Having a good content plan is essential if we want to optimize the results in our strategy both in social networks and blogs.
So, if you’re thinking about making one, keep reading and we’ll tell you how to create a perfect content plan.
What is a Content Plan?
A content plan is a method by which we will create and schedule our content strategy.
Every brand, both online and offline, must draw up a customer acquisition strategy.
If in your case you have considered that one of the channels in your customer acquisition strategy is the creation of content.
Then the next step you have to take is to plan how you are going to develop said content to create a defined strategy that provides greater profitability to your business.
How is a Content Plan Drawn Up?
9 steps to create a content plan:
- Situation analysis
- Definition of objectives and KPIs
- Definition of the target audience
- Definition of strategies
- Content ideation
- Definition of channels
- Publication plan
- Execution of the content plan
- Results measurement
1. Situation Analysis
In this section, we could analyze many points, as stipulated in the marketing plans.
but in this case, I am sure that it is better to do a more superficial analysis with a SWOT and a small list of key points that we can update as we go along.
That we create content and that it does not take so much time to have our plan ready on a monthly basis.
SWOT Analysis
Weaknesses:
Lack of funding, few employees, and experience in content creation.
Threats:
Lots of new companies in the sector and prices are getting lower and lower.
Strengths:
Long time in the sector and have a large database of customers and suppliers for the newsletter.
Opportunities:
Possible free training on the subject both online and in courses.
Example of 10 Situation Analysis Points:
Here we will try to complement the SWOT with a brief analysis of competition, customers, company, and services.
They must be objective and informative data.
So that they serve us in the subsequent preparation of our content plan.
- My competition creates content in the form of videos, infographics, and posts. They are usually an average of 2 posts per week, 2 infographics per week, and 1 video every 2 weeks.
- My competition creates content focused on online marketing mainly in the form of tutorials, manuals, and guides.
- My competition has a presence with its content on the blog and spreads it mainly through Linkedin, Pinterest, Twitter, and Facebook.
- My clients are companies and professionals who seek to achieve greater traffic, impact, and sales through the Internet.
- My clients attach great importance to the brand and usually maintain medium-long-term business relationships.
- My clients mainly buy web creation, positioning, advertising, and social network management services.
- My company has enough staff to create content but not to the extent that we need nor do they know how to position it.
- My company has enough resources to invest in advertising and content creation on a monthly basis to promote this channel.
- My services can be sold online without the need for a store or transportation, although we currently do not sell many.
- My services do not have seasonality but there are times of the year when some are sold more than others, although we do not have strategies to boost these sales either.
From a short list like this, we can already know the most important basic aspects of our company and begin to see possible actions to implement.
2. Definition of Objectives and KPIs
For this point, you will have to see what objectives you have in the short, medium, and long term.
The idea is to establish between 5 and 10 objectives and always in infinitive, limited by date, realistic, and with percentages with respect to the planning date or exact figures.
They are not Marketing Objectives:
- Get more customers next year.
- Sell 20% more.
They are Marketing Objectives:
- Achieve a subscriber database of 5,000 before 06/1/2023.
- Increase my traffic up to 1,500 visits per day before 09/1/2023.
- Improve engagement on the Twitter company profile by 1.5% before 09/1/2023.
- Increase sales in my online store by 15% compared to the same date last year before 12/30/2023.
3. Target Audience
Correctly defining your target audience is a vital part of any content strategy.
If you know who you are targeting, you can create specific content for that market and thus improve your sales.
If your market is very broad or you have a large number of services, start first with the market segments that buy the most and the products or services that leave you with the greatest profitability.
Two Examples of Target Audience Would Be:
1. Entrepreneurs
They are usually consultants, freelancers, and small companies that have just created their businesses.
They usually read generic articles on marketing and advertising such as posts on how to improve their sales, better position their web pages, or learn about advertising and social networks.They tend to ask for advice and usually do not ask for a specific service.
2. Consolidated Companies
These companies seek a boost in their business through online marketing.
Normally they look for very specific content that allows them to promote their brand and increase their turnover.
They do not usually ask for advice and tend to hire very specific services.
4. Definition of Content Strategies
In this section, we must see what strategy we are going to follow in the publication of our content.
We can differentiate 5 major main content strategies :
- Traffic Strategy:
Traffic Strategy: This consists of focusing on high-volume search keywords to get a lot of traffic to your blog.
- Conversion Strategy:
Conversion Strategy: This consists of focusing your attention on high-conversion keywords to get a few visits but of high quality.
- Virality Strategy:
Virality Strategy: Consists of finding the most widespread content on networks to create other similar ones and achieve great virality.
- Brand Strategy:
Brand Strategy: Consists of disseminating content focused on improving our brand image.
- Information Strategy:
Information Strategy: Consists of disseminating content focused exclusively on informing the reader.
5. Content Ideation
To achieve greater effectiveness in our actions, we will evaluate what type of content is most suitable for each channel.
What is a Social Media Content Plan?
It is the tool through which the most appropriate platform or social network for the brand is defined.
As well as the frequency and volume of publications and the type of content to be scheduled and/or published.
What Content to Create for Social Networks?
Some content that we can publish weekly are funny images related to the end of the week, the beginning of the week, work or any other activity that can suggest joy or fun and that brightens up the morning to those professionals who read it to you.
These types of publications do not usually have a place in media such as Linkedin or Instagram.
Since the contents of the first are more professional and in the second more publications of images taken with the mobile are sought.
However, the content of this style would work very well on Facebook, Twitter, and a little less, but also on Pinterest.
Knowing how to correctly prepare and implement a social media plan in your company will boost your growth on different platforms.
What Content to Create For a Blog?
- Guides
- Webinars
- Video tutorials
- Infographics
- e-Books
- Templates
- Lists
- News
- etc
To begin with the creation of new content.
The ideal would be to know which are currently the most in demand.
These are some tricks to find out:
- Look for keywords with a lot of traffic or conversion.
- Find the content that works best for your competition.
- Find the pages that have the most incoming links with Open Site Explorer.
- Detect viral content with buzz sumo for a specific theme or URL.
The type of content will depend a lot on the brand and the objective to be achieved.
But remember, one of the lies of content marketing is to focus on a high volume and frequency of content.
Sometimes, less is more.
The important thing is to generate quality content versus quantity.
6. Definition of Channels
This question is usually a point of contention among many online marketing professionals.
Since it is difficult to know which networks are ideal for each business.
First of all, being on all channels is not usually the best strategy, and normally what works for some companies, on many occasions does not work for others, even if it is the same sector.
Steps to Choose the Channels for Your Business
1) Competition:
It usually gives us a fairly accurate view of the channels on which we should place more emphasis.
Analyze 3 or 4 direct competitors that have a good presence on the internet, not those who have just entered the world of online marketing and maybe trying like you.
2) Professionalism:
An important point that will make us see above all if we should be on very professional social networks like Linkedin or closer like Facebook.
- Linkedin:
If your business is more B2B and highly professionalized, such as a law firm, Linkedin and similar social networks will be a suitable channels to focus on.
This social network works very well with consultants, insurers, marketing agencies, etc.
- Facebook:
If your business is very focused on B2C, surely this is your social network.
Facebook is a network that helps connect directly with people, so if you have a neighborhood store, a cinema, a real estate agency, a shopping center, or any other similar company, this will be your channel.
- Facebook & Linkedin:
On many occasions, it can be useful to use both channels.
For example, in the case of an online marketing agency, the clients can also be professionals or individuals who want a website, for example, therefore both channels could be a suitable option.
3) The image:
One of the key points is to know the importance of images for your business.
Can you upload images that your customers like or might be interested in?
If so, usually Instagram and Pinterest will work for your type of business.
These 2 networks have a big difference which is the following:
- Instagram:
Only photos are uploaded from the mobile and it is more focused on current images. It works great for clothing stores, restaurants, hotels, events, etc. It does not bring much traffic to your website but it helps to improve your brand image.
- Pinterest:
You can upload images from your mobile and computer.
It works very well for businesses like those of the previous social network and, in addition, also for those businesses that use images that have not been taken from the mobile.
Some examples could be online marketers uploading infographics, illustrations, charts, etc.
4) Traffic:
If your business depends to a large extent on the traffic it gets, you should promote those social networks that provide more traffic and that help you with web positioning.
- Facebook:
This is a social network that brings a lot of traffic.
In many cases, to my clients, even if their business is not B2C, I recommend using this social network to get traffic and advertise their blog articles.
Your advertising is very cheap and can help us achieve some virality that will help us position the articles and improve your brand image.
- Twitter:
One of the social networks that can bring the most traffic to your website along with Facebook.
This is a social network that in general can be valid for any company, whatever its sector.
It has a large number of companies and individuals and its possibilities are quite wide.
The blog, although I have not mentioned it at any time, is a channel from my point of view of mandatory use for 90% of companies today.
7. Publication Plan
Advertising
In this section, you can include advertising actions to promote both the blog and your social networks.
It is interesting to mention that advertising the contents of your blog is not something unreasonable, quite the contrary.
Many people do not advertise their content, yet these types of actions do not cost much and will help you in many aspects such as:
- Create community faster.
- Increase visits to your website.
- Increase your subscribers.
- Improve positioning.
- Increase sales.
- Improve your brand image.
- etc
Promotion [Editorial Calendar]
As for promotion, the ideal is to create an editorial calendar to schedule content.
It is best to differentiate them by:
- Publication date
- Type of content
- publication channel. When we are planning our editorial calendar, we must also take into account the frequency of publication in order to organize the content homogeneously over time.
- Frequency of content publication
This would be a brief example of planning, remember that in this planning you must take into account the type of content you want to promote to add it according to the frequency you need.
I personally recommend that you add a column of special dates to better remember those contents with less frequency but greater importance such as relevant parties, important events, product launches, objective deadlines, relevant campaigns, etc.
Blog
- 2 posts a week on our blog WpSuggest.in (Tuesday and Thursday).
- 1 infographic per week, one for each post (Tuesday and Thursday).
- 1 video tutorial per week (included in one of the 2 posts).
- 1 free ebook every 3 months.
Social Networks
Post on Facebook 1 daily content
- Monday: Fun content in the form of images
- Tuesday: Blog article
- Wednesday: A motivational phrase
- Thursday: Blog article
- Friday: Fun content in the form of images
Do more or less the same with the rest of the social networks to keep order and follow a specific strategy.
In this way, it will be much easier for us to analyze the results of our actions.
8. Execute the Content Plan
After having seen all the previous steps, the next thing is to execute the content plan.
Do not worry if at the beginning your content plan does not reach the objectives set.
Trial and error is often necessary to find the content that best suits each brand.
9. Measure the Results Obtained
From time to time we have to measure the results obtained with our content plan.
The frequency with which you must do it will be different depending on the time of year, the campaigns launched and the brand, but in all cases, it is necessary to carry out this measurement, both during the campaign and at the end.
How to Measure the Results?
Monitor your social networks to find out the impact that your publications have on them and to be able to correct your strategy and/or promote those actions that are most successful.
Here is a post with the best social media monitoring tools so you can choose the ones that best suit your needs.
Sometimes just monitoring is not enough and it is often difficult for us to know how to interpret the data obtained by the tools.
For this, I recommend tutorials like this one that will help you to know your impact and evaluate, correct and improve your content strategy on social networks.
Analyze the contents of your blog with programs such as Google Analytics to see which are the ones that work best, those that retain the most readers, or the most viewed content.
And you, do you already know how to create your content plan from scratch?
Thanks for Reading.