Content teams are constantly faced with the question: what should we publish next? When resources are limited, making the right decision matters. That’s where a simple, proven framework comes in—one that blends impact, effort, and audience relevance to prioritize content that drives results.
Below, we’ll walk through the Pulse → Studio → Echo → Orbit → Recall framework to guide your content decisions, ensuring you focus on what truly moves the needle.
Pulse: Assess What’s Happening Now
Start by understanding your current landscape.
- Look at existing analytics: Which topics or formats are driving the most engagement?
- Review competitor activity: What are others in your space talking about or ranking for?
- Listen to your audience: Review comments, social mentions, and support tickets for recurring questions or interests.
Pulse is about gathering signals. This diagnostic step anchors your process in real data rather than gut feelings.
Actionable tip: Set up a recurring dashboard that tracks your top-performing content, search trends, and audience feedback every month.
Studio: Score Ideas by Impact and Effort
Now, move into ideation. Assemble your team (or yourself!) and brainstorm potential topics. For each idea, quickly evaluate:
- Impact: How much potential does this content have to reach your goals? (e.g., traffic, leads, brand authority)
- Effort: How much work will it take? (e.g., research, production, design, approvals)
- Audience relevance: Does this topic closely match your audience’s needs or pain points?
Create a simple scoring matrix. For each idea, rate on a 1–5 scale (1 = low, 5 = high):
| Idea | Impact | Effort | Audience Relevance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Topic A | 4 | 2 | 5 |
| Topic B | 3 | 5 | 3 |
| Topic C | 5 | 4 | 4 |
Actionable tip: Prioritize ideas with high impact, high relevance, and low-to-medium effort. This is your sweet spot.
Echo: Validate With Your Audience
Before investing resources, echo your ideas back to your audience for validation.
- Run quick polls: Social media, email lists, or in-product pop-ups are great for gauging interest.
- Ask for feedback: Share possible headlines or summaries and ask your community which resonates most.
- Look for patterns: Which ideas get the most enthusiastic responses?
Echo ensures you’re not working in a vacuum. It’s a lightweight way to prevent wasted effort and build anticipation for your upcoming content.
Actionable tip: Use a simple survey tool or a Twitter poll to A/B test your top 2-3 content ideas.
Orbit: Plan for Distribution and Longevity
Great content doesn’t succeed in isolation. Plan your orbit—how will this piece reach and influence your audience?
Consider:
- Primary channels: Website, newsletter, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc.
- Supporting assets: Infographics, social snippets, email teasers.
- Evergreen potential: Can this content be updated or repurposed in the future?
Map out a basic promotion plan before you hit publish. The goal is to maximize reach and ensure your high-impact content gets the attention it deserves.
Actionable tip: For each prioritized idea, outline at least three distribution tactics (e.g., LinkedIn post, email blast, repurpose as a podcast topic).
Recall: Measure, Learn, and Iterate
Finally, recall brings the process full circle. After publishing, measure actual performance against your initial impact goals.
- Review analytics: Traffic, engagement, conversions.
- Gather qualitative feedback: Did your audience find it valuable?
- Identify learnings: Which hypotheses were correct? What surprised you?
Feed these insights back into your Pulse step, refining your future prioritization decisions.
Actionable tip: Document key results in a shared space and make “what did we learn?” a regular agenda item in your content meetings.
Key Takeaway
A structured framework makes content decision-making faster, clearer, and more aligned to results. By scoring ideas for impact, effort, and relevance—and validating with your audience—you’ll consistently prioritize what matters most. Start simple, iterate often, and let your content strategy grow smarter over time.