5 Steps to Create a Content Plan You'll Actually Stick To
Do you have loads of content ideas for your small business, but never seem to find enough time to actually post all of them? Lack of time is something lots of us struggle with as creatives with important stuff to do and lives to lead, but having a content planning system that works for you can be an absolute game changer. After working through these five simple steps, you should be well on your way to setting up your own content plan. Let’s GO.
1. Set up a realistic content schedule for each platform
Sometimes the reason you can’t keep up with posting content consistently isn’t to do with lack of time or the wrong planning system, it’s because the amount of posts you’re aiming for isn’t realistic for you personally. Maybe you’ve heard that posting to your instagram feed twice a day is the best for growth, but if you can’t keep that up then it feels demoralising, and you start to feel “behind” like you’re constantly on a treadmill and can’t keep up. Instead, set some targets on social media posts that are more realistic. What’s the minimum amount you’d like to post each week? Be realistic with your frequency goal to start with, and once you gain momentum you can always increase from there. It’s way more satisfying this way, and then the feeling of accomplishment you’ll feel will make planning your content way less of a struggle and chore.
Action step: write down every platform you want to post to regularly, and decide how often you’ll post. You can always try a schedule out for a month or a quarter, and revisit it later.
2. Start a content ideas bank
Do you have one place to keep all of your content ideas? Or are they spread out across fifteen different notebooks, your phone and the backs of envelopes in your bin? It sounds simple, but keeping all of your ideas in one organised place is so much more efficient, and means that you won’t be stuck next time you need to post. I personally like to have my ideas bank online where I can access it wherever I am, so I keep mine in a Trello board Want more advice for coming up with ideas? This blog post is for you, I’ve shared my top tips for never running out of content ideas.
3. How often will you plan your content?
As well as knowing how often you’re going to actually post to your marketing channels, it’s helpful to know what sort of planning schedule suits you best. Does the thought of sitting and writing out a months worth of instagram captions in one go sound appealing to you, or does it fill you with dread? Would you be happy enough having a week’s worth of content planned out so you can create as you go, or would you rather have more in the bank than that to give you a bit of buffer time? Depending on where your skills are and what you prefer, there will be a planning ritual that will work for you - sometimes it takes a bit of experimentation with different options to see what feels right. Personally, my content planning system right now looks a bit like this: I plan a week’s worth of content at a time in Trello, and I just note down the ideas for each post rather than batch creating everything. I then know what I’m talking about on each day, so I can either create the posts on the day, or maybe sometimes the day before. The only content I schedule is my Pinterest, and you can read about how I do that here.
4. Choose your content planning system
Are you more of a pen and paper person, or do you like having everything organised digitally? Finding the right content planning system for you takes practice, and you’ll likely try a few different methods before you settle on the one that works best with how your brain works. Whether it’s a google sheet or excel document, a Trello board, or Asana, one of the benefits of digital planners is you can often access them from multiple devices, so you can check your plan on the go and copy and paste captions when you need to. For some, a paper planner will always work better, especially if it’s up somewhere you can see it all day, often that constant visual reminder makes a huge difference. I’ve tried both ways, and I quite often switch between the two depending on how I’m feeling. You can see my paper calendar planning method here, or if you’d like to learn how to use Trello to plan your content and general todo lists, we have a workshop available with The Business Proposal Podcast here.
If it helps to preschedule your content so you can set it and forget it, then there are so many social media schedulers to choose from! I personally recommend Tailwind for Pinterest and Instagram, but some other popular choices are Later, Buffer, Hootsuite and Planoly.
Some tips for maximising your content planning system:
Make it flexible. Whether that’s with post-its that you can move around on your wall, or within your digital plan, it’s not unusual for plans to change, so making your content plan flexible with save some stress when you need to rejig things.
Don’t overstuff it - be realistic about the content you can feasibly create on a regular basis. A chockablock content plan can sometimes add to overwhelm, when the right system is supposed to make things easier on you!
Split up your plan by content type, and colour code. This makes it easier to see at a glance what you’re supposed to be creating and when.
Keep it simple if that helps you. No one else has to see your content planner, it doesn’t have to be impressive or complicated, it just has to work for you.
5. Repurpose and repeat your content across platforms
Part of the reason business owners struggle with keeping up with their content schedule is because they’re too afraid to repeat themselves in their marketing, but on the flipside, one of the main reasons for not making enough sales is not talking about something enough. So the solution? Repeat yourself! Repetition not only ok, it’s essential in marketing.
There are a few reasons for this:
Not everyone sees every post you do, in fact, most people only see a tiny fraction of what you post. Repeating yourself means more people will see what you're saying.
Even when people do see, they forget! Repeating yourself gives them the essential reminder they need.
Sometimes people need to hear the same message again and again in different ways, until it clicks. Repeating yourself gives you multiple ways to say the same thing in ways that resonate with different people.
It saves you TIME, and makes the most of the work you've already done. I wouldn't mind betting that you're already sitting on an absolute goldmine of content that you could repurpose and repeat in different ways. Squeeze every last drop out of those ideas.
Here's something meta for you, this section is taken from one of my instagram captions, and it’s the third time I’ve used it across my marketing. But I wonder how many of you have read it before, and even if you have, did you mind?
I have another blog post full of time saving marketing tips, and if you struggle with actually knowing what to spend your time on and what to prioritise, this podcast episode might help you.
Do what works for you.
The key with content planning is to find a method and a rhythm that suits your way of working. There’s no point having a fancy pants system that looks really impressive if it doesn’t get you posting consistently to social media. If one method doesn’t work for you, it doesn’t mean you’re bad at planning, it just means you might need to try another method. Good luck, and if you want some personalised help with your own content strategy, why not check out my 1-1 packages? This is one of my favourite things to troubleshoot with clients, so I’d love to chat.
