Content Marketing is one of the most effective and popular online strategies amongst companies. Having a well-defined content plan will reduce the overwhelming feeling that sometimes creeps up when you post a publication or organize your work. Also, it will help you to reach more potential clients. So, why are you waiting to create your own?

On top of this, according to an IAB’s study, 49% of users consult blogs and forums before making a purchase and 27% use social networks for the same purpose.

💡 60% of marketing professionals say that creating content for a blog is a priority as part of an inbound marketing strategy

Content plan: What is it

A Content Plan is a technique that will assist you in setting and programming the information that you will provide to your target public.

Every content marketing strategy will include a content plan that will save you a lot of trouble

The first step is to determine the format that you will use: content for your blog, corporative website or social networks. This is something that you should always keep in mind when you create your content plan since writing for social networks is different than for a website.

How to create content for your blog

To guarantee success for your marketing strategy it’s important to plan ahead before putting it into action. There are still some companies that carry out their strategies without a clear plan, that is, like groping in the dark.

So, in order to create a wonderful content plan, you should follow the recipe step by step:

⚡️ Previous diagnosis: shopping list

This part involves analyzing the financial situation of your own brand or company and understanding the state of the market around it.

A good way to execute this diagnosis is completing a SWOT analysis. This is a planning method that evaluates the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threads of your brand or competitors. This analysis will help you to understand the situation of the market that your brand is in.

⚡️ Establish goals and objectives: Choose a supermarket

It’s always important reconsider what you really want to achieve from your content plan. Higher traffic to your web, prestige and recognition, SEO positioning, conquer the world, etc.

Once you have your ideas clear, you will be able to aim your strategy towards your goals. A content plan is unfeasible if you don’t define where you want to go. Set your objectives!

⚡️ Define your ideal client: who will you invite for dinner?

Be clear with who you are writing for or to whom your content strategy is directed.

The previous steps gave you some ideas of what you are looking for, now it’s time to stop and analyze. Who is your ideal client that will buy your products? What type of information are they interested in? What social networks do they use? Where do they travel to?

The better you define your target, potential buyer or ideal client, the more effective and successful your plan will be.

⚡️ Define your strategy: Time for some cooking

Now that you chose the ingredients, your guests and your dinner party theme, it’s time to cook your content strategy. Reaching this point, you will:

• Establish the type of content you are going to publish (topics and editorial line)
• Choose the format or formats for your strategy (text, image, video, podcast, etc.)
• Determine the frequency of your publications (daily, weekly, monthly…)
• Decide where to publish and share your content (blog, social networks, content sharing platforms…)

All these decisions will give shape to your content plan.

⚡️ Trial and error: Time for dessert

Good content will be of some value for the reader and help to start a conversation. Ask your readers, let them talk and take note of all their comments. If you are starting from scratch, don’t worry, your strategy can change directions depending on whether your plan is leading you to your goals or not.

Your recipe might look delicious in theory but your guests might have a different opinion. If this is the case, revisit your previous steps but this time keeping in mind all comments from your guests, making the process easier.

How to create the best content plan for your brand

You must be methodical if you want to create original and high-quality content. Following a process that allows you to learn from your mistakes and pushes you to become better with time. Your initial content will lead you to a better and more efficient second round and so on. Generating content for a blog, website, etc. is a tedious job that requires time and dedication.

A job that always has to keep in mind the previous points:

• Objectives
• Ideal client’s target
• Competitive analysis

The last part is very relevant when you have to decide whether to publish a specific content or not.

Knowing what your competitors are offering to their clients will help us find the right path. A good strategy is producing content that is 80% dedicated to your clients and 20% to your brand. This way, your clients will feel more content and well taken care of.  Focusing more on your consumers will provide very valuable and personalized information. There is not a magic formula to create an attractive and popular content but, following certain parameters will help you to reach that goal. You will add the rest:

• It’s better to write a short personal message rather than a long impersonal one.
• The content must be adapted to the specific moment that the consumer is in.
• It must be also adjusted to the needs and preferences of your target public.
• It must be original and innovative.
• It must include a call-to-action button that leads your client to the option to buy your product, subscribe to your website or capture more leads. An objective per page.

Once you have clearly defined the type of content that you want to create, you will finally distribute and measure it.

Content analysis and measurement

The different methods and tools that exist for analyzing and measuring content will allow us to find out if our content is working successfully. This way, we measure the effectiveness of our messages and check whether the communication to our client is adequate or is not reaching the expected outcome.

Being able to monitor our content marketing strategy and its results will help us to correct mistakes, know the reactions and opinions of our audience and ultimately, learn whether we are close to our objectives or not. In order to make an analysis and measurement of our content strategy’s result, we should follow and make sure we fulfill the SMART criteria:

1. Specific
2. Measurable
3. Achievable
4. Realistic
5. Time-bound

Additionally, there also some KPIs that evaluate and measure the efficacy of our messages so we can monitor the quality of the content. They are as follows:

Comments per content

Observing the debate generated by content is a key indicator of its effectiveness. The comments from the audience of the company’s blog, social networks, etc. will provide us with valuable data about our performance, if we are doing things right.

This is a perfect feedback tool that gives us relevant information and helps us to position our content in search engines. The comments coming from content can be transformed into feelings. Are they positive, cheerful or negative and destructive? In this case, the quality of the comments doesn’t matter but the quantity does.

Visits through time In our content strategy, we can have different types of content that will attract more or fewer number of visits. There are 3 generic categories:

• Disposable content: Content about a current topic that will lose momentum in the future.
• Timeless Content: Content that is meant to keep attracting readers with the passage of time.
• Strategic Content: Content focused on drawing attention to a specific offer, product or promotional campaign.

Measuring tools are necessary to determine what type of articles work better for the strategy and to be able to classify and group them.

Analysis Tools

One of the most popular tools to analyze your content is Google Analytics and if your strategy is focused on social networks you can also use reports from Facebook or Twitter Analytics.

Because, what’s the point of creating a content plan if you don’t know whether it worked or not? But if you’re looking for an easy-to-use and intuitive tool to assist you in managing and measuring all your digital content and seeing how your blog and social network metrics evolve, we have come a long way to bring you Metricool, a very complete tool that won’t let you down.

Give it a try and see for yourself, it’s free!

Juan Pablo , 21 June 2021