How to plan content marketing?

How to plan content marketing?

As with many things, a great strategy starts with a plan. Without a well thought roadmap of all the content you want to create, you’ll get lost and won’t be able to hit the right note, at least in the long term. The main challenge is to decide what sort of content you should be creating. A second challenge would be how to structure your content marketing plan in order to provide the right content for the right set of visitors. The keyword in both challenges is understanding.

1. Understanding your brand

Before starting off with your content ideas it is crucial that you determine your company values. This might seem like a senseless step and that’s why a lot of companies tend to skip this. Nonetheless it is very important to exactly know what your company stands for. That means the right words, but also the right tone of voice.

2. Understanding your audience

Once you’re fully aware of the values you want to send out, you need to know who your audience is. You’ll be likely to target different groups and it is therefore important to be aware of the needs of each subgroup. You’ll probably want to create three, four, or maybe even five groups. That also means you’ll need to adapt your content to each group.

3. Brainstorming

Ideas are the backbone of any long-term content strategy. Coming up with ideas might seem sort of exhausting, but there are always ways to give the entire process a bit more structure. Grab a cup of coffee, while discussing whatever idea pops into your head. Do make sure it’s realistic and actionable and don’t forget to get it down on paper.

4. Start creating

Once you have found some content ideas tailored to the characteristics and interests of your target group(s), it is vital to find the right flow. Therefore, every content plan, whether for television, online media or the radio, follows a schedule. Make sure you use a planner capturing the basic elements of a normal calendar with months and weeks. Use this calendar to capture key moments. For instance, if you’re running a gym you’ll need to put some extra content effort on the peak moments in January and the months towards the summer. Doing this will make sure your content comes as a useful solution.

It’s all about the right timing

Of course, all the previous steps above involve timing as well, but what we’re trying to say in this case is that it’s all about the details. Publishing a newsletter highlighting upcoming events in your hometown will do very well on a Friday, just before the weekend starts. Sending the exact same newsletter on an early Monday morning would probably be less successful. If you really want to make sure you hit the right nail, you’ll need to send the newsletter on a Friday afternoon when most people already tend to be in their weekend mood. Trust us, this works.

Do you need help with making a good content planner?