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Welcome to the comprehensive how-to guide to creating high-quality, SEO-optimized content. Here we’ll go over streamlining your content using our Content Calendar Template.
From start to finish, let’s explore one of the many ways to turn the overwhelm of SEO content creation into a straightforward process.
Have you ever cooked spaghetti? How do you check the noodles to see if they’re ready? Some people throw them against the wall, hoping they’ll stick. This is similar to what’s referred to as the “spray and pray” method of content marketing. It’s the opposite of a content strategy or plan. A content plan is less about hoping and more about creating content intentionally designed for your audience.
Consistency: Consistency is key to building and retaining your audience. A content plan can help you maintain a consistent posting schedule.
Efficiency: Batch creating content and scheduling in advance will save you time!
Clarity: A content plan keeps your marketing strategy focused and organized, aligned with your business goals.
Engagement: Planning allows you to focus on engaging and connecting with your audience.
Creativity: Planning frees up mental space for creativity. You’re no longer worrying about what to post next.
Strategy: Have a product launch, promotion, or seasonal event coming up? A content plan helps you strategically align your content with these events.
Analysis: The growth opportunities are in the data. A content plan helps you more clearly see what content works and what doesn’t, and why. It enables you to analyze what content performs best and refine your strategy based on data.
Adaptability: A plan provides structure but also creates flexibility. A solid content plan creates a solid marketing foundation. Current events or trends become extras, allowing you to stay true to your marketing strategy.
Hustle culture, busy work, and burnout are not the goals. Results are the goals – always. What results do you want to see manifest from your efforts? Goal clarity is essential and will inform both your marketing strategy and plan. Get clear on your primary and secondary goals. Just starting out? You have all the goals? No problem. Your efforts may very likely create fruitful results in a multitude of areas. Having a primary and secondary focal point, though, will keep you on track. No more busy work. Needle-moving actions only. Below are some common goals. See what resonates.
Brand Awareness: Showcase your brand’s unique value proposition. Create relatable, engaging, entertaining, shareable content.
Building Followers: Consider multiple content streams (e.g., blog posts, videos, infographics) to widen your reach. How can you encourage social sharing and interaction to grow your base?
Gaining Email Subscriptions: Offer valuable content (e.g., ebooks, whitepapers, exclusive content) in exchange for email subscriptions. Focus on building trust funnels. More show, less tell. Use email marketing to nurture leads and build relationships.
Making Sales: Create content that highlights the benefits of your products or services. Include clear calls-to-action (CTAs) to drive conversions. Use targeted advertising to reach potential customers.
Customer Retention: Focus on engagement, connection, and trust. Do you do what you do because you’re looking to take or because you have something invaluable to give? People feel vibes. Customers are people. Check yourself. Reexamine your focus.
Lead Generation: Prioritize creating compelling lead magnets (e.g., ebooks, webinars). Collect emails, optimize landing pages, implement targeted advertising campaigns. Attract potential customers and guide them through the trust funnels. Attract cold leads and nurture them into warm leads.
Brand Loyalty: Focus on building a strong and healthy relationship with your customer. Establish your brand as a safe place to be, to engage, to trust, to buy from. Build authentic connection-focused relationships to foster loyalty and advocacy for your brand.
Competitive Positioning: Differentiate your brand from competitors. Establish your unique value proposition in your niche.
Thought Leadership: Establish your brand or key personnel as thought leaders. Enhance credibility and attract your ideal audience. As a thought leader, how are you navigating your niche outside the box of the “status quo”? Share how you see things. Where are you different? And, what are the results of coloring outside the lines?
If you haven’t already done a competitive analysis, this is foundational. You must understand your audience before creating content for them. And, the best way to get to know your audience is to get to know your competition.
Not sure what type of content to create? Wordy or to-the-point blog posts? Podcasts? Not sure if you should be on Facebook or Instagram? What tone of writing does your audience relate to? Are they more moved by necessity or possibility? A competitive analysis will tell you everything you need to know and more.
So, what is a content strategy? A content strategy is your overarching vision for creating and distributing content. It should align with both your business goals and resonate with your target audience.
Your Business Goals + The Goals Of Your Audience = Strategy (How To Connect)
Now that you have clarity on your goals and the goals of your audience, it’s time to develop your strategy. Content marketing is one strategy. Will other strategies fold into your content strategy? Let’s see…
Content Marketing: Creating and distributing valuable, relevant content to attract and engage a target audience.
Social Media Marketing: Using social media platforms to promote products or services, engage with customers, and build brand awareness.
Email Marketing: Sending targeted emails to nurture leads, promote products, and build relationships with customers.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Optimizing website content and structure to improve search engine rankings and organic traffic.
Paid Advertising: Using paid channels such as Google Ads, social media ads, and display ads to reach a target audience.
Influencer Marketing: Partnering with influencers to promote products or services to their audience.
Affiliate Marketing: Partnering with affiliates to promote products or services in exchange for a commission for each sale or lead generated.
Public Relations (PR): Managing the spread of information between a business or organization and the public to maintain a positive image.
Event Marketing: Hosting or sponsoring events to promote products or services and engage with customers.
Video Marketing: Using video content to promote products or services, educate customers, and build brand awareness.
Guerrilla Marketing: Unconventional marketing tactics that aim to create a big impact with a low budget.
Content Syndication: Publishing content on third-party platforms to reach a wider audience.
Referral Marketing: Encouraging existing customers to refer new customers in exchange for incentives.
Interactive Marketing: Engaging customers through interactive content such as quizzes, polls, and games.
Mobile Marketing: Targeting customers on mobile devices through SMS marketing, mobile apps, and mobile-optimized websites.
Often used interchangeably, the terms marketing strategy and marketing plan are different.
A marketing strategy encompasses the overall goals and intent.
A marketing plan focuses on specifics and impact.
A marketing strategy is like deciding between Disney World or a Royal Caribbean Cruise for your vacation. Different audiences, different interests, different ways of articulating their wants and needs, different ways of bonding in relationships.
After you’ve decided where you’re going, a marketing plan is deciding how you get there and what you do once you’re there. The plan fine-tunes the details. The plan ensures that if unexpected events occur, you can effectively redirect course. No more hoping, wishing, or dreaming because now you have a plan!
Remember to make your plan S.M.A.R.T.: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. A SMART plan in marketing could be to increase website traffic by 25% within six months through a combination of strategies (SEO optimization, content marketing, and social media engagement). This goal is specific (increase website traffic), measurable (25% increase), achievable (through tried-and-true strategies), relevant (to overall marketing objectives), and time-bound (within six months).
Decide on your primary content pillars, secondary content pillars, and topic themes. You can break this down even further by main content types (e.g., what, how, why, and guides or best practices). Having content pillars, themes, and types will help you stay focused. In my Content Calendar Template, you now have a place to streamline and organize. This structure also gives you a one-glance look at the type of content you may be leaning heavily on and where you can mix it up.
With my Content Calendar Template, you also now have a place to collect your ideas and flesh them out. Here you can both brain dump your thoughts and watch those little seedlings grow. Ideas can be a generalized topic like “marketing” or a specific topic like “how to create a marketing plan.” Once you have your topic idea, move it to the SEO search area. Is “how to create a marketing plan” what people are searching for? What other marketing plan searches are they doing? Here you’ll find a place for Google Search, Answer The Public Search, Pinterest Search, and YouTube Suggest. This will also help you to whittle down your idea and create new angles on the same thought train. You’ll be surprised how many content pieces can spring from one tiny generalized idea.
Now that you have clarity on your content pillars and an abundance of content ideas, you’re ahead of the game!
Let’s flesh this out even more with keyword research. This will inform what relevant keywords to use in your content. Your keyword research should focus on both long-tail and short-tail keywords.
Additionally, what you find here can also provide clues to potentially relevant hashtags to use in your social media. Yes, people still follow hashtags.
If blogging is part of your content strategy, this is the Content Calendar Template for you! Now that you have your pillars, content ideas, and keywords, it’s time to divide those ideas into themes.
Here you can funnel your biggest chunks of content into smaller bites. What’s your theme this week? What’s the hot topic? How does that relate to your audience? Think about their pain points, desires, aspirations, emotions, transformation, and what call-to-action you want them to take. Making this focus a practice over time will help you get to know your audience better.
Next, outline your blog. Include SEO focal points like H1 & H2 headings, meta title, meta description, URL slug, etc.
Whittle that into your podcast outline and key focal points. Chip away even further into social media channels, types of posts, positioning, and hook ideas. Included are the ideal posting times for every weekday.
Everything you could ask for in one place!
Creating a solid content plan is key to a successful marketing strategy. By following these steps, you can create a fully functioning content plan.
And, with my Content Calendar Template, you can efficiently streamline the process.
Ready to take your content planning to the next level? You know what to do.
Strategize. Plan. Execute.
My Content Calendar is the foundational template for your first two steps. Execution is all up to you.