Content Marketing Series: Building a Content Marketing Framework
This article is the third in a series on how to create an effective content marketing strategy for your business.
A content marketing framework defines how you will meet your audience where they are with your brand messages through problem-solving content at the right time.
Frameworks are repeatable, easy-to-understand blueprints and processes that also provide an easy way to explain your approach to your team and stakeholders. Having a framework for your content marketing ensures the purpose of each piece of content is clear and the content supports your marketing and business objectives.
Common Content Marketing Frameworks
Over time, a number of content marketing frameworks have emerged. A quick web search shows at least seven different types, but there are probably more. Just as there’s no single business model, there is no one-size-fits-all approach to content marketing. Your approach should align with your marketing maturity stage, your stakeholders, and the outcomes you need to drive.
While I’m sure there are purists out there, I’ve not personally worked in an environment that perfectly aligned with one single framework. In my opinion, the best frameworks are a derivative blend adapted from multiple approaches. That said, you need to start by knowing your options.
Look at these popular examples and see what resonates with you.
BASIC CONTENT MARKETING FRAMEWORK
The Content Marketing Institute shares a basic framework that follows seven key steps:
Plan
Audience
Story
Channels
Process
Conversations
Measurement
This framework takes you through an end-to-end content creation journey, starting with your goals. It helps you flesh out who your core audience is, the way you want to present your brand, how you plan to distribute your content, how to keep your teams and tools aligned, and how to create and measure the impact of your content.
SMART CONTENT FRAMEWORK
SMART goal setting is a powerhouse in marketing planning. It stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Timely. Content marketers can apply this goal-setting framework to their content creation.
Here’s how this framework might look for you:
Specific: Who are we marketing to? What is our goal? How will we accomplish this content campaign?
Measurable: How will we measure the effectiveness of the content? What does success look like?
Achievable: How have our past campaigns performed in the past? Are our goals within reach?
Relevant: Will this content resonate with our target audience? Does this campaign align with our broader content strategy?
Timely: When should we launch this campaign? How long should it last? What milestones should we set along the way?
The SMART framework is a great way to support your communication strategy, both internally and externally.
TOFU-MOFU-BOFU FRAMEWORK
This messaging framework takes into account the various stages of the buyer journey. Each piece of content you create is tailored for customers at a specific stage: top of the funnel, middle of the funnel, or bottom of the funnel. We see this framework a lot in account-based marketing, where customers interface with sales throughout the process.
At the top, you’re building awareness of your brand. This is a great stage to provide value and information while introducing your brand in a positive light.
In the middle, you’re diving deeper into the problems you solve. Content in this stage is more educational about your products or solutions.
At the bottom, content is focused on getting prospects over the finish line to the cash register and supports informed decision making.
Designing content for specific stages of the buyer journey allows you to keep the audience’s needs and priorities in mind. Content is more effective when your audience can get something valuable from it.
THE SKYSCRAPER TECHNIQUE
Skyscrapers have no trouble standing out, especially when they tower over lots of smaller buildings. That’s the premise of the skyscraper technique, where you take a topic and make it bigger and better.
The skyscraper technique is a common strategy used by companies that are playing “content catch-up” compared to companies whose content is already ahead of the competition. The gist is to find a piece of content that’s ranking well, then write your own content on the same topic but make it more in-depth and valuable.
This is a smaller framework that you can apply to the above frameworks for creating content. It focuses mostly on topic ideation, which is an essential but incomplete part of the content marketing process.
You can take it a step further by reaching out to publications or bloggers who have linked to the original content and ask them to replace it with a link to yours.
How To Create Your Own Content Marketing Framework, Step by Step
Our Prime 8 consultants often create their own frameworks that blend parts of other frameworks. A blended funnel approach to content forces clarity around who the customer is, what problems, or pain points, they have, and what specific products or services we offer that helps the customer and where they are in their decision making. This framework also connects metrics with each stage of the model.
The benefit of creating your own framework is having a standardized way of delivering helpful content to your audience that is also tailored to your department and your company’s specific needs. You won’t likely have your own approach out of the gate – it will take time and trial and error to define.
To build your content framework, we recommend leveraging the above frameworks and follow these steps:
1. DEFINE YOUR AUDIENCE
A critical first step, no matter your framework, is knowing who you’re speaking to. Check out blog 2 of this series, where we talk about how to define your target audience.
2. CREATE A MESSAGING AND POSITIONING FRAMEWORK
Content that isn't helpful and relevant to the target audience isnt worth spending money on. The messaging and positioning framework helps you craft content that resonates with your defined audience.
This artifact gets to the core of why people will buy from you. It answers questions like, What problems do we solve for our customers? How are we better than our competitors? How do we want people to perceive us? What value do we offer to our audience?
3. OUTLINE YOUR CONTENT GOALS
Knowing why you’re creating content can help you become more intentional about your marketing. Include details about what you want to achieve with your content and what success will look like. At the most basic level, content should be helpful and relevant to your audience. If it isn’t, they won’t consume or engage with it. Build on this foundational goal when designing your own framework.
See blog 3 of this series, Setting Goals, for more about setting goals for your marketing strategy.
4. COME UP WITH CONTENT TOPICS
Have a process for coming up with engaging, relevant topics your audience cares about. You can use keyword research to understand what topics will be helpful and relevant to the audience you’ve defined. Tools such as SEMRush and Ahrefs are great tools for this research.
6. DEVELOP A PROCESS FOR CONTENT CREATION
There are different approaches to moving from ideation to creation. Many small and medium enterprises handle their content in-house. This allows them full creative freedom and control over the process and can give them a better idea of costs, timelines, and content quality.
However, this can sometimes put a strain on people resources and take up time that could be better allocated elsewhere. There’s also the risk that internal teams may not have the required skills to handle all of the moving parts of content creation (e.g., keyword and topic research, writing, editing, SEO, etc.).
Another option is to work with a vendor or content agency. Agencies are purpose-built for content creation and employ skilled creators who can optimize your content for each channel and use case. Using an agency also gives you access to higher-end tools for keyword and topic research that might otherwise be too expensive for SMEs to invest in on their own.
The downside of using an agency is that you do give up some freedom and control during the process. You may have a few back-and-forths with the agency to fine-tune your content, which can delay publishing. This option can also be expensive, especially if you’re locked into a contract with a set spending amount each month.
I see a lot of companies shifting toward a hybrid approach, where they create some of their own content in-house and outsource some to an agency or freelancer. This gives you the best of both worlds.
You get more flexibility in choosing where to focus your internal talents and where it’s worthwhile to pay an agency. You’ll need good organization to make this work, as having content split between two or more places can muddle the process.
7. DECIDE HOW TO REPURPOSE AND REUSE YOUR CONTENT
A valuable dimension to your content channel plan outlines how you will repurpose and reuse your content to maximize the investment. Typically, your content can be used across multiple channels.
For example, you can create a transcript of a webinar or podcast and publish it as a blog post. This can be a great strategy to capture users who will take the time to read or listen to content in addition to those who would rather skim a blog post.
An editorial calendar can help you plan and track what content is shared to each channel and when.
It’s also a good idea to create a content inventory. This gives you an organized list of all the content you’ve created and details like content age, format, where it’s published, where the original file is stored, the content creator, etc. You can reference this inventory to see if you already have something relevant to the topic you want to talk about instead of reinventing the wheel every time.
8. MEASURE, OPTIMIZE, ITERATE
Track your results with each piece of content and campaign. Look for ways to improve, then apply those improvements with future content.
Building Your Content Framework With Prime 8 Consulting
At Prime 8 Consulting, our marketing experts can help you develop a content marketing framework that fits into your larger digital strategy. Keep your team on the same page, align with your corporate goals, and implement processes that stick. If you’d like to explore how we can help, reach out to us. If you’d like to explore consulting as a career, check out working with Prime 8 to learn more.
