Being a content creator isn’t just about showing up online everyday, it’s about sharing ideas that help, inspire or add value to someone, and to do that, you need a direction, a plan that guide your creativity and keeps you organized. here’s how you’re going to improve your content by using SOSTAC framework.
According to Hupspot’s state of marketing report(2025), 50% of marketers plan to increase their investment in content marketing. That’s because good content is not just creative, it’s strategic.
who is a content creator?
A content creator is someone who develops ideas to add value , whether through writing, making videos, recording audio and shares them through channels such as:
- Social media platforms; Facebook, Instagram , TikTok or Youtube
- Websites: blogging.
To create truly effective content that gets results, you need more than creativity. You need to build an effective and strong strategy.
With SOSTAC you are going to see a method of how to build an effective strategy.
What is the SOSTAC framework?
SOSTAC framework is a marketing planning model by PR smith, it helps you build strategies that turn your ideas into results.
SOSTAC stands for:
- Situation Analysis: Where are you now?
- Objectives: Where do you want to be?
- Strategy: How will you be there?
- Tactics: What methods will you use?
- Action: Apply your strategy.
- Control: Evaluate your performance, and how can you improve?
How can you apply SOSTAC into your content creation process?
Situation Analysis:
The first thing you should focus on is your niche.
Ask yourself:
- What are you providing ?
- What makes you unique and special?
Once you answer these questions, move to the next step;
Identifying your target audience.
- Who are they?
- What are they looking for?
Then, define your competitors within the same niche. This helps you understand what your audience likes the most , and what they don’t.
Next, evaluate yourself by using SWOT analysis; define your strengths, weaknesses , opportunities and threats.
Example:
Let’s say you’re a content creator who focuses on selfcare.
Your niche is skincare, so your audience might look for skincare products that actually work for their skin type.
You notice that your competitor who creates the similar content gets more views, likes and comments.
So, you start to analyze their content:
- What hooks do they use most often?
- What are people saying in their comments?
- How’s the quality and the editing of their videos?
Then, define your strengths;
- What are you really good at and can do more of?
Define your weaknesses;
- What need improvement so you can work on?
At this stage you need to search more to reach your audience.
Tools that will help you to reach your audience:
- Google trends: to find trending topics
- Buzzsumo: to analyze top performing topics
Objectives:
After analyzing your current situation, the next step is to set a clear and actionable goal.
The best way to do this is by creating a SMART goal, which ensures your objectives are:
- Specific: be clear about what you exactly want to achieve.
- Measurable: your goals should include numbers or indicators so you can track your progress.
- Achievable: make sure your goal is realistic and you are able to reach it
- Relevant: your goal should make sense and align with your overall strategy.
- Time-bound: set a clear deadline so you can evaluate your results later.
Example:
If you currently have 5,000 followers on Instagram and want to grow your audience, your SMART goal could be:
“increase Instagram followers by 30% by the end of the year”
When your goal is SMART you make it easier to plan actions and monitor your success.
Strategy:
Once you’ve set your SMART goal, it’s time to figure out how you will reach them.
Creating strategy is not just about choosing random methods and hoping they work.
It’s identifying what you actually need to achieve and how you can use your strengths and opportunities effectively.
example :
If your goal is to gain more followers , your strategy could include:
- Creating content that truly interests your audience
- Posting consistently to stay visible and relevant.
- Collaboration with other creators who have more followers to increase yours.
A good strategy is not just a list of actions, it is a clear direction that uses your strengths and opportunities to overcome your weakness and threats. It is a big picture that connects your goals to real results.
Tactics:
Now let’s put your strategy into practical steps.
Tactics are the specific actions you will take to turn your strategy into reality. Such as; what methods that you will take to achieve your strategy.
Example :
Your strategy is to post consistently and to collaborate with other creators, then your tactics will be:
- Create a content calendar to plan my weakly posts.
- Setting a clear posting schedule.
- Using trends hashtags and sounds related to my niche to increase visibility.
- Reaching out to two creators per months for collaboration.
- Using Instagram insights to track what type of content performs best.
Remember tactics should always support your strategy and your goals, if you do not have a clear goal and strategy, your tactics will not be effective.
To stay organized and work efficiently in this stage you should use;
Tools that keeps you organized, such as:
- Notion: for planning content calendars and tracking your goals
- Trello: managing your workflow and tasks deadline
- Google calendar: to schedule posting times and reminders.
Action:
Now it’s time to bring plans into life.
The action stage is where you actually start doing your work; creating content, posting, analyzing and engaging with your audience.
These tools will help you create/post your content:
- Meta business suit: to schedule and manage facebook/Instagram posts
- Later/ buffer: for automating posts across different platforms
- Canva: for designing social media posts, stories and infographics
- Capcut: for easy video editing
- Copy.ai: for writing a copy for social media post.
- ChatGPT: for brainstorming and writing.
Control:
Once you’re done with creating your content the next step is controlling.
The control stage is the evaluating stage. You should evaluate what you’ve already done to see:
- What works and what doesn’t work?
- How to improve your future performance?
- How to maintain your good performance?
and there are tools that help you to evaluate your performance.
These tools are:
- Instagram insights/ tiktok analytics: to track engagement and performance
- Google analytics : to analyze website or blog traffic.
Keep evaluating your content helps you to grow, refine your strategy and get better with every goal you set.
SOSTAC is not just a planning model it helps to build a strategic thinking , plan, act and evaluate. And remember content creation is about more than posting or writing you are adding value to your audience . so are you ready to be a content creator in 2026?