Planning Out Your Content

As a creative entrepreneur or business owner, you know that content is one of the best tools you have. If you didn't, you now know from this challenge.  Planning out your content will help with making sure you engage your audience where they enjoy every piece you create and it will also alleviate last-minute content stressors.

Content drives traffic. It provides your audience with the value and information they seek. It also helps you market your business, products or services. Content is essential for online marketing success. You can achieve greater success if you take the time to plan your content.

What is Content Planning?

 
Content planning is simply the process of taking a look at your calendar and deciding what to write and where to publish it. Content planning involves some important and needed criteria:

• When will you publish the content?
• Where will you publish it?
• What will you write about?
• What is the purpose of the content?
• What are your keywords?
• How can you repurpose the content?

You'll also want to consider how far ahead you want to plan your content for.

I usually plan it for bird's eye view of three months, then I break it down to one month then into weekly.  I do it this way so I can keep up with what my target audience sees as interesting.

Many online business owners take a tiered approach. They plan large content projects for the entire year. For example, they may publish a report each month. They also take a look at their content on a quarterly or monthly level.

When I worked in Corporate America overseeing annual budgets and marketing plans this is how I did it. Annually, and it's why I like to keep my content now in quarters because online it really does change quite often.  But it is still a good idea to have an annual theme.

If you don't plan your content or are struggling to plan it effectively, consider the following tips:

1. Use a calendar that gives you a big picture and you can write on

 
A paper desk calendar is a great planning tool. You can write your content ideas in pencil for easy modifications. Then, if you prefer electronic organization, you can transfer the paper plan to your Outlook or e-calendar.

2.  Plan how you'll integrate your content into your marketing strategy

For example, you could decide that in March you're going to publish ten articles on article directories. You'll also want to make sure this content ties into any season or holiday.

3. You'll also want to ensure it supports any new products or services

 
[ctt template=”8″ link=”HAepz” via=”no” ]You want to plan your content with a purpose.[/ctt] It may be simply to drive traffic to your website. Or it may be to drive traffic to a sales page or increase your opt-ins.

4. Leave room for change

The best content plans leave room for inspiration. The greatest ideas often come out of the blue. If you're a stickler for your plan and don't allow room to add your content inspiration into the mix, then you're missing out.

5. Don't forget to take a look at how you can repurpose your content.

 
It's not only a great way to get the most return on investment, but it can also help fill content gaps.

When you plan your content, make sure you're looking at both the big and small picture. Make sure you look ahead and take the entire year into consideration. At the same time, plan your content right down to the keywords and topics.

Planning your content for the entire year may take two to three days to accomplish but it'll save you tons of time down the road.

Instead of wondering what you're going to write on, you'll have the answers all worked out. Best of all, your content will fit with your other marketing efforts to create a comprehensive business growth plan.

Hope all this helps.

Remember none of this has to be perfect. It was the perfection that held me back from really starting to crank out content personally. I was great at doing it for clients but for myself, I held back.

Do it imperfectly! You will be glad you did. Why? Because you will begin to attract the audience you want and share your greatest gifts!

Exercise

 
Okay, well here's a quick little exercise.

Download the weekly content template and schedule and begin planning out your content.

Map out next months plan then break that down. It's a start.

If you enjoyed this article you might want to check out: who you are sharing your content with, who is your audience?

Yes, your content should have a goal.

How do you go about planning your content? Share with us any quick content tips you have…we would love to hear.