Last week I talked about how to set up an Editorial Calendar using Trello, a free to-do-list/visual board app, this week I'm going to tell you how I actually plan the content that I schedule on my Editorial Calendar.
In today's post, I'll explore Content Planning - A bit more work goes into structuring my posts than just having an Organized Editorial Calendar, and you can read all about it down below!
You can read all my posts on Blogging and check out all related freebies here.
Blogging is at it's peak popularity these days, and almost everyone wants to be a blogger or influencer of some sort.
This is great, but it might be a bit daunting to start with all the information available nowadays.
Where should I start, what should I post first, how should I promote my content
Even with more seasoned hobby bloggers, like myself, it can be a struggle. Specially if you also work full time, or have a family to care for, or you're juggling other responsabilities.
It is important to keep in mind, however, that if it works for me it might not work for you and vice versa. Today I am sharing how I plan content and what I analyse in order to make decisions towards growing my traffic and conversation rate.
Let me give you some background about myself:
I have been a hobby blogger for about a decade now, and decided to get back into blogging and plan towards going professional. I have had failed blogs over the years and I've had small success stories - all which inspired me to go forward and keep working on what I like. I am also a virtual assistant to my boyfriend's online business, in charge of coming up with Instagram Designs and Strategies to execute his growth plan. I love sharing my knowledge and seeing other blogs grow along side mine!
PLAN YOUR CONTENT
When it comes to brainstorming and planing content, I try to analyse my blog first. I look for:
- Which blog posts have more views and engagement
- Which posts on my Instagram and Pinterest have more engagement
- What topics have I posted about last
My traffic mainly comes from Instagram and Pinterest, , hence why I take these into consideration when planning new content.
I then try to taylor my content to fit in with what my main audience liked best - and for me, my best performing content in social media is always related to blogging or lifestyle (plants, beauty posts or flatlays are quite popular with my Instagram audience).
Next, I'll analyse my lastest posts for performance; I decided to focus on growing my social medial expertise and presence before fully focusing on how to convert that traffic into subscribers, which led me to overlook the blog for the last few weeks and haven't posted consistently as a result- and even though I didn't achieve the numbers I hoped for, I can still takeaway precious information about my audience:
- My best performing post was my first one, where after a brief introduction to the blog, I wrote about coming up with my Blog Name and provided a Worksheet. That tells me that people interested in Blogging have found my blog and actually read that post - it added some value to them!
- My second best performing post was a Baking post about tips on how to bake the perfect Heart-shapped Caramel Shortbread - Baking is a very competitive niche and I wasn't posting at the perfect time neither was I posting anything NEW.
I can keep going, but you get the gist of it. Truly analyse what you have posted in the last month as even the tiniest bit of information can help you improve your content strategy and help you funnel in deeper into your niche and help you come up with a more cohesive blog feed.
You can then round up the Categories you achieved most engagement in and plan more content around them. For me, Blogging was the best performing Category, which tells me that my readers are likely to be searching for keywords such as Blogging, Building a Blog, Growing a Blog and Getting Traffic. So I can plan to write around those topics and provide solutions for their problems.
TO RECAP, SO FAR WE HAVE:
- Established Traffic Sources and Audience,
- Established and Analysed Content for Performance,
- Establish Most Engaged With Categories,
Now you know what to write about, come up with 5 possible Blog Post Titles that you'd like to write for!
TIP: When researching for your Blog posts, set a timer for yourself and work on each post within the time you've allowed - even if you do it in two or three sittings - otherwise you might end up in a research spiral and not actually writing the post.
Time For a Break! Remember to give yourself a break every other hour. This will allow your brain to rest for a while and come back refreshed onto it!
Now let's start structuring your post:
- What is the central problem you're solving
- What is your proposed solution
- Do you have facts and examples - photos, infographics, testimonials
- Are you backlinking something? - affiliate links, or old blog posts, other helpful blogs
- What is your Call to Action? - What do you want your audience to do upon reading the post?
For example,
For last week's post about Creating an Editorial Calendar:
Problem
|
Organizing your Blog And Keeping On Top of Content Creation
|
Solution
| How to Build an Easy and Free Editorial Calendar |
Facts
|
Trello - what is it and how can it help, How I use my Calendar
|
Examples
|
review of trello
|
Backlinks
|
trello referral link, link to my "Blogging" category
|
Call to Action
| Free Blog Post Checklist |
You do not need to write this down everytime, but I do recommend you do - this way you know you can keep sight of the direction you want to take!
If you feel like your post isn't going where you wanted it to you can refer back to your notes and re-align your post to be valuable and enjoyable!
TO RECAP, SO FAR YOU HAVE:
- Established your Audience and Traffic Sources
- Established and Analysed Content for performance
- Established Most Engaged with Categories
- Thought of and Researched 5 possible Blog Posts
- Sat down to work on your first Post and started to structure it.
Planning content can be hard work, but by brainstorming associated topics you are slowly coming up with a full Editorial Calendar filled with amazing content you want to write about!
Merge your content planning and creation strategy with your Editorial Calendar for a super organized and full Blog Schedule!
I'm a firm believer that not only does practice make perfect, but that the more you write, the more you find to write about - and so my content strategy relies on periodical brainstorming as a reflection, as I believe that by researching more and writing different articles I will find and learn about new topics to talk about!
How do you plan your content to ensure Blog Growth?
