How To Plan A Month's Worth Of Content In One Day
The very first thing I ask clients when I start working with them is whether they schedule their posts or post whenever, wherever. It’s usually the latter. It’s the difference between using social media and being on social media.
If you have a business or are hoping to grow your account, you need to start scheduling your posts in advance.
Here’s why. Planning out your content is a real game-changer in your digital and social marketing strategy. When I say “content” I am referring to blog posts, social media posts, graphics, videos and email marketing newsletters - really anything in the realm of digital marketing. You need content to fluff out websites, Instagram feeds, banners, stories, blog posts, e-books and much more to provide brand consistency across all platforms.
That sounds like a lot, and can be really daunting when you have to think about providing content every day… if you aren’t in the habit of scheduling out content. So, the question is: “how do I plan months worth of content… and get it all done?” You’re in luck today as I’m going to walk you through three basic steps of getting your content schedule in place.
First, you have to know how many pieces of content need to go out for every platform you are present on.
Second, you have to do a little content mapping.
And lastly, you have to create space on your calendar or to do list to execute it.
Ready?
THE FIRST STEP: KNOW YOUR NUMBERS.
Most people have only used social media at a personal level. They don’t plan out when they take pictures or what hashtags are performing best, and they want the “freedom” to post whenever they feel like it. In doing so, they think it looks organic and intentional. But here’s the thing, you won’t get very far in online marketing without a clear, consistent strategy.
The cost of online marketing starts out really low compared to more traditional methods of marketing. Sure, you can always pay to boost your posts or buy followers/likes/comments, but you don’t have to and actually it’s quite damaging. The “Pay To Play” strategy works to a point but all you’re doing is throwing money at the problem. I’ll go into this in an other post but the long and short is that content marketing can work for you IF you put in the effort. Think of it like search engine optimisation (SEO) and long-term share-ability - unless you delete the content, it can be shared over and over again! Not to mention content repurposing!
If you’re like many creative entrepreneurs I know, you see the incredible value in social media but are unsure how to take it further, how to come up with posts or how to schedule your time so you’re not stuck every day. That’s where I come in. I’m sharing with you a little preview into how I build out my content schedule and what’s involved so you can start to do the same for your businesses. This isn’t a one-size fits all approach but it’s helped me get started and create structure / more time to focus on other aspects of my business.
Blog Posts
1 – 2 times per week. Once a month, I’ll spend a good amount of time writings my monthly blog posts, creating my blog graphics in Canva and setting up the social media scheduling via Squarespace to post automatically. And within a few hours, I’ve gotten all of my blogs ready to publish once or twice a week without the stress of “What should I blog about today?!”.
With blogging, the key isn’t to post as many times as you can, but rather to consistently post. This logic applies to all branding and marketing decisions by the way. I like to post 1-2 times a week because for me, that is manageable. If you can keep up with 3-5 or even once a day - good for you! Just make sure that you don’t burnout and drop in your consistency.
Let’s say you are a wedding planner. If you can commit to one useful and in-depth post per week to build up a resource of articles for your couples to refer to during the planning process, that would be a great start. From there, you could schedule in a quick second or third post per week that is less writing-intensive like an image-heavy post of a recent wedding or styled shoot you were apart of and maybe a post that gives your clients some visual inspiration with a mood board.
Boom! Instantly you have a plan that is manageable to keep up with!
1 post per day, 6 days a week. I used to be one of those people who didn’t take Instagram seriously and would post whenever I felt like it. Which was okay(ish) but it didn’t produce the quality of hashtags, captions and visual look I was hoping for. Then I started posting in heavy spurts one week and crickets the next. And it still didn’t work because it wasn’t consistent. Shocker.
These days, I use different strategies to up my Insta-game, stay on brand and post relevant content that will engage my audience. I also update my strategy on a regular basis based on what is working best and what my audience is loving the most.
But what do I post?! Having set of 5-6 topics for each day takes a ton of stress off my plate for coming up with new daily ideas. Because social media is social, I only have a brand promotional item per week. You never want to sell, sell, sell... post engaging content types instead.
On a perfect month of content here's an example of how to structure your content plan.
On Mondays, I would share about thoughts on business and being an entrepreneur, generally tied in with an inspirational quote. You can also use idea on stories to talk about your business, shout out other entrepreneurs and small businesses in your niche that deserve more attention.
On Tuesdays, I would share about my weekly blog post.
On Wednesdays, I would share about thoughts on life, wanderlust inspo. Remember, this is a very social, visual platform and people follow the humans behind a business. Use this day to remind them that you are indeed, a real human, and not a face-less corporation. Give a little insight into your day, interact with your audience over on Stories and start conversations with people. You’d be surprised at where this can lead you.
On Thursdays, I would share about my actual services – social media marketing for a start. This the time to sell your products but frame your pitch in a way that benefits THEM.
On Fridays, share snapshots of your home or workspace. There’s a reason why HGTV’s realty programs have such high ratings. People like to be a fly on the wall and see what’s behind closed doors. This is a great opportunity to relate to your followers on a personal level.
On Sundays, share some personal thoughts from the week and weekend as you prepare for a new week ahead!
This isn’t for everyone but by doing a bit of legwork to really think about what you’re planning to post for the week, you can easily batch schedule for an entire month with this system. Just like with the blog posts, I like to spend a good portion of a day planning posts, writing captions, researching the hashtags and being able to set it aside. There are so many great planning apps that help you achieve this but my go-to will always be Later.com. It is so easy to use and as an Instagram Partner, the connection between the two is seamless. This has helped me to get off of the Instagram app on my phone and treat it more seriously.
Just a quick reminder that you can stick to a pre-planned content schedule AND post in the moment. Having the schedule helps you stay consistent on Instagram but there’s nothing wrong with posting big moments as they happen. But I suggest keeping the in-the-moment posts on Instagram Stories.
While I haven’t built up my Pinterest account yet, it remains the highest source of traffic to websites and blogs. Why? Because even though it’s in the sphere of “social media” it’s not actually a social media platform at all. It’s a search engine that comes with a high traffic conversion rate.
If you have the bandwidth and the content, consider investing in your Pinterest marketing as it drives people directly to your website, which at the end of the day, is the only digital content that you own. But that’s another blog post!
To be honest, I don’t focus too much effort on my Facebook Page. It’s just there. It’s a great platform for local business that have a storefront, for search discovery and truly connecting with your local community - but it’s not so great for getting your posts in front of people. I personally see it as a support for everything else I do.
I have automated rules set up on my blog and Later that automatically push my blog content to my FB page and I sometimes share Instagram posts over there as well, so the page isn’t completely silent. It’s be “all business” on it. Just my personal preference. I share my blog posts there, and that is about it!
Oof Twitter. It’s a quick, digestible way to get a message across and to engage in real time but it’s on similar territory as Facebook organic posting wise. To be really successful at it, it’s almost a requirement to schedule 10-20 tweets per day, complete with hashtags, links, retweets, comments etc. Unless you’re Crissy Teigan. Otherwise, it’s not much worth the time and effort. I personally use Twitter as a place to talk about my interests, favorite television shows and stay up-to-date on trending events.
Email Marketing
Email marketing is an area of marketing that I am working on! I haven’t gotten to a point where I’m sending out weekly emails but this is definitely an area that more businesses should focus on. Once you send it out, you can repurpose your email content into blog posts, social media captions, website copy, graphics, etc. The limit does not exist!
So with ALL that said, I consciously schedule and create 10 pieces of content every week. If you’re planning ahead, that’s just about 40 pieces of content to execute in one month. And you can do that in a one day. Stay safe out there everyone!