You've all heard the saying “Content is king”, right?
I'm here to tell you that it's true. That makes it all the more important to make sure that you're actually creating some!
I'm also here to let you in on a little secret – creating content doesn't have to be a weekly chore. My girl Denise Duffield Thomas takes content planning to a whole new level – batch-creating enough content to last an entire year!
Can you imagine – getting a whole year's worth of content out of the way so that you can just focus on everything else that you need to do for your business? Having the freedom to ignore content creation for 11 months at a time while still providing value and building your audience??
Seems like a beautiful dream, doesn't it?
Well, get ready to make that dream into reality! Denise was willing and ready to share her amazing content-planning tips with our Planathon community this year, and she really delivered! Now, I'm going to share her tips with you!
By planning out your content calendar in advance, you take the pressure off – you no longer have to worry about fitting in time to write a blog post every week. Having a bunch of content just waiting to be posted offers you more freedom. If you want to take a holiday or just don't feel like writing that week, it's totally fine!
Denise likes to write 40 blog posts per year – that means that she has four blog posts ready to share per month, with an extra post each month just to keep up her sleeve. Since she has four subjects that she focuses on, she only has to brainstorm 10 posts for each of those categories. That makes it a lot more manageable to come up with content ideas!
It takes Denise about a month to create an entire year's worth of content for her blog. Note: if a full year in advance seems too daunting for you, you can use these tips to just plan a month or a quarter in advance.
- Know who you are talking to. For Denise, that means female entrepreneurs. For you, that means your own target audience. “Knowing who you're talking to keeps you on topic,” Denise says. As you create your content, make sure that you keep your target audience in mind – craft content that is tailored especially to them! Keep in mind, the content doesn't always need to be the same type – in addition to posts about your personal expertise, you can write reviews of books, products, or courses that are relevant to your audience. You could also post monthly lists of resources, strategies, or tools that would benefit them.
- Know what your topics are. Have a very clear idea of the topics that you want to talk about. Make sure you know what falls within your scope – and what falls outside those boundaries! Denise's content focuses on money, mindset, marketing, and some general business advice relating to women. That's why her audience seeks out her content, so she doesn't stray too far from those subjects. Figure out where your focus lies, and then consistently deliver content that provides value on those topics!
Denise has a neat trick that she uses to figure out what to write about. Whenever someone asks her a question on a business forum or in an email or private message, she adds the question to a list that she keeps on her phone. This allows her to create content that really addresses the concerns of her audience.
You can also feature guest posts as long as they fall within your topic guidelines – just interview four or five people at the start of a quarter and then you'll have guest posts to sprinkle into your content calendar throughout that quarter!
- Know the mood of your content.Is your blog fun and lighthearted? Is it more serious and professional? Figure out the voice that you want to use in your blog and branding. It's important to know the flavor of your content and then stick to it! Not only does this offer your audience consistency, but knowing the mood of your content makes it easier to brainstorm your topics – and to write the posts.
What topics does your blog focus on and do you think you can use these tips to create your content in advance (with ease)? Tell me about it in the comments!
