Why is this important?
Your mailing list is one of your business’s most significant assets. However, to grow a thriving, quality email list, you must first create consistent, original content that will attract your clients.
To create content consistently, it’s in your best interest to schedule time on your calendar to brainstorm many content topic ideas. This routine will ensure that when the time to create content for your blog comes around, you won’t be caught sitting there wondering what the heck you’re going to talk about. Instead, you’ll have a bank of topics ready and waiting for you.
That’s what this article is about. It walks you through a content planning session where you’ll use the five favourite topic-research methods I use to generate one month of content in a 1-hour session.
Do The Work
Schedule a Content Planning Session every four weeks – ideally in the middle of the month – so you can plan the month ahead with enough time. This will prevent you from having to scramble to create content on the fly.
Content Planning Session Suggestions
Inspiration doesn’t stick to a strict schedule – thank goodness! So, reserve a section of your notebook where you’ll keep all the ideas you have outside of your regular content planning sessions. Later, you can add them to your content calendar when you transfer your content planning.
Once you start dedicating time to content planning, you’re going to have content ideas come to you while walking your dog, while in the shower, while in traffic, or even when you’re browsing through social media.
Ideally, your content planning session will take place over one-hour time; If you’re not careful, this process can take you down LOTS of rabbit holes and chew up a lot of your time. The more you protect your time and keep focused, the better off you’ll be.
Now you’re ready to begin your topic research and brainstorming. The following are my seven favourite ways I generate topic ideas. Of course, if you’ve already had success with another process, by all means, add that into the mix.
Let’s get started!
Create original content weekly to get your message out there consistently and build the know, like, and trust factor with your audience. You become a trusted go-to source for your specific content. You build up Search Engine Optimization (SEO) juice which puts you in front of more people when they search for content in Google.
- Brainstorm: This is THE best way to start your content planning session! A free-flowing, rapid-writing, brain dump session while keeping your Ideal Client’s pain points, needs, and desires in mind. Note essential or relevant events, celebrations, and holidays that occur during the month and work them into your content plan.
- Survey Your Audience: Sometimes, all it takes is asking your audience a handful of simple questions to understand what type of content you could provide that would be most valuable and relevant to them.
- Content Theming: Setting themes for your content can help you narrow down and decide on topics that might entice your audience. You could have a monthly or weekly theme based on the hot topics your audience is interested in, within your area of expertise.
- Giving Past Content New Life: Relook at the content you’ve already published so that you can review what topics, themes, and ideas resonated with your audience. Again, you’re not repurposing; you’re creating new content based on the past content, but with a unique spin or deeper dive.
- Let Google Help: Google is smart. Use its massive brainpower to help you better understand which topics, ideas, and questions your ICA wants to have answered or developed.
- Show people who you are: what you love, what inspires you, and what you stand for. Being authentic is more meaningful than appearing curated.
- Start your monthly content calendar: Once you have a rich pool of ideas, decide how many blog, social media posts you are doing a week and schedule them for an entire month. Consistency is important. Stay consistent in the days you are sending out.
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