topic based, not based on keyword. So you can adjust it, without much issue, as long as the target is similar.
Content Strategy
Review this to get a good idea of the different ways of covering the subject — the topic entered when the plan was first configured. You could use this to build out the ultimate cluster (each content group can spawn multiple ideas), but the previous section gives you the optimal number of pieces to focus on.
A big thing here is to think about support structure and the ‘why’ on clusters. When all these editorial angles, which make up the cluster, make it possible to grow and own the highest competition and volume terms. Without the foundation and beams to support the high competition roof, you will ride the roller coaster, gamble and become less predictive.
Content teams don’t have infinite resources, so that’s where plans give you options to choose what is most fun, differentiating, in our writer’s wheelhouses and editorially appropriate for the audience. However, you need to be there at all stages of the funnel, including post-purchase to ensure proper coverage of the buyer journey.
Cluster Details
Get the details on what keywords make up the cluster and what content you already have ranking.
Competitive Overview
These are your competitors for this cluster as detailed above. You can see the number of keywords and pages that are ranking, including the percentage of traffic they capture. This can provide some interesting insight into your competition’s effectiveness — just look at the number of pages compared to their traffic percentage.
Content Groups and Ideas
Turn these ideas into content briefs. Here are the details on the content groups as seen in the Content Strategy section. MarketMuse provides more content ideas than recommended, so you can choose those that best align with your business goals. There can be multiple content ideas per group, but typically you’ll just see one.
A content group is made up of target personas, SERP and user intent, funnel stage, keywords and questions. A content idea includes the title, target keyword, overview, funnel stage, points to cover, and related terms.
FAQs
What if a plan recommends more content than I’m willing to create?
Our recommendation is based on our analysis of the competition and where you stand in relation to them. Ultimately, it’s your decision as to how much content you’re going to create.
Why do some content ideas target low volume keywords?
If you’re hesitant about writing content that targets low-volume keywords, read 7 Reasons Monthly Keyword Search Volume Can Be a Poor Metric,Keyword Research and The Search Volume Illusion, and 7 Examples of Low Volume Keywords That Generate a Ton of Traffic.
Why do some content ideas target a keyword not in the cluster?
Occasionally, MarketMuse will modify a keyword in the cluster and suggest a better content idea for that.
Why does MarketMuse suggest optimizing a page for that term?
When making these recommendations, MarketMuse analyzes intent, considering current rankings and the content of the page. Then we try to pick the best option. Keep in mind that this is concept/topic based, not based on keyword. So you can adjust it, without much issue, as long as the target is similar.
Why does a content idea target a term for which I already have a ranking page?
When this occurs, it’s usually a case where the existing page exhibits an intent mismatch with the term. Rather than turn an existing page into something that it’s not, we recommend creating a new one.
Why does MarketMuse include that word in this cluster?
MarketMuse’s robust clustering technology aims to produce clusters at scale, far more efficiently and effectively than a human. We’re continuously working to improve the technology.
Why did MarketMuse recommend optimizing a page for a keyword that is not in the cluster?
When looking at an individual page, MarketMuse tries to pick the best option for it.