You can’t count the number of days your team spent brainstorming, discussing, or mapping out a content strategy—but you got it done together. Now, with all your goals and guidelines fleshed out, it’s time to tackle the next step: a content plan.
But you may have hit a wall. Knowing how to create a content plan, much less what a content plan is, isn’t a straightforward process. If you’re feeling over your head, don’t fret!
We’ve put together the steps you can take to create a content plan that will break through that wall and get you on track building long-lasting relationships with your customer base even faster. Let’s get started!
Some of the basics of digital content planning
If you’re looking to dive in headfirst right away, hold on a moment. Before we get started making our very own content plan, we’ll need to start with some brass tacks of this beast.
What is a content plan?
You may be confused about the difference between a content plan and a content strategy. Let’s say that a content strategy is the theory, while a content plan is the practice.
A content plan is what you need to breathe life into your content strategy and make it a reality. Think of it as the “what, when, and how” of your content:
- What content are you going to create?
- When do you want the content to be published?
- How are you going to distribute your content (i.e. which channels)?
Your content plan should spell out each one of these details in-depth. The more you can outline from the start, the easier it will be to execute.
How does SEO fit into content planning?
It’s one thing to create content you think your audience wants, but it’s another to give them what they want. And by that, we mean what they’re searching for. That’s where SEO comes into play.
Your content plan needs an SEO strategy to reach your target audience. Without a solid SEO framework, your content won’t have the visibility to shine. By carefully choosing relevant keywords, you’ll set your content up for success—meaning ranking high on search engine results pages (SERPs).
Not sure how to create your own SEO strategy? RANQ can do it for you! As a full-service SEO content marketing firm, we work with you from the beginning by assessing your needs and crafting the perfect content plan to meet them. We’ll even take content creation off your shoulders!
What are some useful content planning tools?
Want to hammer out a solid content plan? You’ll probably need the help of some content planning tools.
Editorial calendars, content management systems, and project management tools are all well-suited to help you create your content plan. Monday, Trello, and Asana are popular options for keeping your content workflow in check.
While you can certainly create a content plan without these tools, content planning and management is a massive responsibility. The sooner you find the right content planning tool that will help you organize and streamline that process, the better.
Step-by-step content plan example you can follow
With the basics of digital content planning behind us, let’s get into a step-by-step content plan your team can use to get started on your content planning journey.
Start with a solid content strategy
Even if you already have a content strategy, it’s a good idea to ensure you’ve crossed every “t” and dotted every “i.” Creating a solid content strategy starts with the following:
- Pinpointing your content-marketing goals and business objectives.
- Knowing your target audience, what they want, and how to give it to them.
- Conducting thorough keyword research to understand search intent and more.
- Nailing down topics you want to write about and why.
Create the mold with templates
To streamline content workflow and keep your content team on the same page, you’ll want to create content templates loaded with your style guidelines. These should be based on what you’ve outlined in your strategy.
For example, if you’re creating a blog for your business, your templates can vary according to their type (i.e., listicles, guides, how-to’s, etc.) or they can all start with the same framework. Regardless, your templates should usually include:
- Standard fonts and sizes.
- Proper heading tags.
- A content quality checklist.
- A place for keywords writers can use.
- Any directions that remain the same.
Research the best topics to cover
We’re willing to bet that once you decided to trek down the content marketing trail, your brain went into overdrive about all the topics you wanted to explore. While you’ll always want to create content that’s in your wheelhouse and reflects your brand identity, you’ll also need to figure out how your content will solve a problem or meet a need for your target audience.
When choosing topics, think about their search traffic potential. That means knowing what your target audience wants to read about. Your SEO strategy and keyword research are critical partners in this journey.
If you don’t feel you’re on solid footing with this process, you can delegate it to an SEO content marketing firm. How it works at Ranq, for instance, is that our team conducts thorough research on your brand and your competitors before moving into the first round of keyword research to build a solid content strategy and plan to bring you the traffic you’re looking for.
Create a content calendar with assigned tasks
In order for your team to coordinate what needs to be done and when, you’ll need a content calendar. A content calendar can ensure the right hand knows what the left hand is doing content-wise day by day and month by month.
With so many content calendar options out there, you’ll want to go with one that:
- Makes viewing your items intuitive.
- Includes annotation capabilities.
- Allows you to track items, authors, due dates, statuses, and more.
Some of these tools allow you to automate workflows, which is especially helpful to keep wires from getting tangled. When someone submits their part of a piece of content, it can automatically be assigned to the next one down the line, and so on.
Measure your results as you distribute
Everyone on your team has done what’s needed, and you’re ready to publish. Once you send your content out into the world, you’ll need to supervise how it performs. Measuring your performance lets you see what’s successful, identify gaps, and circle back to reoptimize whenever necessary.
There are many ways to measure your success, and it will depend on your content marketing KPIs, but these are some metrics Ranq’s content normally improves for our clients:
- Overall organic traffic
- Impressions/page views
- Number of keywords ranked for
- Click-through rates
- Leads and conversions
Don’t know how to create SEO content strategy? Ranq can handle it!
Ask any expert out there, and they’ll tell you that content is a long game; it takes grit, patience, and the best folks on the job to turn a strategy into a successful content plan. If you want to know how to create a content plan that aligns with your goals but don’t have the support to make that a reality, our SEO content experts at Ranq are up for the challenge.
Ranq will work with you to understand your specific content marketing needs so we can build a content plan that works for you. Once the plan is set in stone, our content team will hit the pavement getting you SEO-rich, valuable content. Contact Ranq today to see how to create a content plan without lifting a finger!