Who's doing what?

Know your stuff

There are two main types of resources you'll be using when creating content—your team and your tools. Combined, they are the backbone when building a scalable and organised content creation framework.

The Team

For your team, there are five primary levels of responsibility:

1. Content management and strategy

2. Writing

3. Editing

4. Designing

5. Distributing

Content management and strategy

typically, the leader of the team

• Manages the long-term content plan, and maps the plan to the business needs

• Ensures all other responsibilities are met

• Analyses the reports and follows-up on improvements

Writing

typically, a content writer or marketer

• They do the writing

• The writers do not have to be subject matter experts, they can instead work with internal and external subject matter experts to create compelling and useful content.

• Remember, you don’t always have to write your content in-house; you can outsource this work.

Editing

an in-house editor, a freelance editor or even a teammate with a knack for communication

• Just because content is created, does not mean it’s ready to be published

• Content needs to be aligned with business messaging, target market needs, and the goals it aims to solve

• Remember, a fresh pair of eyes can make your content stronger.

Designing

a graphic designer, or someone skilled in tools like Canva or Adobe InDesign

• Content must be packaged in an appealing way

• Attractive, fluid and uniform formats project professionalism and keep people on your site

• Information hierarchy is important—content must be structured so it is easy to navigate and understand

• Consider the blink test; the 3 to 5 seconds an average site visitor spends scanning a website visually before deciding they want to spend their time looking through it

Distributing

a content distributor or social media coordinator/specialist

• Responsible for bringing the content to market through a strategic promotion plan

• Coordinates the creation of promotional content, maps it to the available channels, and schedules it for publication

• Also responsible for analysing the results of a campaign

Advice on teams

Now, depending on your team and business context, you might have one person fill more than one of these roles. In this case, you must ensure that the person is not strapped with too much responsibility—else this could create issues and delays in content publication.

• Have checks and balances spread amongst multiple teammates. 

• And if your team is already working at full capacity, look into freelancers to pick up the additional work.

• If you're just getting started, try hiring a freelancer to help you complete a project. This could be the start of building your team.

The Tools

To build your content framework, you'll need three main tools:

• CMS

• Analytic tools

• Planning and internal communication tools

CMS

Content Management System

A CMS is a tool for creating, editing and publishing digital content. There are several available, so you will need to decide which is the most appropriate fit for your business context. Whichever CMS you choose, you will need to make sure you can use it effectively for:

• creating and publishing content for your blog/landing pages

• editing website content

• optimising content for search engines

• allowing the necessary level of customisation options for designers

Below is a table that outlines the strengths and characteristics of some of the more popular CMS’s currently on the market.

Analytic tools

Most content management systems (CMS) and social media platforms include built-in analytics for basic insights like traffic, engagement, and demographics. But if you are looking for a greater insight into your campaigns, try using a combination of analytic tools.

For example, Google Analytics and HubSpot work well together—Google Analytics tracks detailed website behaviour, while HubSpot monitors user interactions across emails, forms, and CRM activity.

To go deeper, use tracking links (UTM parameters), which are custom URLs that help identify how visitors find and interact with your content. By tagging links with campaign info (like source, medium, and name), you can track which channels and strategies are most effective. You can create your own using Google’s Campaign URL Builder.

Beginner Analytics:
Start by exploring the analytics already built into your CMS or platforms. Then, set up Google Analytics, create basic tracking links for your main channels, and monitor where your traffic comes from and what content performs best.

Advanced Analytics:
Once you're comfortable, move into conversion tracking, build dashboards with Google Looker Studio, test campaign variations, and explore attribution models to better understand the full campaign journey.

Planning and internal communication tools

Once your CMS and analytics systems are in place, it’s time to establish a reliable set of tools for planning and internal coordination. 

Content creation isn’t just about writing—it involves collaboration, version control, task management, and clear communication. The right tool can help your team stay aligned, reduce duplication, and avoid missed deadlines. Here’s what this specific tool should help you do:

• communicate efficiently with your team

• assign tasks and responsibilities clearly

• track progress and updates

• avoid version control and duplicate content issues

There are many tools on the market, each with its particular strengths and user experience. Here’s a quick comparison of some of the most widely used:

Beginner planning tools:
Try starting with Google Drive. It’s free, easy to use, and ideal for teams just beginning to organise their content planning. Use Google Docs for collaborative writing, Google Sheets for editorial calendars, and shared folders to keep all assets in one place. Combine this with a simple Trello board to assign tasks and monitor progress.

Advanced planning tools:
Once your workflow is established, consider upgrading to more robust tools like Asana for project tracking or Notion for a custom content hub. Integrate these with Slack for real-time updates and automate repetitive tasks with tools like Zapier. Set up editorial calendars, approval workflows, and internal documentation so everyone knows what’s happening and when.

Bringing it all together

With your teams and tools all in place, you have everything you need to start building a solid content creation framework!