Ready to take back control of your content?

There’s no avoiding it—if you’re going to win the content war, you need to create a content plan and stick with it for the long haul. We all know this, but it’s also true that we feel guilty when we set aside client work to focus on our own business. But now’s the time to stop. When you treat planning your own content like a client project and commit regular time to developing it, you’ll will reap dividends for your business over the long term. No guilt needed.

There’s nothing worse than opening a new document, getting ready to write that month’s blog and suddenly realising you don’t know what you’re actually going to say! Creating a content plan for your business means never having to stare at a blinking cursor on a blank page ever again. Instead, you’ll be creating and sharing engaging content that your customers will love.

Here are few ideas for content types that you can include in your plan.

Awareness Days

There are hundreds of Awareness Days and Awareness Months taking place all over the world every day. Be sure to include a few of these in your calendar and join in the conversations.

Google ‘awareness days’ to find lots of sites listing ideas for every day of the year.

Annual calendar dates

New Year, Valentine’s Day, Easter, Christmas—these all provide great content opportunities. Remember to include dates from different cultures and religions to be inclusive.

As you approach each month, ask yourself what will be important to your customers. For example, September is back to school month in many countries around the world. It’s also a time when companies and individuals start building their plans for Christmas. Including this type of information in your plan, will help you create content that responds to your customers needs at a particular moment in time.

Company milestones

Include company milestones such as your company birthday, a new product launch, or an event you will speak at. These all provide great opportunities for sharing content during the year.

Reactive content

If 2020 taught us anything it’s that we can’t plan everything. Remember to make your plan flexible so you can respond to breaking news and events as they happen.

Create your plan

When you’re happy you’ve got all the content ideas you need, it’s time to put your plan together. It doesn’t need to be complicated—a spreadsheet with a few rows and columns will do the job perfectly well. Or, if you don’t want to start from scratch, download my free communication plan guidelines and template.

Take the time now to work your key business messages into the content you’re developing. Then decide what channels you’ll use to distribute your content to your customers i.e. blog, email, social post.

Keeping track

Finally, you’ve spent time and effort creating your plan—don’t ignore it! Refer to it regularly to keep yourself on track and don’t be afraid to change tack if circumstances change.