Whether you are a blogger, photographer, or brand manager, you will want your content to matter to people. And that is why you need content frameworks to help you stand out, attract traffic, and be a trusted source to your audience.
To reach these goals, being conscientious and strategic in communicating your content’s importance is important. With so many voices vying for attention, it’s more important than ever to focus your content and ensure it resonates with your audience.
One way to do this is by using content frameworks.
What Are Content Frameworks?
A content framework is a structured approach to creating content that helps ensure it’s relevant, valuable, and consistent.
Using a framework, you can focus your content around a specific theme, topic, or idea, making it more useful and interesting to your audience. It also helps you to stay on track and avoid getting derailed by unrelated or irrelevant topics.
Two popular content frameworks are the skyscraper and hedgehog methods, which we will explore further below.
The Skyscraper Method
Remember when Chris Rock got slapped at the Oscars, and everyone had something to say? Talking about viral moments is important to remain relevant.
But… it’s just as easy to get lost among the many voices.
The Skyscraper method offers a way to stand out among the noise while building on what’s already been said. This technique might involve tweaking your content by:
- Adding new information
- Sculpting a deeper analysis
- Incorporating unique images or media
- Prompting credible sources to re-share and link to your content
The idea is to create better content than your competitors by adding more images and relevant links and essentially building up on what’s already being said. The key is to focus on a topic that’s already popular and then make it even better by adding more value, insights, and information.
For example, let’s say you want to write about the benefits of meditation. You could start by researching what’s already out there, then create a more comprehensive, in-depth guide that covers all the different types of meditation, the science behind it, and how it can benefit your mental health.
By doing this, you’re providing more value to your readers and positioning yourself as an expert.
The Skyscraper method is a way to establish value within an ongoing conversation. On the other hand, the hedgehog method is all about standing out, demonstrating your unique niche, and highlighting why you are different.
The Hedgehog Method
This approach is based on the idea that you should focus on one thing and do it well. The key is to find your “hedgehog concept,” which is the intersection of what you’re passionate about, what you’re good at, and what the market needs. Using this method to directly communicate your value proposition to build authority, credibility, and authenticity independent of other creators.
For example, let’s say you’re a fitness blogger. Instead of covering all aspects of fitness, you could look at what your target audience needs and existing gaps in the market. To determine what content types to create, use the hedgehog framework to identify your passion, expertise, and market demand individually.
Passion
You are passionate about helping people achieve their fitness goals and live healthy lifestyles.
Expertise
You have years of experience as a personal trainer and have helped many clients achieve their fitness goals. You have expertise in strength training, nutrition, and stress management.
Market Demand
You know that your target audience is busy professionals who want to stay fit and healthy but struggle to find the time to exercise and eat well. They are looking for a solution that is efficient and effective.
You can create content that speaks directly to your target audience using these three elements. For example, you could create a blog post titled “5 Strength Training Exercises for Busy Professionals”.
In this post, you will provide simple and effective exercises that can be done in a short amount of time. You would also provide tips on how to fit exercise into a busy schedule and how to make healthy eating choices when time is limited.
You have created a focused and impactful message using the Hedgehog content framework. This will help build your credibility and establish you as an expert in your field, ultimately leading to more clients and business.
Final Thoughts
At Storyteller’s Saga, we love creating content that helps our clients 10x their traffic and lead generation. And for that, we have frequent discussions and workshops around different ideas, themes, and concepts.
One of our lead writers, Zarsha, recently presented how content frameworks can be employed for better content creation. Aside from skyscrapers and hedgehog methods, several other content framework types exist. And we will be discussing those in our next blogs, so stay tuned!
To leave you with some food for thought: What would it be if you or your brand could blurt out any given message? Could using one of the content frameworks help focus and refine this message?
Connect with our strategists today to help you establish your brand voice and generate 10x visitors from blog content.
