If you’re a business owner and not sure if a content plan is right for you or not – you’re not alone.
Most business owners want to up their marketing game and get better at content planning but they’re not sure if it’s going to be worth their time, and they wonder if it really will make a difference to their results.
So rather than finding out more about a content plan they just tootle along doing what they’ve always done.
So, if you’re tired of wondering what’s working and what’s not, overwhelmed at not knowing what to say each week, always feeling behind in your content creations or wondering why your marketing isn’t getting you the results you’re longing for, this is for you.
In this blog, I’m going to chat about:
- What is a content plan?
- Are there steps to take before I create my content plan?
- How does a content plan benefit your business?
- What types of content can you include in your content plan?
- What topics can you include in your content plan?
- When are you going to commit to creating your content?
- How far in advance should you plan your content?
- Completed and actioned your content plan? What’s next?
- Why is a content plan different to your content calendar?
- Will I only need one content plan?
- Worried you can’t deviate from your content plan once you’ve created it?
What is a content plan?
Your content plan is the types of content you’re going to create for your content plan, and the topics you want to talk about.
Are there steps to take BEFORE I create my content plan?
Yup! It makes a mahoosive difference to be clear on your business goals and objectives for the next 12-months.
When you’re not clear on your objectives or goals, you can end up sharing content without having any clarity on why you’re sharing it or what it is you want it to help you achieve.
All that happens is you feel frustrated that your marketing sucks.
When you’re clear on what you want your business to achieve you can be more detailed, specific and laser-focused on your marketing content for each quarter, each month, each week and even what content you want to share each day.
How does a content plan benefit your business?
There are 5 key benefits of creating and having a content plan:
- No more racking your brains on what content to write and share
- You can save time by having a content plan to follow
- A content plan can ignite ideas around a specific topic for your marketing
- Can keep you focussed on your business goals and objectives
- Gives you something to measure – what worked, what didn’t, where are your gaps with your content
What types of content can you include in your content plan?
Your possibilities are endless.
Some suggestions for you are:
- Social media posts
- Videos
- Podcasts
- Blogs
- Emails
- Lead magnets
- Webinars
What topics can you include in your content plan?
When it comes to what topics you can include in your content plan, again the list is endless.
But one thing to be aware of is that the topics you’re talking about are the ones that will be helping you achieve your business goals and objectives.
For example if you want to promote a new webinar about helping parents get their toddlers to sleep through the night, in your marketing you’d talk about why babies don’t sleep through the night, the impact this can have on new parent’s and mistakes new parents make with babies who don’t sleep through the night.
So when you offered your webinar they’re warmed up to the idea that you’re someone who knows their stuff and perhaps they’ll sign-up.
When are you going to commit to creating your content?
You content plan may also include when you’re going to create your content.
For me, I like to create my content on a Tuesday so I’ll block time out in my calendar and get planning and creating, and always with a cuppa.
Perhaps you have a team so you can include who will do what by when and content creation deadlines.
How far in advance should you plan your content?
It’s up to you, but let’s say you know what your business goals and objectives are for the next 90 days?
- You know what product or service you want to promote?
- You know what lead magnet you want to get more sign-ups for?You know you want more eyeballs on your blogs.
What you can do is brainstorm your content type and topics to help you achieve these.
This isn’t the same as sitting down and creating your content that you’ll eventually share with your audience.
Once you’ve planned your content you’ll need to know is how long it will take you to create the content.
What’s the deadline?
For example, if you plan to write 12 blogs in the next 90-days how long will it take you to research and write each blog?
When’s the deadline for each blog?
Want to create a new lead magnet this quarter? How long will it take you to create it? Create the follow up emails when people sign up? Create the sign-up page on your website?
Which is why I’m a fan of blocking out time when it comes to content creation, and reminding myself it always takes way longer than I think.
It may be you prefer to get to the end of the month and spend time creating content for the following month.
Or perhaps you prefer to work week by week.
Once you’ve created it it’s yours to use time and time again.
Completed and actioned your content plan? What next?
You’ve created and acted on your content plan.
Your content has been released into the online world.
Do you start straight-away on your next content plan?
Not yet.
Your action plan is still super-duper useful to you.
You can use it to measure what worked and what didn’t.
Which means you can tweak, keep, ditch or improve your content.
So much about marketing is about testing what works, so when you have a content plan it’s easier to measure the results it got, or didn’t get for you.
Every day is a school day.
Will I need a content plan for each of my content and topics?
Good question!
It depends.
On what?
The different types of content and topics you’re talking about.
Different Content And Topics
Let’s say in the next 90-days you want to write 12 blogs, post on 2 social media platforms – LinkedIn and Twitter and promote a brand new lead-magnet.
Yes, your content plan will include each of these types of contents and here’s the BUT…
BUT you may want to create a content plan for each type of activity.
Blog Content Plan
For your blogs you’ll want to plan out which topic each blog will cover and what your keywords will be for each one.
Email Content Plan
And then what emails will you send to those who sign-up for your new lead magnet.
Social Media Content Plan
What will you say in your posts for Twitter and LinkedIn?
Can I change my content plan once I’ve created it?
Abso-blinking-lutely!
Your content plan ain’t cast in stone so you can tweak it whenever you like if you notice things aren’t going great or if you’re expectations are being blown out of the water.
There’s still times when I ditch mine and start again.
If some content isn’t hitting the spot you can change it.
Sharing content your audience can’t get enough of? You’ve learned what they like so you can update your content plan to take this into account too.
Food for thought…?
Perhaps you’re thinking creating your content plan is so very time consuming.
It might be your marketing is working well without one – so far.
I’m not going to lie to you, yes there’s work involved and the benefits are you get insights into what’s working and what isn’t which will make you better at creating content that establishes you as the go-to person for your audience.
Want to know more about how to make your marketing and content more fantabulous? Here’s some more blogs for you:
How to create your 12 months marketing plan to support your business objectives and goals
How to create endless content ideas when you offer one product or service
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