Hello, folks! Welcome back to my continuing series in which I invite you to learn along with me as I run myself like I would run any other content marketing job. Today’s post is lesson 4. You can find the previous lessons here:
In today’s lesson we’re going to talk about content planning. But before we go any further, I’ll just throw out the usual reminder that if you find this content useful, please do throw me a tip on Ko-fi.
Why should I plan my content ahead of time?
Content planning is important because, as we talked about in the previous lesson, the Hungry Algorithm Beast is always… well. Hungry. Planning your content ahead of time is crucial to making your online marketing efforts sustainable, because having a plan will help you make sure that you’re not sitting at your computer trying desperately to think of something to put out when it’s time to make another post.
Now, because I’ve never believed in lying about when something that is good for you also sucks, I’m going to acknowledge content planning SUCKS. Especially if you don’t have a previously-established rhythm of content. I honestly don’t know a single content marketer who has ever said “oh great, I get to go do content planning now”.
HOWEVER. PLANNING YOUR CONTENT will make your online marketing efforts a million times easier for two reasons:
- You won’t have the pressure of having to sit down in front of your computer to pull something out of your ass, because you’ll already know what you’re supposed to create.
- Planning your content will let you “work ahead”, which give you the freedom to write off a bad productivity or mental health day. Being creative isn’t just a tap you can turn on and off, especially during a pandemic when we’re all operating at a cognitive deficit. Having a plan will mean you can create content when you’re able to. By the same token, this means that when you’re having a Bad COVID Feelings Day, you can rest and recharge without beating yourself up because you’re not being a good Productive Worker Drone.
So. You know. Put on your Adulting Socks (because let’s face it, no one’s wearing Adulting Pants during COVID) and just get it done.
Actually Making The Plan
Remember all those notes I had you take during the last lesson? Pull out those notes and either find a monthly calendar template for October or fire up Excel and create one. You’re going to fill in the calendar with content that you can commit to producing over the course of the next month, with the goal of spreading it through the month as evenly as possible.
Step 1: are there any notable dates, holidays, or events coming up?
Are there any major holidays celebrated where your target audience lives that you should mention during the month you’re planning? Are there any online conferences or events that would be interesting to your audience? Or anything otherwise pre-scheduled that you want to be able to mention?
Fill that in before you do anything else! And make sure you do some Googling to make sure that there’s not anything you weren’t previously aware of.
Step 2: create a few basic content categories and set a realistic output goal
What are the different types of content you can produce that would be relevant to your audience, where relevance is supported by the research you did in Part 3? And, importantly, how many pieces of each type of content can you realistically commit to being able to produce in one month? Please note, “piece of content” doesn’t have to mean something big! It can be something quite small, like a Twitter thread, or even a shitpost.
Sidebar: If a shitpost is relevant to your brand and relevant to your audience, absolutely plan on making shitposts part of your content schedule. There are companies whose entire social media feeds are 100% shitposts, like the Canadian generic brand No Name, whose Twitter feed is an unparalleled social media masterpiece.
BE. REALISTIC. It is always better to plan small and realize that you are able to create more than it is to plan big and have your marketing efforts crash and burn because you over-commit and burn yourself out.
Depending on what you’re doing, this could look pretty different, but don’t worry. After I lay out the steps, I’ll break down what I’m doing so you’ll know what I’m talking about.
Step 3: evenly distribute your content through the month
Now enter your content categories into your calendar, being sure that for each type of content, evenly distribute your planned items through the month.
Then comes the worst part. DECIDE WHAT TO MAKE AND WRITE IT DOWN. This is the part that’s going to suck. That’s okay. Caffeine up and power through it.
Detailed example: My calendar for September
Sometimes it can be hard to grasp what you’re aiming for without a detailed example, so I’m going to share the calendar that I’m working from right now in creating content for September. (Ignore the different font colors – that’s just reminders for me about what is done at time of writing this post and what I have yet to do.)
Step 1: Notable holidays and other relevant occasions. My brand is equal parts: game design, social justice, and queer stuff. So I’ve marked Labor Day, Bisexual Awareness Week, and Bisexual Visibility Day as occasions I want to mark.
Step 2: I’ve got three major types of original content: Marketing Myself posts, Twitter threads/rants, and current project updates. I’ve also added in weekly boosts of old content, because I’ve got a vast trove of old content that’s still relevant – be it blog posts, old Twitter threads, or roleplaying games.
Promoting old content is great because we’re building an audience here and there’s always going to be new folks who weren’t around for old stuff you made. (Just don’t go super crazy with it, or people will get annoyed and tune out.) In my schedule, I’ve got reshares of old content scheduled for once a week, with the pattern being one “thing you can buy” for every two “thing you can read for free”.
Right now, you might not have a large quantity of old material you’re sitting on. That’s okay! Regular content creation will give you a respectable content repository in just a few months.
Step 3: The easiest way for me to schedule things is to assign content types to days of the week. That way when I plan future months, that’s one decision already made. So in my calendar, old content gets shared on Monday, Marketing posts are on Tuesdays, Twitter rants on Wednesdays, and highlights of current projects every other Thursday.
Now, you’ll note that not all of my content types have clear definitions for what I’m going to make. My Marketing Yourself series is clearly defined – with topics broken out by week. Current project highlights are also loosely defined. But Twitter rants and old shit? Well. This is a case of do as I say and not as I do. Normally I’d be working a month ahead, but I didn’t decide I was going to start this experiment of running myself like a content gig until the last week of August, so I’m playing catch-up with myself.
Once you’ve made your content plan, now it’s time for the easy part! Actually making your content.
Stay tuned for next week, where we’ll talk about how to SCHEDULE the content you’ve planned and created so that you have consistent and even content flow.
