Content creation is a daunting task if you don’t specialise in it. And that’s okay. Please know that you are not alone. I’ve met many business owners who would rather avoid setting up their content than actually doing it. But it is one of those activities that a little bit of planning, and focusing on taking it one step at a time, really helps!
Here’s your step-by -step for creating content:
- So first step, download this blank calendar template.
- Print it out or work with it online – choose what works for you.
- Add the month to the top of the sheet.
- Fill in the dates.
- Fill in any public holidays and important dates (you may want to create posts for these).
- Have a think about the month you are looking at. Does it represent anything specific in your business for that time of year? (You may have certain products you know sell better in Summer than in Winter, and some great products for Winter. Or you need your customers to start thinking about prepping for a certain time of the year).
- Use this information to come up with a theme for your month. This helps give you your golden thread that will tie your posts together.
- Do you need to create any long form content for this theme/topic? Think about what you could answer in blogs and in your newsletter. Any blogs you create should be represented in your content plan, so mark out where you want them to go out.
- You need to think about your marketing mix next. Plot out 25% of your communications for promotion (think direct selling). Plot of 25% for education (include your blog posts here). 25% needs to focus on engagement (content that will have people connect, comment and reach out) and 25% needs to be entertaining (personalised content about you and your business, day in the life of, behind the scenes, etc).
- Now that you have your content plotted out, write your social media posts to go with each point. Include beautiful images or video with each post.
- Make sure your posts relate to your theme of the month to maintain your golden thread.
- For Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter – come up with the hashtags you would like to use. Then go check them and see how popular they are and if they are aligned with your business or service.
And that’s your content plan! Now go get it up and scheduled.