A Guide To Creating A Content Strategy Framework
Around 73% of B2B marketers and 72% of B2C marketers leverage content marketing. So why do only 40% have a documented strategy for their approach? Like many things, the issue is getting started – and for this, you need a content strategy framework.
Wondering what a content strategy framework is and how to build your own? This blog will act as your step-by-step guide.
What is a content strategy framework?
In simple terms, a content strategy framework is a blueprint that maps out all the details of your content strategy – like your objectives, target audience, content types, and relevant tools and processes. It’ll also outline how your content will be created, managed, distributed, and measured to accomplish the set goals.
This plan should be backed by research and, if done right, will allow anyone who reads it to understand what actions to take. Ultimately, it’ll align your efforts and your team to maximise its results. The framework should also have the flexibility to pivot when necessary – for example, when there’s a change in your specific industry.
What to include in a content strategy framework
A content strategy framework is an incredibly comprehensive document. To build yours, it’s vital you follow the below steps as a starting point.
1. Define your goals
You can’t make good on your content strategy if your framework doesn’t lay out your goals. So what do you really want to get out of your content? Brand awareness? Increased leads? Better engagement? Ensure the goals reflect your wider business objectives or overall mission, and make sure to attach specific measures to them.
For example, ‘increase web traffic by 20% in three months’ is much more likely to yield results than ‘increase traffic’. SMART frameworks are a great way of setting clear, actionable goals. It’s also a good idea to prioritise these ambitions. After all, going for all of them at once will likely cause you to spread your content marketing too thin.
2. Identify your target audience
You should know as much about your target market as possible. Ideally, you’ll create a detailed persona. This will help you understand your audience better, or even determine whether you should be targeting a new group of people or widening the net.
The persona will include demographic factors (such as age), behaviours (like online activity and interests), motivations, and their own objectives. Some of these will relate directly to your product and service – like their pain points.
Remember: you shouldn’t form this persona on assumptions. You need to do the research, whether by issuing a simple survey or carrying out something more complex like a full brand study. You’ll find there’s plenty of information already available too, such as your website and social media analytics, to analyse your SEO content and social media efforts.
3. Audit existing content
The likelihood is that you already have content out there you can analyse to see what has worked and what hasn’t. A content audit will allow you to pinpoint content types and topics that have already proven fruitful, as well as establish gaps for ones that could. These statistics will also show where you shouldn’t be placing your efforts.
It’s wise to analyse aspects such as quality and relevancy. This will help you to create a list of your best and worst performers so you can easily see the type of content that’s resonating. You’ll also be able to spot opportunities for repurposing, which will shave a lot of time off your content efforts while still maximising results.
4. Pick your content platforms
There are a lot of places to publish and promote your content: your website, social media channels, email marketing, to name just a few! But you can’t put your copy everywhere. For this step, you’ll need to know where your audience spends their time online (and offline, if relevant).
And you’ll really need to drill down into this. When it comes to social media channels, for example, know the exact platforms that’ll perform best. It goes without saying that LinkedIn is a great tool for a B2B content strategy, but will it have significantly less impact for your B2C audience? Maybe not.
Make sure you choose the marketing channels that will be the most effective. From here, you can work out how they’ll fit into your content calendar and content workflow in terms of resourcing.
5. Measure your results
Your content strategy framework should include how you’ll measure the outcomes of your efforts. There are various metrics, but the most common ones are consumption, sharing, lead generation, and sales. These may translate into different forms for specific platforms – for example, on social media ‘consumption’ can be ‘impressions’ or ‘reach’. Whichever metric you choose, make sure it’s clear so it can be effectively tracked.
It’s a good idea to use KPIs and pinpoint how you’ll track the achievement of these. This will help you see where your content is delivering and where it’s not. You can then adapt your strategy where relevant to achieve your goals or improve upon them.
6. Maintain your content efforts
Your content strategy framework should also include periods to optimise your content. Following measurement, you’ll without a doubt find places you can tweak further. This could be incorporating more applicable keywords into a blog, testing email subject lines to improve open rates, or sharpening ad copy to drive up CTRs.
Content is never ‘done’ – it can always be enhanced to maximise its effectiveness. By making the time to maintain content, you’ll ensure the right resource is in place and that it never goes stale. This will involve going back and refining your framework where relevant too.
Create your content strategy framework with MYC
There’s a lot that goes into building a comprehensive content strategy framework that will deliver. If you need support with any aspect of your content strategy, Making You Content is the team to partner with.
We’ve enabled many businesses to climb higher through their content – both those in need of a B2B content strategy and those targeting consumers. And we can do the same for you.
