4 tips to help with monthly content planning

A successful and engaging content strategy requires planning, but where do you start?

From setting up your content pillars to creating a monthly calendar, marketing consultant Julia Wetzel shares her 4 top tips to help you plan your monthly content effectively.

1. Identify your ‘One Thing”

First of all, ask yourself what you want to be known for? What is the 'One Thing' you want people to talk about when they mention your name or brand? What do you feel incredibly passionate about? Having a clear idea of what it is you want to gain recognition for, will bring real focus when it comes to content creation.

@weareleafage

2. Set up content pillars

Your content pillars are a set of key themes that form the framework of your social media strategy. Start with your story: what makes up your brand or business and can you identify some recurring themes that are integral to your brand's DNA? What does your audience need to regularly see and hear from you in order to act?

Once you have decided on your content pillars, brainstorm content ideas and formats to sit under each pillar.

@champohaircare

3. Build a bank of curated content

Curated content is content created by others vs. original content, which is created by you. You might read an interesting blog post, come across an industry report or see a post on Instagram that you believe might resonate with your own audience.

Curated content can be a useful tool to help you fill the gaps in your content calendar, establish yourself as an expert, or provide additional value to your audience.

@salcombegin

4. Create a content calendar

A very simple, yet massively underused tool. To start with, I recommend setting up an annual calendar where you add in all key internal and external dates. This might be product launches and sales, seasonal campaigns or photo shoots (internal), relevant holidays, national days, trade shows, industry events (external).

Once you have an overview, break it down into monthly planning and add details about the type of content you are creating (topic and format), who you are creating it for (audience segment), the channels you are going to publish it on and any relevant links and assets.

@the_truthbrush

Do you struggle with content planning, want clarity on how to market your business or position yourself as an expert? Maybe your messaging needs refining or you want to learn how to use social media as a tool to drive traffic to your website?

Julia’s 90-minute Brainstorm session, plus five days of follow-up support on Voxer, is designed to help you with a specific marketing challenge, to provide you with a sounding board or someone to brainstorm a creative idea with.

You can book your session here.

PR Dispatch members receive 10% off their first booking. To claim the offer, contact Julia directly at julia@juliadwetzel.com for an exclusive PR Dispatch members link.