You’ve spent hours, days, and maybe months developing a content marketing plan. Something you’re passionate about and proud of. Something has the potential to completely change the business you own. However, you are being held back. You learn that applying the content strategy is tough. There are too many things to do at once. There are no specific steps. There are no obvious acts — nothing.
What’s the story there?
How do so many businesses and marketers have such control over the digital content space? What is their plan? Today, I’m going to guide you through the same website content planning process that will help you manage your content marketing strategy. You can use the content planning tools discussed in this blog post to reach your target audience. These content planning apps will make it easier for you to improve the ranking of your blog on the search engine. You will learn to make content calendars as well as how to make content calendars on Google Sheets which will help you grow your blog marketing.
What is a Content Plan?
A website content planning process is a detailed process that comprises a fundamental review of your content strategy, what you want to achieve, and how you intend to reach those objectives.
Consider a website content plan to be a defined business strategy describing your content marketing goals and strategies for achieving them.
What is the purpose of website content planning?
The plan is the first stage of any successful content strategy. Without it, there is very little chance of success.
What is the importance of content planning?
- It describes your content strategy goals and provides detailed strategies for achieving them.
- It enables you to implement your content strategy in a goal-oriented way rather than responding to issues randomly with no clear method.
- It assists you in identifying areas that might help you achieve your objective as well as challenges that may stand in your way so you can figure out what to do about them.
- It helps in the communication of content objectives with team members, stakeholders, target audiences, and anybody else engaged in the project. It helps team members to keep on track while remaining responsible for fulfilling their responsibilities.
- It helps you to keep organized, track progress, and promise the success of a project.
- It is an excellent tool to go back to the end of a content project/timeline to decide what worked well and where you can improve.
Difference between content planning vs. content strategy
| Content Planning | Content Strategy |
| The action-oriented “how” that brings the strategy to life is website content planning. | The master plan that offers the why, who, what, and where is known as website content strategy. |
| It consists of a range of strategies and general content goals like content generation, brand voice, brand messaging, purpose, vision statements, and so on. | The main plan that sets the purpose, goals, and rules for all content activities is known as content strategy. |
| Content ideation, keyword research, subject selection, editorial content calendars, promotion, and distribution plans are all part of the process. | It consists of a range of strategies and general content goals like content generation, brand voice, brand messaging, purpose, vision statements, and so on. |
| The immediate processes and actions necessary to develop and market content are the subject of website content planning. | Long-term website content strategy generally forms the foundation for all content planning business activities. |
Example
A basic content plan may say that you will publish four articles each month. Your content strategy for this may be to post a 1000-word blog entry on December 1. A content writer will be assigned the assignment, and the item will be marketed through link building and distributed through social media and email newsletters. This is how your content strategy gives a structure for your website content plan.
what are the four steps to creating a content marketing strategy?
Now that we know that a content plan is what gives life to a content strategy, here are some vital components it must have:
· Content plan
An outline of the business’s total content strategy and the big-picture goals for content.
· Content format/structure
Determine the content your audience requires and the best way to provide it. Will it be a blog post, a social media post, a podcast, or a sponsored advertisement? The information will take on different styles depending on the format selected.
· Content Workflow
Do you have a personal content writer, or will you hire a freelancer to create content? Who oversees checking and publishing it? It should also include content creation criteria, such as the business’s tone and style.
· Plan for content promotion and distribution
This includes ways of spreading and promoting content through various platforms, such as social media, email marketing, and third-party platforms.
8 Content Planning Tools to Consider
A short Google search will reveal several content planning tools accessible today. I will tell famous and easy-to-use content planning tools that will help you select the best solution for your business:
- The Brafton Content Marketing Platform (CMP)
- Airtable
- Basecamp
- Asana
- Wrike
- Hubspot
- Trello
- Google Sheets or Excel
How to Make a Content Plan?
After putting in the time and effort to develop a content strategy, you need a plan for content generation, distribution, and engagement. A content plan assists you in completing this by making sure your efforts are meaningful, focused, and connected with your aims.
Step 1: Develop an effective SEO content plan.
Content is the basis of SEO, and to have a content plan, you must first have a content strategy. A content marketing strategy includes creating and distributing material to attract clients and influence their purchase decisions. Follow these steps:
- Content purpose
Your why, which involves the general objective of content marketing.
- Target audience
The audience you are targeting might be a business organization (because of the requirement to automate their techniques).
- Content Format
Your what may be articles, such as the importance of automation.
- Content platform
Organic search (ranking on Google) might be your content platform.
A content strategy explains your content marketing objectives, target audience, distribution strategies, and other key requirements. A content plan, on the other hand, allows you to specify how you intend to manage and implement this strategy.
Step 2: Find the most important content topics.
Because the internet is an ever-changing encyclopedia, Google’s objective is:
“To collect the world’s information and make it accessible and helpful to everyone.”
As a result, anytime you create material, it must meet Google’s criteria for usefulness.
· Conduct keyword research
To find the best article topics do complete keyword research on a search query. Keyword research is entering search terms onto search engines like Google when people who are your target audience want products, services, or information.
· SERP Analysis
Analyzing search results allows you to better understand the user’s purpose or requirement behind the search query they enter in the Google, Bing, or other engine search bar. For example, you may see the results of a search for “content writing” by putting the search word “content writing” into the search box.
- Create topic clusters.
Topic clusters, which are groups of related material that span a broad topic matter, are an excellent method to prioritize and organize your content. Here are some reasons why you should think about subject clusters for your content marketing strategy:
- Gather similar content to create topical authority.
Topic clusters help recognize your website as an authority in a certain field by combining related information, which may improve search engine results.
- Improved user experience
Clusters make it easier for audience members to find and discover relevant content on your website.
- Search engine visibility
Topic clusters may increase the probability of ranking for many related keywords, increasing the reach of your content and giving more organic traffic.
Step 3: Organize your keywords.
You may use keyword mapping to plan the creation of highly relevant and optimized content for certain keywords. It increases internal linkage and guarantees that the content is relevant. This will help you avoid duplicate content and ensure each page has an individual purpose, reducing competition for keywords and improving overall content quality.
Step 4: Analysis of Competitors
How can you begin analyzing competitors? Begin by looking at direct rivals (companies that offer similar products/services to yours) and indirect/partial competitors (companies that serve the same audience as yours but offer different products or services). You might also look at companies whose content strategy technique you appreciate, even if they don’t do what you do. Explain clearly what you will analyze, whether it is their social media accounts, website, blog, or all the above.
List the top three to five experts in your field. For each of these, answer the following questions:
- What are their business objectives?
- Is there a strong content strategy in place?
- How effective is their brand strategy?
- Is their target audience like yours?
- What is their marketing plan?
- What are their advantages and disadvantages?
- What opportunities are available to you?
Can you, for example, target that group if they’re failing to serve an important audience? Determine the major qualities or benefits you have that they do not.
Step 5: Make an editorial content calendar.
If your blog is only a hobby where you post occasionally, you generally don’t need a content schedule or content calendar. However, if you’re employing content marketing to promote your internet business, maintaining organization is critical.
An editorial content calendar can be useful. Editorial content calendars help you in publishing material at the right moment for the right audience. Consider it in the same way as you would an acclaimed fashion magazine’s editorial content calendar. They create and distribute information based on the time of year, predicted trends, current events, and other variables. Most likely, your business will follow suit.
A good editing schedule should include the following parts:
- Content targeted to certain channels and audiences.
- Pre-planned content projects and themes.
- Outline the editorial workflow procedures, such as content production, approval, and correction.
When you can see an up-close view of all the upcoming content in your content calendar template spreadsheet at a look, along with important details about each, for example, the timeline, the writer, the content type, the topic, and so on, it will be much easier to ensure that your content covers the appropriate content themes and topics.
The editorial calendar can include the following items:
- Project Timeline
Include the start date, submission date, publication date, and any additional deadlines.
- Content inventory
The target audience, content type/format, topic, and content objective/goal are all part of the content inventory.
- SEO information
Keyword research, meta description, and tracking information are all examples of SEO information.
- Team members
Writers, editors, graphic designers, copyeditors, and other team members
- Metrics
Metrics include sales, leads, clicks, and pay-per-click.
- Events
Holidays, yearly events, and business events are examples of special/recurring events.
How to create a content calendar on Google Sheets
Easy steps to create a content calendar in Google Sheets are:
- Open a new spreadsheet and select a month.
- Begin formatting your calendar.
- Fill in the days of the week using a formula.
- Fill in the missing information.
- Fill in the remaining numbers.
- If required, reorganize your schedule.
- Professionalize the look by using design components.
- From February to December, repeat the process.
Step 6: Maintain an editing checklist.
Content authors may use editorial checklists to double-check their work, and content reviewers can use them to remind them of what concepts to look for when giving feedback.
Editorial checklists may be used by content authors to evaluate their work and by content reviewers to give feedback.
Conclusion
An efficient website content planning system, supported by the correct tools, can help you connect all your marketing activities, including your social media strategy and audience engagement plans. For example, you might use your content planner to produce evergreen material, then construct a targeted email marketing campaign to re-direct members of your target audience to that page. Meanwhile, your social media planners can link their outreach efforts with the goals of your present marketing strategy. These tools will help you in working towards new goals set more quickly and effectively.
FAQS?
How can you develop a successful content plan?
- Plan your content’s topics.
- Campaign and post ideas should be brainstormed.
- Choose a time to publish.
- Choose your content mix.
- Assign roles and tasks.
- Make captions for your posts.
- Make (or find) design assets.
What are popular content planning tools?
- The Brafton Content Marketing Platform (CMP)
- Airtable
- Basecamp
- Asana
- Wrike
- Hubspot
- Trello
- Google Sheets or Excel
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