to build a winning content strategy framework

How is your content strategy progressing?

Do you have one in your hands? Is it just a distant task?

You might consider prioritizing it.

Overwhelmingly, marketers and brands with a documented strategy for content outperform without one.

What is the difference between them and their peers? They are 414% less likely to report success.

This is a powerful motivator to start working on your strategy.

There is one caveat. Whether you are new to content strategy, updating an existing strategy or overhauling your content marketing strategy, you will need a solid framework.

This guide will help you to set up the foundations of your framework.

What is a content strategy framework?

The content strategy framework guides you in all your content marketing activities. This plan outlines how you will create, manage, publish and promote content in order to achieve your brand goals.

This framework can be used as a reference point to help you execute your strategy. It can be written in a Google Doc or spreadsheet, or simply written down on a notebook. This plan can be used to guide your content marketing efforts.

This distinction is crucial. Content strategy is not static. It should change with your brand to discover what works and what doesn’t. To take into account what you learn, you should adjust the strategy as needed. This includes your goals.

Remember that strategy is intended to guide the process and be repeated. It is impossible to create one piece of content per day. This framework will allow you to create hundreds of pieces of content.

You’ll always be involved in at least one stage. You won’t lose your way if you have a strategy.

What elements should you include within a content strategy framework for your business?

Each content strategy should include key points. Here’s a quick breakdown.

• Set goals.
• Define your audience.
• Select a content platform.
• Select the right content formats and topics.
• Identify your team members and their roles.
• Establish a posting schedule.
• How you will promote.
• Get the tools that you need to create content.
• How you will track and measure your results.
• Establish a budget.

Ten building blocks to help you create your content strategy framework

1. Goals

Setting goals is an essential part of creating a content marketing strategy. Without goals, there is no place to point towards with your content marketing efforts and no direction for your efforts.

According to CoSchedule, marketers who set goals are 377% less successful than marketers who don’t.

Ask yourself what you want to achieve with content. What are you looking for your content to accomplish? These are some common goals that will help you get started:

• Increase brand awareness: Increase online visibility and be known in your field.
• Nurture your audience – Provide useful content to educate your audience and build trust in order to generate more leads.
• Increase traffic: Get more people to your website.
• Increase your subscribers and leads by Using great content to encourage sign-ups for email and convert prospects into customers.

Don’t limit your goal selection to a vague, broad level. Consider what you want to achieve under that goal umbrella. Use numbers and get specific.

If my goal is to increase traffic, for example, I would phrase it as follows in my strategy: “Increase total traffic by 20% within 6 months.”

2. Audience

Once you have your goals set, it is time to define your target audience.

This stage is about identifying who needs the brand’s expertise and solutions and who to talk to via its content. You will need to conduct audience analysis.

This is a crucial part. To make your content resonate with your audience, you must have a deep understanding about them, their needs and challenges.

Your content topics will not always resonate if you don’t fully understand your audience. Content that doesn’t connect doesn’t work.

Interviewing your audience directly is one of the best ways you can get to know them. You must first make some assumptions about the people who will be buying what you are selling. When you speak to prospects, you will find out if your assumptions are correct.

I love to ask potential audiences the following question: “If you could instant solve any of your current problems concerning X, which one?”

3. Platform

Next: Where will content be posted?

There are many channels you can use online to publish and distribute content, but you must choose which channel you will focus your efforts.

Also, which platform do you want to build your brand online? Which platform will you use to build your brand online?

Focusing on your website is the best way to go. Why?

Your website is the real estate that you own. Social media accounts, however, are not your real estate. Social media accounts like Instagram, Facebook and Twitter are on borrowed land.

Your visibility on social media is also something you have no control over. You don’t have control over how visible your posts are to your followers. If you don’t post regularly, your visibility may drop even more.

Your website is a powerful tool for this purpose:

• The content that you post on the site is yours.
• This content is yours to control.
• You can increase your online authority by using SEO or organic rankings.
• Other content you have posted on other platforms may point back to your site.
• Your website’s appearance and user experience are completely yours.

No matter what platform you use, make sure you document the one that you are most interested in growing with content.

4. Content

Now it’s time to discuss content in your strategy. Two things are essential:

Which topic areas should you concentrate on in your content?

This question can be answered by looking at the intersection of what you know and what your customers want. Both will benefit from your best topics.

If you are a seller of running shoes, your writing will not be limited to running shoes. Writing about topics that your audience is interested in, such as training, knee health and running events, will be a common practice. You won’t likely write about hobbies or sports unrelated to running like yoga, football, or tennis.

What types of content and formats will you post?

Take a look at the content you are producing and where they are coming from. You may not have the resources to produce high-quality video content if you are a small business. You will be able to create high-quality blogs frequently – which is where most brands begin.

5. Team

Who is responsible for each aspect of content marketing?

This is why content shouldn’t be something you do “when you have the time”.

You have to be committed to it. It requires someone to dedicate their time and attention. This means that you need to invest as soon as possible in helping it (or get buy-in to hire more experts).

These are the roles that you will need to fill when you set up your content team (and depending on your resources, one person may fill multiple roles).

• Content writer/creator At a basic level, you will need to be able to create written content in all formats including blogs, ebooks and webpages. You will also need to have the ability to create infographics or video content if you plan on investing in them.
• Content manager Who will manage blog posts including formatting, scheduling and publishing?
• Social media manager – Who will handle posting to social media and engaging with your audience?
• Content/SEO strategist Who will do keyword research, and blog topic research Who will come up with content ideas? Who will measure and track metrics?

6. Schedule

A content calendar is essential for content marketing. Before you create one, however, you need to understand your content marketing strategy.

Be consistent – it doesn’t matter how many posts you make, but whether your audience is able to rely on your posts and if they are consistently high-quality.

• How often will content be posted on your main platform?
• How often will content be posted on your secondary platforms?
• How often do you post content to social media?
• Which days/times are the best to post content for your audience?

Your research and the resources of your brand will inform your answers. What is the content team’s capability? What output can the company support?

It should not be difficult to set up your content calendar once you have answered all these questions.

7. Promotion

Next, decide on your channels for promoting content.

Promotion is a way to get more eyes on your content, especially if you are new or don’t have an established audience.

You don’t need to spend a lot of money to promote your blog. You can simply cross-post the link to your new blog on social media. You can send an email to all your subscribers to alert them about a new blog.

You might consider if you don’t yet have an email subscriber list, and instead choose to promote posts on social media for now.

8. Tools

Most content strategy steps will require at least one tool. This is to make it easier and more efficient. You can’t skip data from some tools if you want to rank high in search engine results.

These are the tools you must have:

• Keyword research and SEO tools (Semrush. Ahrefs. KWFinder. Mangools.
• Web analytics tool (like Google Analytics).
• Content management system (WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, etc.)
• Content calendar (Airtable. Trello. CoSchedule. Google. Excel spreadsheets.

These are the must-have tools

• Software for editing (such as Grammarly).
• SEO checker (like Yoast).
• Conversion rate optimization (CRO) tool (like Hotjar).
• Canva and Photoshop are two examples of image editing tools.

9. Tracking progress

You must track your progress as you work towards your content marketing goals.

You should clearly outline how you intend to accomplish this in your content strategy. Determine:

• You can attach your goals the performance indicators (KPIs). If I want to increase brand authority and reputation, then I can track my Google keyword rankings over time.
• These are the tools that you will need to monitor those KPIs. An SEO tool is needed to monitor Google rankings for websites.
• How frequently you will check in. Do you plan to look at metrics monthly or quarterly? Quarterly? Remember that the results of content marketing are slow but steady.

10. Budget

Last but not the least, determine your budget to support content marketing. What will it cost to implement your strategy? You must consider the costs of people, tools and processes that you will need to invest in in order to make it happen.

You should weigh the cost of your resources against your available resources. Also, you need to adjust your strategy as necessary to fit your budget. Great content can grow a brand. Your content investment can increase as your brand grows.

Solid content marketing starts with a solid content strategy framework

If you want to make your content marketing work, you will need a framework for content strategy.

You are already on the right track, fortunately.

The framework can be used to help you build your brand’s content strategy. But, it’s not a set plan. Consider it a living document that you will use every day to stay focused, stay on the right track, and achieve your goals.

Search Engine Land first published the post How you can create a winning content strategy frame.