How to take a minimalist approach to planning your content
I often feel that marketing advice really overcomplicates things for small businesses and orgs. I know marketing isn’t easy, and there is a learning curve for most folks who don’t come from it as a career. But I don’t think it needs to be as hard as a lot of marketing education makes it! So I’m going to talk about how we can stick to the basics for a minimalist approach to your content planning.
What is content?
Anything you’re writing or creating for your audience to consume. Social media posts or videos, blogs, marketing emails, website/blog copy, free ebooks/lead magnets, podcasts. It’s all content.
Do I have to plan my content?
Not necessarily– you can always take a ‘pantser’ approach. This might work well for some folks, especially if you are neurospicy and do better with an alternate approach. But for many of you, especially if you are handling other business aspects, or collaborating with someone on your marketing, planning, at least to some extent, will be your friend.
How do I plan my content?
You’ll need to decide the following things on a regular basis. Most of the people I work with do best with monthly or quarterly planning, where they outline the following things in a content planner or calendar:
What you are talking about in your content (aka topics, content pillars/buckets)
Where you’re talking about it (What formats and/or social media platforms?)
When and how often you’re talking about it (How often are you posting/publishing your content?)
I’ve planned my content! What next?
When you’ve answered those questions, you have your marketing plan – the “how” of your marketing. Now you actually put the work in creating your content.
On a regular basis (I often recommend every 1-2 weeks ) you’re going to sit down with your content calendar or planner, and create the actual content, based on what you already outlined.. Depending on how much content you are creating, this will be generally in the realm of 1-5 hours a week, but the amount of time depends on your plan and your personal capacity. It’s easy to let this part slide, so I will put a regular calendar event or reminder for my content creation, or even plan to co-work or body double if I need some extra motivation or support.
How do I know if it’s working?
First of all, we need to separate how your marketing is performing (this is based on objective metrics plus anecdotal audience feedback) from how your marketing plan is working for you as a person. We’re going to set aside performance metrics for the moment and focus on you instead. Your marketing plan is working for you when:
You are able to plan content that feels realistic and doable
You’re generally able to complete and publish the content you’ve planned (understanding that life gets in the way sometimes for all of us)
You feel comfortable/competent with the platforms you’re creating for
You generally have fresh content ideas for the platforms and formats you’re using
Your content feels in alignment with you and your company
I’m ready to plan content, what do I need?
Anything where you can outline the answer to those content questions we answered earlier. Now you can make something simple yourself, use a notepad, etc. But I’ve created a template that I love and have been using for many years for myself and clients that supports a simple, realistic approach to content planning, and you can find it in my shop. It’s helped many small business and organizations plan their content over the years, and I’m so glad to finally be sharing it with you.