Have you ever tried creating great content for your audience, but ended up sitting at the computer for hours, in front of a blank screen? Creating content on a whim can be difficult when you have no plan. That’s why we recommend content planning! You might be asking yourself, “What is content planning? How can it help my business? What’s the best way to plan my content?”

If you’re looking for answers, we have you covered. Buckle up for a quick crash course on creating a content planning strategy and the benefits it will have for your business.

So, What Is Content Planning?

Simply put, content planning is scheduling specific content,  creating the content, and publishing that content onto social media platforms. Whether it’s a picture, video, poll, campaign, etc. all of your content will be laid out chronologically over the period of time that you choose to work with. You may want to plan 4 weeks in advance or 4 months in advance depending on how you plan around your business goals and how far in the future you wish to prepare for. Once you create a plan, you’ll have the framework to publish your content for the weeks or months ahead. 

Benefits of Creating A Content Planning Strategy

Planning your content helps you define your business goals, set a schedule for your work, and better manage self-marketing. It’s important to take the time to implement a strong strategy when content planning. The details of what, when, and where will make or break how successful your content performs. Here are some benefits to strategically planning your content:

• Increase Efficiency and Effectiveness of Your Content: We understand how busy running a business can be, but when creating content is procrastinated until the last minute or not a priority, chances are that you’ll get mediocre content at best. You can prevent mediocrity by carving time out of your busy schedule for planning and preparation, which will ultimately save you time in the long run. Taking the time to plan your content will save you many headaches down the road.
• Increase Brand Presence with Your Content: When you have posts scheduled in advance, you won’t be able to forget about them! Forgetting to post content when your users are most active can negatively affect how far your brand will reach and how many people will see your post. Thankfully, your brand can be noticed as many times a week as you’d like with the ability to schedule posts at optimal times!
• Increase Website Engagement with Your Content: Quality content is eye-catching and memorable. When you have consistent and impactful content rolling across your media platforms, you’ll increase user engagement on your profiles and reach a wider audience.
• Higher Quality Content: When you’re prepared and your content is planned out, your quality of content will increase, just by improving your consistency. But, planning your content also gives you the extra time to collect keywords for your posts, which are important if you want to increase your search engine visibility and create higher quality content for your platforms.

How To Develop A Content Planning Strategy

Now that you’re aware of some of the benefits of content planning, you might be wondering where to start. It can be overwhelming to plan weeks or months in advance, so we’ve gathered several tips below that can help guide you as you begin planning your content.

Define your audience: Knowing about your audience is key to planning what content you will create, where it will be published, and when it will be posted. Some questions you can ask yourself would be: What platforms does my audience use the most? What format do they prefer content to be? What topics do they enjoy and engage with the most?

Define your goals: Think about the goal and purpose of your content. Your goals may change throughout the year and planning gives you the advantage of knowing what content you’ll be posting that align with your goals at any given time. Are you looking to demonstrate your product in new ways to encourage more sales? Are you looking to get feedback from your audience about a new product? Are you planning giveaways for your product to boost brand presence? 

Define a content format: Whatever content you decide to create and whatever your goal may be, consistent formatting across your content will help you stand out among competition and is important in establishing brand presence. Think about the colors and fonts used across your content, is it consistent? Do you want your logo to be visible in all of your content? Are your slogans and sayings consistent across all platforms?

Create a calendar: When you are planning your content, a calendar is a must. Create an accessible and customizable calendar for your content. It can be online, on paper, on your phone, anywhere! Don’t let your time go to waste by coming up with great ideas for your content without writing them down on the calendar. There are many great content calendar templates online. Excel is also a great place to keep track of the what, where, and when for your content.

Whether you’re brand new to creating content or are a seasoned creator, our experts at Jason Hunter Design can assist you in improving your content planning strategy, helping your business stand out and shine. Fill out the form below and let’s start planning!