How to Create a Content Marketing Framework [With Templates]

Ever feel like your content marketing is a chaotic free-for-all? You need a content marketing framework. Think of it as your roadmap — keeping your team on track, your content aligned, and your content marketing strategy running like a well-oiled machine. 

What Is a Content Framework?

A content framework gives your content team a structured approach to planning, creating, distributing, and managing all your content. Different from a content strategy, it acts as a repeatable process that outlines how content is developed and maintained over time.

In essence, your content framework puts your content strategy into action, producing all of that valuable content marketing. 

“Understanding what a content framework is and how to create one will enable your organization to make high-quality, consistent, and engaging content that resonates with their audience,” says Michelle Jackson, Chief Strategy Officer, BackPocket Agency.

Why You Need a Content Framework

After you’ve created your content strategy, with all of your audience insights, ideal channels, and business goals to aim for, it’s time to flesh out your content framework. Having a content framework breathes life into your strategy and gives your team a repeatable, consistent process to follow. 

Here are just a handful of benefits your team can expect with a content framework: 

• No more ambiguity. Everyone knows their role, the workflow, and how to keep things moving. 
• More efficiency. With a structured content framework, teams can streamline the planning and production process, reducing wasted time and resources.
• Easy scaling. This process is easily replicated without compromising quality no matter the content workload. It also helps you scale your content efforts by repurposing content on different platforms. 

What Are the 5 Steps for a Content Creation Framework?

So now that the importance of a content creation framework has been established, how can you create one?

1. Establish Content Creation Guidelines 

Before you can start writing and producing, you have to ensure each piece is on-brand and fits within your goals. 

“A strong content creation framework begins with a solid foundation: clear editorial guidelines, voice and tone standards, and a shared understanding of brand consistency,” says Janet Celosia, Vice President, Marketing Strategy, BackPocket Agency. She explains that, too often, teams jump straight into content production without aligning on these basics — leading to misalignment, inconsistent messaging, and extra time spent in editing. “When writers, designers, social media teams, and producers are all on the same page from the start, the entire process becomes more efficient, collaborative, and ultimately more impactful.”

Two tools can be incredibly helpful:

1. Style guide: Your guide should include grammar and style rules (i.e., Associated Press (AP) style, exceptions to AP style), as well as brand-specific rules (i.e., team members, not employees). 
2. Voice and tone standards: Voice and tone guidelines should provide the characteristics you want to convey (i.e., friendly, clear, and concise) and examples of content created in that voice and tone. Helpful tip: Take it a step further and include characteristics that are the opposite of your brand voice to avoid.

Watch: How to Build Your Own Style Guide Chatbot in Minutes!

2. Create a Content Brief Template

Another important resource is a standard content brief that can be provided to all content creators. Create a template that includes details such as:

• Overall topic
• Intended target audience segment(s)
• Desired primary and secondary keywords
• Messaging points you want included
• Messaging points that should be avoided
• Where the content will be published or promoted
• Desired call-to-action 

3. Create a Content Roadmap

Understanding audience or buyer journeys is crucial for tracking how potential customers transition from initial awareness to making a purchase decision. You can pinpoint audience needs, challenges, and motivations by outlining the distinct phases — awareness, consideration, and conversion — at every stage.

This allows for developing precise messaging and strategic initiatives that effectively tackle pain points, emphasize key value propositions, and foster trust. The roadmap should align content types to each stage of the buyer journey, ensuring that content supports prospects through their decision-making process.

4. Set Rules for Governance and Collaboration

Content governance ensures consistency, quality, and alignment with organizational goals. Collaboration among teams helps streamline workflows and improves content effectiveness. 

Key governance elements include:

• Content planning and workflow management. Tools like content calendars and mapping tools ensure strategic content development.
• Approval and review processes. Define roles and responsibilities for content creation, editing, and approval.
• Cross-functional collaboration. Align marketing, sales, and leadership teams to create cohesive messaging and improve content impact.
• Content performance review. Regularly assess content effectiveness and make adjustments based on performance insights.

5. Choose a Content Management Tool

Project management tools like Asana or Monday.com or content operations platforms like Relato can help you manage all of the moving pieces that come with a robust content program. “These types of tools and platforms can ensure everyone knows who owns each task, who needs to approve it, and who should stay informed,” Celosia says. “This minimizes bottlenecks, reduces miscommunication, and keeps projects moving efficiently — helping content teams work smarter, not harder.”  

Example of a Content Framework

Just like looking at sample content marketing strategies can be helpful, so too can seeing a content framework example. Of course, those are a little hard to find with a Google search.

But you’re in luck: We’ve pulled back the curtain and have used past client experiences to create a hypothetical sample content framework for a real estate association.

1. Content Creation Guidelines

This hypothetical client wanted to ensure its content’s voice and tone aligned closely with its organizational brand tone. We established these guidelines for them.

2. Content Brief Template

Here’s a sample content brief template that we developed for this hypothetical client:

3. Content Roadmap

Because of the thorough audience research, the client understands its audience’s journey and the types of content that will align with each stage:

4. Governance and Collaboration

A clearly defined workflow and approval process makes the client’s content go from idea to production seamlessly. We put together the below RACI matrix (Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, and Informed) for this hypothetical client: 

Key Roles and Responsibilities

• Responsible (R) – The person/team who does the work and executes the task.
• Accountable (A) – The person/team ultimately responsible for ensuring the task is completed and making final decisions.
• Consulted (C) – The person/team whose input is sought before finalizing the work.
• Informed (I) – The person/team who needs to be kept in the loop about progress but does not directly contribute.

5. Content Management Tool

We selected Monday.com as the project management tool to help this hypothetical client manage all moving parts of content initiatives. Features we leveraged include:

• To-do lists for every content project
• Assignments to individuals based on RACI matrix
• Timeline/deadlines and reminders
• Status updates
• File management 

Ready to Get to Work?

At BackPocket Agency, we’re more than just content creators — we’re strategic partners committed to helping you achieve your marketing goals. With our comprehensive content strategy services, we’ll guide you through every step of the process, ensuring that your content doesn’t just exist but thrives. Let’s work together to create a content strategy that tells your story and drives your success. Reach out to BackPocket to start strategizing today.