Content planning is the art of planning content to create intrigue and trust, with you as the authority. If you don’t know the purpose of content planning, we’re digital marketing experts armed with the ability to teach you more about how and why to carefully plan your content, for maximum results.

It’s all about your reputation.
Creating a brand identity and reputation starts with the content you post. This builds trust and creates familiarity and authority.

People develop a preference for things they see most often, creating familiarity. This is a psychological concept that has been used to increase conversions in marketing for as long as marketing has existed!

Part of building a brand is increasing the amount of people familiar with your business. People familiar with your business will continue to trust you, when you’ve proven yourself as an authority. This, in turn, leads to trust. People buy from brands they trust, and therefore are more likely to buy from you than from that random Joe Schmo, without content authority, who also happens to sell protein powder.

When you look at conversions from the viewpoint of the consumer, it’s easy to see why they need to trust you in order to give you their hard earned money.

Content is multifaceted

You might have heard the phrase “content is king” in digital marketing circles. This is related to customer acquisition.

For B2C, and especially B2B, many of these buyers will get acquainted with a brand through several pieces of content before they make first contact with your sales team. As for B2C, content will generally create additional buzz around a brand, boosting visibility through search results and content sharing.

Additionally, if you don’t want customers to forget about you, you can utilize content to keep your business in front of their eyes. After all, it’s cheaper to maintain a customer than it is to acquire new ones.

What good is Content Planning, anyway?
If your goals include building a brand, acquiring new customers, and maintaining old ones, you should be content planning to have a constant stream of engagement that you can distribute. This keep your business at the top of mind.

Since you have to lead consumers from point A to point B, you very well can’t lead them with a rope and a saddle. You have to engage them with insightful content that’s relevant to their interests.

A business must catch a user’s attention with quality content that is well thought out, and well constructed. Planning content is also integral to ensure that you won’t miss a beat when it comes to creating new pieces. If you already have subjects in the queue, it’s easier to sit down and start writing instead of having to brainstorm each and every time.

The planning phase is far easier than you may expect. Truth be told, it actually saves time when it comes to creating the content in the first place!

Content Planning 101

• Set your goal – Decide what your goal is, with the content you’re creating. Are you wanting to create bi-weekly blog posts to use in your social media efforts? Do you want to create more customers?
• Conduct some research – This step is sorely overlooked by business owners, simply because they have a bias. Say you are a chiropractor, and you want to gain more patients. Are you going to write about and share what interests you as a chiropractor, or should you create something that the consumer wants to read? Certainly, the latter. Unless you want to cater only to other chiropractors! Research your competitors and see what they’re doing. Figure out your most common demographic, and focus on what users like them would want to see.
• Decide your approach – Ultimately, you’re going to want to have a solid understanding of your target market, and what they like to consume. This is your key to guiding people along the stages of the sales funnel. Tailor your content to them.
• Outline Your Articles – You could even search for blog templates that convert! Do some research by reading other blogs, and learn more about other formats that might work best for users you are attempting to reach.
• Utilize a content calendar – Professionals create a calendar of the content they’re posting and which day it will be posted. This takes a lot of labor out of the day-to-day grind, so you always know what to expect. This also helps you bridge together relevant content to help your users find it more effectively, in your overall marketing strategy!
• Develop your content – It is time! Use your template, stick to your calendar, and you have a streamlined approach to content creation!
• Content Distribution – Content creation is just one aspect of marketing! After it’s developed, you must distribute it to social channels and ensure it’s optimized for search. This content can now be used in social media posts and ads, and pushed through other venues for distribution such as a newsletter or other formal communications!
• Analyze the results – Take time to analyze the results from your campaigns. A blog post doesn’t work on its own, so you have to do the footwork to get it in front of your target audience.

Producing more content isn’t necessarily the most important part of a marketing strategy. Though, it does enhance the SEO capabilities of your website, it does not necessarily require an extraneous frequency. The main purpose of content planning is to create authority for your brand and build trust and familiarity. Plus, planning content ensures you won’t hit a major snag in the production process, and can maintain consistency from your brand.

If you’re not so sure content planning is something you want to do alone, our content production team can lend a hand to give you the processes and the content you need, with a professional touch.