The IDEAL Content Marketing Framework

The IDEAL Content Marketing Framework is a five-step process that ensures your content marketing efforts are strategic, targeted, and effective. The acronym IDEAL stands for:

1. Identify your audience and goals.
2. Define your content strategy.
3. Execute your content creation and distribution.
4. Analyse the performance of your content.
5. Leverage insights to refine and improve future content.

This framework is designed to be flexible, allowing you to adapt it to your specific needs, whether you’re running a small blog or managing a large-scale content marketing campaign for a multinational corporation.

I: Identify

Know your audience (and their Google Search Queries)

Before you can create content that resonates, you need to know who you’re creating it for. Identifying your target audience involves more than just knowing their age, gender, or location. It’s about understanding their pain points, interests, and behaviours.

• Who are they? Consider their demographics, interests, and behaviours.
• What are their pain points? What keeps them up at night? What problems are they desperately trying to solve?
• Where do they spend time together online? Are they on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, or some obscure forum dedicated to vintage British motorcycles?
• What language do they use? You need to speak their language, literally and figuratively. Think about regional dialects and common turns of phrase. If you are targeting a London audience, understand cockney rhyming slang and how they talk.
• What keywords do they use when searching for solutions? This is crucial for SEO.

This initial phase is all about audience research. Here are a few methods you could use:

• Surveys and polls: Ask your existing customers directly. Tools like SurveyMonkey can be helpful.
• Social media listening: Monitor conversations related to your industry and brand on social media.
• Website analytics: Use tools like Google Analytics to understand your website visitors’ behaviour.
• Keyword research: Use tools like Google Keyword Planner, Ahrefs, or SEMrush to identify relevant keywords.
• Competitor analysis: See what content your competitors are creating and how their audience is reacting. This may inspire your next steps.

Example: Let’s say you’re selling artisanal cheese in the Cotswolds. Your target audience might be affluent individuals aged 35-65, interested in local produce, gourmet food, and the countryside. They might be searching for keywords like “local cheese Cotswolds”, “artisan cheese board”, or “Cotswold food hampers”. Understanding this allows you to tailor your content accordingly.

Remember that understanding your audience is a perpetual expedition. This is a continuous, evolving process. Don’t just do it once and forget about it. The marketing landscape shifts like the sands of the Sahara. As your business evolves, so too will your audience’s needs and preferences. Continuous analysis will give you the necessary insight to stay ahead of the game.

D: Develop

Crafting content that resonates

Now that you know who you’re talking to, it’s time to create content that actually resonates.

Different types of content serve different purposes. Your strategy should include a mix of content formats to keep your audience engaged and cater to various preferences.

Forget bland, generic content that reads like it was written by a robot. Craft content that is:

• Valuable: It needs to provide genuine value to your audience. Solve their problems, answer their questions, entertain them, or inspire them.
• Relevant: It needs to be directly related to their interests and needs.
• High-quality: Free from grammatical errors, factually accurate, and well-presented. Nobody wants to read something that looks like it was thrown together in five minutes.
• Original: Stand out from the crowd. Offer a unique perspective or angle. Don’t just regurgitate what everyone else is saying.

Consider the different types of content you can create:

• Blog posts: Ideal for sharing informative articles, how-to guides, and opinion pieces. A blog allows you to establish yourself as an industry thought leader.
• Videos: Highly engaging and perfect for tutorials, product demos, and behind-the-scenes glimpses.
• Infographics: A visually appealing way to present data and complex information.
• eBooks and whitepapers: More in-depth resources for lead generation. These often require some contact information from interested parties.
• Podcasts: A great way to reach a niche audience while they’re commuting, exercising, or doing chores.
• Case studies: Showcase how your product or service has helped real customers.

Content calendar

A content calendar is an essential tool for planning and organising your content. It helps you maintain consistency, avoid last-minute rushes, and ensure that your content aligns with your overall strategy.

• Frequency: Decide how often you’ll publish new content. This could be daily, weekly, or monthly, depending on your resources and goals.
• Themes: Plan content around specific themes or topics that resonate with your audience.
• Key Dates: Include important dates, such as holidays, industry events, and product launches, to create timely and relevant content.

Tone and voice

Your content’s tone and voice should reflect your brand’s personality and resonate with your audience. Whether it’s professional, friendly, or quirky, consistency is key.

• Brand guidelines: Develop a set of guidelines that outline your brand’s tone, voice, and style.
• Audience preferences: Consider how your audience prefers to communicate and adapt your tone accordingly.

Example: Going back to our artisanal cheese example, you could create blog posts on “The Ultimate Cheese Board Guide”, “Pairing Cheese with Local Ales”, or “Visiting the Best Cheese Farms in the Cotswolds”. You could create videos demonstrating how to make a cheese soufflé or interviewing local cheesemakers. You would focus on what your target audience wants to read.

E: Engage

Getting your content seen (and shared)

With your strategy in place, it’s time to create content that aligns with your goals and resonates with your audience.

• Search Engine Optimisation (SEO): Optimise your content for search engines. Use relevant keywords, write compelling meta descriptions, and build high-quality backlinks. Ensure that your content is well-written and adheres to all SEO policies to ensure that your site isn’t penalised.
• Social media: Share your content on relevant social media platforms. Engage with your followers and participate in industry discussions. Tailor your content to each platform. What works on LinkedIn might not work on TikTok.
• Email marketing: Build an email list and send regular newsletters with your latest content. Segment your list to send targeted messages to specific groups.
• Influencer marketing: Partner with influencers in your niche to promote your content to their audience. Ensure that your content is relevant and that the audience aligns with the goal of your campaign.
• Online communities: Participate in relevant online forums and communities. Share your content where appropriate and engage in discussions. Do not come across as too sales-y.
• Paid advertising: Consider using paid advertising (e.g., Google Ads, social media ads) to reach a wider audience. Remember to consider your target audience’s location.

Example: Our artisanal cheese business could share their blog posts on Facebook and Instagram, target foodies with Google Ads, and partner with local food bloggers to review their products. This may come at a cost but may lead to higher conversions and improved brand awareness.

Don’t just publish your content and hope for the best. Actively promote it and engage with your audience. Respond to comments, answer questions, and foster a sense of community. The conversation between you and your customers will inform future activity.

A: Analyse

Measuring what matters

To determine the effectiveness of your content, you need to track and analyse key performance metrics.

• Website traffic: How much traffic are your content pieces driving to your website?
• Engagement metrics: How are people interacting with your content? (e.g., likes, shares, comments)
• Conversion rates: How many people are taking the desired action after consuming your content? (e.g., signing up for a newsletter, requesting a quote, making a purchase)
• SEO rankings: How are your content pieces ranking in search results?

Use tools like Google Analytics, social media analytics dashboards, and marketing automation platforms to track your key metrics.

Example: The artisanal cheese business could track website traffic to their blog posts, monitor social media engagement with their videos, and measure how many people who read their “Cheese Board Guide” ultimately purchase a cheese board from their website.

The key is to review, refine, and re-evaluate continuously.

L: Leverage

Maximise future opportunities by using the data you collect

Continuous improvement

The final step in the IDEAL Framework is to use the insights gained from your analysis to refine and improve your future content.

• Identify trends: Look for patterns in your data to identify what types of content perform best and why.
• A/B testing: Experiment with different headlines, formats, and distribution channels to see what works best.
• Feedback loop: Encourage feedback from your audience and use it to inform your content strategy.

Scaling your efforts

As you refine your content strategy, you’ll likely find opportunities to scale your efforts.

• Content repurposing: Turn high-performing content into different formats to reach new audiences. For example, a popular blog post could be turned into a video or infographic.
• Automation: Use tools to automate repetitive tasks, such as social media posting and email marketing, to save time and increase efficiency.
• Team collaboration: Build a content team or collaborate with freelancers to increase your content output without compromising on quality.

Example: If you’re an artisan cheese business and found your campaign to focus on cheese pairing at Christmas, build on that. Use the same audience but talk about cheese types. Make it clear you are selling. Do not assume that your client base knows about cheese (unless, of course, they are Cheese Connoisseurs).

The IDEAL Content Marketing Framework isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution. It’s a flexible framework that you can adapt to fit your specific needs and goals. However, by following these five steps, you can create a content marketing strategy that attracts, engages, and converts your audience.