Content got you bogged down? You know you should be posting on social media and writing blogs but when you actually have time to post and write you just keep coming up with a total blank. Coming up with content on the fly is painful, time consuming, and can make your brand look scattered.

It doesn’t have to be that way though. You can plan out a whole year’s worth of content in just a few days – maybe even hours if you buckle down. You know the old saying…failing to plan is planning to fail. Don’t worry. We’ve got your back. Not only do we have 5 tips to help you create a year’s worth of content, we’ve got a free content calendar that you can download where you can make the magic happen.

Download your FREE 2019 Content Planning Calendar to help you plan content that amplifies your brand all year long.

GET YOUR MIND GOING

Get a piece of paper and start brainstorming! Start off from a high level and think of topics that your ideal client cares about, topics that you love talking about, and topics that relate to why you are even doing what you are doing (ahem, as in your business). Chase the bunny down the hole with these topics. When you download our 2019 Content Planning Calendar you’ll see the first page is dedicated to this very thing. High level topics being broken down into sub-topics. If you aren’t into structure, then make yourself a mind map to come up with sub-topics for each of your high level ones. Perhaps you are in the fitness industry; topics that you could come up with might be motivation, food, exercises, and client success stories. From exercises you could drill that down further to talk about the importance of form and variety. Once you’ve come up with a decent list, you can assign themes to each month or quarter and then begin to pull your blog content and/or social media content from these.

PICK YOUR CHANNEL AND FREQUENCY

Spend time researching where your target audience spends their time and focus your efforts there. If you spread your messaging too thinly across many platforms, your message will get lost. It makes sense to hone in your focus in on the few select channels where your ideal clients will see you.  Once you have chosen them, think about how often you should be posting. It is always ideal to post daily, but if that is overwhelming, just pick a schedule that works for you. Make sure it is something you can keep up with, because you want your audience to know what to expect from you. If you decide to post 3 x a week you know you need to come up with 12 posts a month.

WHAT’S HAPPENING IN THE WORLD

There is always something happening somewhere in the world. We have all kinds of special days that can be noted nowadays. If you check out https://www.daysoftheyear.com/days/2019/ you can find certain days of the year that might work for your business. Keeping with the fitness theme, there are International Day of the Runner, the Boston Marathon, Get Outside Day, and many others. Some are serious and some are funny (International Hug Your Dog Day anyone?). You can incorporate these days into your content calendar providing you with some built in content that can be great for injecting some of your personality into your postings as well as helping to create some great engagement. Once you plug in these days every month, you can go ahead and create great content allowing your audience and potential clients a glimpse into your life.

You can also take advantage of news and events happening to provide some commentary or reflection, as long as it fits with your brand, business, and audience. However, this isn’t really something you can plan too far in advance, as this tends to be more ‘in the moment’ kind of posting.

BATCH, BATCH, BABY

Batching is the word of 2019! Once you have decided where and when you should post, you need to schedule time to prep posts. Set aside a day to write up your content, source your images, and schedule posts. You can do this on a monthly basis or more. If you are not already doing this, we challenge you try this once…we promise you’ll hooked. It’s amazing how much you can get done in a day and the freedom that comes with knowing you’ve got yourself set for the next 4 weeks. Batching your work like this also allows you more time to focus on other areas of your business, like serving your clients! Because you took the time to map out your content framework, you already know what you will be talking about and when which makes it much easier to get on that batching!

SET IT AND FORGET IT (SORT OF)

Once you have created all the content, you can use a scheduler like Later and set all your Instagram posts to publish on the days and times best determined to reach the most of your audience. It is always advisable to keep an eye on your media to ensure that your scheduled posts are in fact posting and keeping up with engaging with your audience. You will quickly learn that the time you will save by planning will be a huge time saver in your business.

Our 2019 Content Planning Calendar has been a game changer for us in the way that we are able to stay organized and on top of our Instagram, blog, and facebook postings. We would love to hear how our content calendar works for you!