Creating content for your business is a huge undertaking. From website copy to social media captions to blog posts to emails to…you get it. It’s a lot. But what if you could get even more out of your planned content?
No, we’re not talking about repurposing content, although that’s a hella smart strategy we fully support. We’re talking about taking one piece of content and turning it into five.
If you just rolled your eyes at the thought of doing even more work, stay with us. Because we’re not here to create more content just for the hell of it. No one wants to do that. But we are here to create more content that’s purposeful.
Still with us? Great! Let’s do the damn thing, shall we?
We need these things first
Before we create any type of content, you need to determine some really important details.
Your audience and offer
You should already know your ideal audience, and have a product or offer that sells. We’re not here to build a content strategy on something that’s never sold a dime.
Your specific goals
Your goals should be super clear and go a little deeper than engagement only. Think in terms of:
- Audience growth
- Sales made
- Units sold
- Emails collected
- Resource downloads
- Or any other type of conversion
Your milestones
Like your goals, you should also outline specific milestones you want to reach monthly, bi-monthly, or quarterly. Without these, you’re just churning out content with no purpose.
Latasha note: Creating content like that isn’t a bad thing necessarily. If you’re a service provider who doesn’t really want to attract new clients, then go for it. However, if you’re a product- or service-based business owner or a coach, you’ll need to set milestones.
We establish your obstacles and opportunities
Once we have all of that information, we take some time to establish the problems and unique opportunities you’re up against as you move towards those milestones. For a lot of our clients, those obstacles usually include things like:
- Not getting much reach
- Not having enough traffic
- Not scoring new email subscribers
- Not securing enough new leads
- Not getting enough conversions
From there, we find opportunities to help you solve those problems. That usually comes in the form of a UVP, or unique value proposition, which is something only your brand offers. We also look into other opportunities like speaking engagements, promotions, collaborations, and more.
We break down your pieces of content
From there, we break down content pieces that address your unique problems and build opportunities. We batch out themes for weekly content — entertain, educate, inspire, and convert — so you actually have a solid mix of content while providing value to your audience. All while still working towards your goals and milestones.
And yes, we recommend putting out weekly content, unless you’re one of those service providers who doesn’t need to draw in new leads constantly.
We add your content to a planning spreadsheet
When it’s time to put your content plans on (digital) paper, we use Bluchic’s amaaaaazing content planning spreadsheet. Before this, we used something that way less robust. But now it’s so easy for Latasha and team to put a plan together, send topics to clients for approval, and know exactly what content we’re creating — and why we’re creating it.
We like to focus on the theme of the week first – i.e. choosing ONE topic that you’ll be talking about across platforms. For example, we wanted to talk about how to turn 1 piece of content into 5 this week.
From there, we create:
- Content piece #1: This blog
- Content piece #2: A social post
- Content piece #3: A Reel
- Content piece #4: A newsletter blurb (to go in our newsletter)
- Content piece #5: A future social post or LinkedIn blog
We organize this in Bluchic’s editorial spreadsheet, and then drop all of the content into a single document so we have all of the pieces of content in one place. Want our content creation doc template? Click here.
For some of our clients, though, this formula looks a smidge different. For example, one of our clients coaches fitness business professionals. Each week, we choose a topic that helps these fit biz owners with some pain point in their business, like how to increase their studio prices.
With that weekly focus, we can create multiple pieces of content, including:
- Content piece #1: A podcast
- Content piece #2: A blog
- Content piece #3: A Reel or IGTV video
- Content piece #4: A social post promoting the episode
- Content piece #5: A social post sharing one of the tidbits
- Content piece #6: A newsletter sharing tidbits and the episode
(That was SIX pieces of content in case you missed that!)
We task out your content and get to work
Once we solidify plans in the spreadsheet, we task out all the pieces of content in Asana. Then, our team gets to work to bring it all to life! Here’s what an editorial calendar looks like inside Asana:
The end result? Some kickass pieces of content that help you crush your goals. (And yes, that’s a humble brag.)
