The Importance of Building a Content Creation Framework

 

If you’re a content marketer, you wear a lot of hats. How do you manage all you need to get done in your short amount of time? This is where having a content creation framework comes in. Content creation means creating relevant and valuable content like blogs, e-books, and social posts for your audience. This blog will go in-depth about why your business needs this type of framework, how to build one, and the resources needed.

First, why is this so important?

A content creation framework will help you organize each step of the content creation process. It should be:

  1. Repeatable

  2. Organized

  3. Agile

The goal is that it aids you in your process. Make sure it can be used time after time and organized enough that it breaks down your goals into smaller, easier chunks. Lastly, you want to make sure it is flexible, so if and when needs change, the framework can as well.

 
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Now how do you build one?

There are seven steps in building a content creation framework:

  1. Conceptualize your content

  2. Plan and set timelines

  3. Create a workflow for content creation

  4. Review content

  5. Publish and promote

  6. Organize it internally

  7. Analyze the results

Let’s go into each of these in a little more detail.


Conceptualize Your Content

Make sure your content ideas are aligning with industry trends. To do this, check out other wireless retailer’s blogs or other online resources like blog topic generators.


Plan and Set Timelines

Timelines are essential to keeping you on track. Make sure it doesn’t stretch beyond three months so you’re staying laser-focused. You also want to have at least two or three content offers you want to create within this time frame. This will help organize your weekly content activities, like blogs, social posts, etc.

 
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Create a Workflow for Content Creation

It’s best to identify who is going to be completing which tasks and what outside influencers will be contributing. Break down the work in specifics so everyone is on the same page. For example:

  1. Outline completed

  2. First draft completed

  3. Editing completed

  4. Design and formatting completed

  5. Published

This ensures the completion of the exact stages of content creation.

Review Content

When reviewing your content, make sure to double check that it has been edited. You want to…

  1. Get authorization to publicly release your content

  2. Get an SEO specialist to format and update website content

  3. Work with your technical team to make website updates

When editing, you want to…

  1. Set clear expectations to ensure that the reviewer knows what they’re looking for

  2. Allow for multiple rounds of edits (between two and four)

  3. Make suggestions by tracking progress

  4. Determine your editing timeline

  5. Use a document to track changes and clearly identify roles in the reviewal process

This will guarantee that you’re on track at each point in the editing process.

 
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Publish and Promote

How do you want to drive people to your content? Identify this and put your plan into action. Your promotion strategy must always reflect your business needs, so keep this in mind as well.

Organize it Internally

Set up a way to easily find previously-used content in the future. You can do this by creating a nomenclature system. This could include, for example, the content format, the buyer’s journey stage, the campaign, and the year. It could look something like this:

  • e-book — awareness — wirelessaccessories — 2016

Analyze the Results

As always, you should measure the results of your framework to see what insights you can learn and make adjustments as needed.

Finally, the Resources

You’ll need two resources for a content creation framework. These include your team, as well as tools.

The team’s primary responsibilities include:

  1. Content management strategy

  2. Writing

  3. Editing

  4. Designing

  5. Coordinating responsibilities

 
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The tools you may need include:

  1. Content management system (CMS) to create, edit, and publish your content

  2. Analytics (Google analytics or HubSpot are good go-to’s)

  3. Planning and internal communication for shared documents and collaborative editing (example: Google drive)


Easy enough, right? Take it step by step and you’ll be on your way to creating a reliable framework that will aid you in your entire content creation routine.



 
Guest User