Can you believe it’s the new financial year already? Time for a new content plan.
Now, it’s at this time of the year that business owners start to plan out their 2019 and the new financial year.
If you haven’t done this that’s perfectly ok. It’s actually a great time to look at what you’ve accomplished and what you haven’t, and work out how you can fit that into the rest of the calendar year…it’s the great re-plan of your content.
But by all means if you’d like to reset the whole new financial year, all the power to you. Go for it.
However, when it comes to your content and the creation of that content, planning 3 to 6 months is ideal.
And you know the saying (and how much I love quotes!): If you fail to plan you plan to fail.
So let’s make sure your social media and content doesn’t fail and instead you kick all the goals you have set down.
That’s the first area we are going to look at.Goals.
- Goal setting for your content
Do you have a specific goal in mind of how you want your content to work for you? This is so important because we set the intention first before we start to create, then we are more likely to get the result.
This helps you create an appealing call to action and also helps you to see the results you are getting from your content, whether it is on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook or any other social channel, blog, website or video.
What do you want to achieve from your content?
You must write this down so you can see it come to life.
Is it to grow your list/database? Get more followers on social media? Take traffic from social to your website to get your free download, get bums on seats at your workshops or webinars, or get more sales chats happening with hot leads?
- Brand alignment
Re-check and make sure your content is on brand (as the cool kids say!). Are you being true to your brand, your business and yourself? Are you creating content that is in line with what you want to achieve as a brand?
For example, are you sharing the best information you possibly can on the platforms your target market is hanging out and in a way that speaks to them?
If it’s not and you’ve got a little off track, that’s OK, you can pull it back into alignment with a few tweaks. But it’s an important element to look at just in case.
- Are you writing content your target market want and love?
Have a look back over the content you have created this year … have you received feedback on it from your audience or are there crickets? If there are crickets it’s time for a re-load of your content plan.
If you haven’t hit the mark, don’t worry. This is a common mistake people make when they create content. They just start creating and while this is a good thing (thumbs up for effort and getting it done), there’s a real possibility it won’t fly with your audience.
That’s because they may not be on the platforms you are using or they don’t like or understand your content. It’s just not resonating with them.
So ask them. Ask your audience what they want from you through a survey on email or a poll on social media. Or just pick up the phone and talk to your best clients.
When you know what they want from you, creating content will be a breeze and you will start to see some really cool results from it…such as more leads, clients and sales!
- Do you have a list of topics?
Have you created a list of topics, headlines and a brief on what the piece of content will be about? You can get this started with a client question (see point above), but also add in how-to posts, tip posts and even an interview or a client story post.
What are the areas your audience wants information about from you in particular? Write that down, that’s your topic. For example, “conversions from LinkedIn”.
Now write a headline that goes with that topic. You can use headline generators if you get stuck. Portent is a good one and CoSchedudleis an efficient one too. Just google “title generator” or “headline generator”.
Potential headline: “5 ways to get more conversions from LinkedIn in 24 hours”
Now write a brief description on what you plan to share in that post… for example, something like this:
- What are the 5 ways?
- What can you do to have people connecting with you in 24 hours?
- How do you convert from LinkedIn?
- What is my best tip around this?
- Add some statistics to the post.
You can go a bit more in depth or you can simply list out what you are planning to talk about so you don’t forget! This makes the writing and creating process so much easier. And also even easier if you want to outsource your content writing and creation to a VA or agency.
This is especially great if you just want to make a short video…by doing this you actually have a mini plan so your video flows and you remember what you want to talk about.
If all else fails, check out BuzzSumo– this is such a great tool and gives you inside information about your competitor’s content and how they’re performing on the socials.
- What’s your calendar looking like?
First up, do you have a calendar for your content that’s broken down into daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly sections?
If you don’t have one … start to plan out what you want to do on each platform you have and on what day.
Also include in this your weekly blog and your weekly or fortnightly newsletter.
For your monthly content – are you going to create something as a download that you can send to your list because they are your VIPs or are you going to send it out the to the socials to grow your list?
And what would you like to achieve quarterly (or every 6 months or even every year) … is an ebook, white paper or special report included in your plan? Or even a book?
Your content plan is not just about the content you put out on social media … think bigger picture. Then you can use that content in your ebook or white paper as social media content later on. It’s a win-win to save you time and resources.
The moral to this post is simple, you need a plan and you need to make sure you revisit the plan regularly so you can track what’s working and what’s not.
Connect with me on LinkedIn and let me know what you come up with … I’d love to see your content come to life over there. (link to Adam’s linkedin)
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In other news…
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- Work with our team privately
If you’d like to work directly with us to create new marketing opportunities send us a quick message Click here … tell us a little about your business and we’ll organise a time for a deeper chat