The Content Islands Framework

We created the Content Islands framework to give structure to the content creation process. The framework provides a way to generate repeatable results from inbound marketing.

How To Use The Content Islands Framework

Content Islands may sound like an exotic place to go on vacation, but it’s not! It’s actually even better than that. We explain the step by step process to get started for yourself below. Alternatively, check out the video you’d prefer to watch than read.
 
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Before You Begin

The Content Islands framework focuses on helping you structure the creation of your content. Before you get to work on creating content, you’re going to need to understand your audience and buyer personas – who they are, where they hang out, and what they’re interested in. We’re also assuming that you have a clear goal in mind – you might want potential customers to enquire, call, buy online or visit your physical store.

To use Content Islands you should be ready to start the creation of content.

You’ll also need to decide on a topic of interest for your first island. This topic should be something related to your product or service. For example, if you are a video production agency you might choose a topic that people commonly use videos for such as “Training”. If you manufacture premium headphones you might choose “Fitness” as your topic. This will be the focus for all content within each island you create.

Step 1

Island Content

The first piece of content you should create is what we call “The Island.” This is a gated piece of content such as an ebook, a white paper, a webinar or a report. This is a high value piece of content that your audience would be happy to download or view for free in exchange for their contact details. This piece of content must help your audience learn something new, or offer value that they can’t get elsewhere for free.

Your Island Content can also be known as a conversion piece, since you’re converting anonymous users into leads when they hand over their contact details.

When you have created your island content you should create a landing page with a description of the content and a form. Your aim is to get people to complete the form so you get their contact details and they get a copy of your island content.

Step 2

Feeder Content

Once you have created your island piece, your next priority is to create feeder content. These pieces of content act as a way to get traffic to your island. This type of content will attract your audience, and is also known as traffic generation content.

It includes items such as blog articles, social media posts, infographics, guest posts, videos etc. The aim with your feeder content is for people to find it online, enjoy it and then be directed towards your high value island content and download it.

Your feeder content should be the type of content that people can get value from long term. So if they found it online today or in a years time they would get the same value from it. This will make sure your feeder content continues to generate long term traffic to your island.

Step 3

Nurture Content

The next part of the Content Islands framework is the Island Beach. When people get to your island, you want them to have a good experience. Why invite guests if you’re not going to look after them and give them an experience to remember?! Give them a room that makes them say WOW! Make them their perfect cocktail and prepare a sun lounger in a prime location on the beach. Make sure they have a reservation in their favourite restaurant and give them the full VIP treatment.

In content terms, this means nurturing your leads to find out what their interests are, providing more relevant content, helping them buy the right products and providing supportive after sales. The aim is to make the experience so good that they tell their friends. This is commonly done using email nurture sequences through your email marketing or marketing automation software.

The Result

So what does this all achieve? Well, the idea is that people will discover your brand through the awesome feeder content you produce – via social media or search engines. The reader should find this content impressive, actionable and authoritative. And when you direct them towards your insanely valuable, gated, Island Content around the same topic, they should be more than willing to sign up and download it. Once you have their contact details, it’s time to nurture them towards becoming a customer – and then continue supporting them post-sale with content. Each Content Island is one continuous lifecycle, generating traffic, leads and customers long term. And when one Island is complete, you can move on to your next one. We’d recommend spending a minimum of 4 months on each content island to ensure it’s as valuable and as effective as possible.

Why Is Content Islands So Powerful?

It will help you generate repeatable results

Each content island is based around a core topic, related to an area of interest around your product or service. This means that you can generate traffic, leads and customers for each of the topics of interest for your business. When you’ve successfully created your first island, you can move on to the next island, and the next, creating multiple ongoing campaigns.

It will generate long term traffic to your island

The feeder content you create should be high quality, valuable, evergreen, based around the topic of your island and promoted through various different channels. This content works best when it has genuine long-term value, and remains useful into the future. This ensures that traffic continues to be moved onto your Island for a sustained period.

Makes sure your prospects are nurtured properly

It’s all-too common for people to neglect the nurture process. When you’ve invested so much time into traffic generation and conversion optimisation, this is a huge waste! The nurture process is a core part of the Content Islands framework, adding continued value to your converted leads and massaging them towards making a purchase when ready.

Makes sure every piece of content has a goal

The Content Islands framework focuses your content creation process to make sure you create content for each of the core areas; traffic generation, conversion and nurturing. Every piece of content you create has a specific job to do. That makes the framework a highly efficient way to create content.

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