You and I both know that content is a massive part of running an online business.
Honestly, if someone told me just how much stuff I would have to right BEFORE I started my online business, it probably would have put me off even starting.
I never classed myself as a good writer, and as I have dyslexia [yes, you read that right … I’m a successful content creator with dyslexia] I never thought I’d be good enough to create content that really connected and actually helped me make money.
But here I am now … writing content not just for myself but for clients and customers too.
But … I know just how hard, overwhelming and bloody stressful creating awesome content can be.
And once you have created content … you have to know what to do with it, how to measure if it’s doing the job you intended to and then repeat that processes over and over and over.
One of the best things I ever started doing in my business was actually planning and mapping stuff out.
At one point I was just rocking up to my laptop each day and just posting anything that came to mind … this was great for releasing my pent up creative energy but it was a crappy business strategy.
I’d end up writing content that had nothing to do with my current promotion … I had no idea from one day to the next what I was going to launch or what I needed to do for said launches … it was just a hot mess.
Once I took the time to actually plan shizzle out … things just started to fall into place, I was no longer overwhelmed, stressed or pumping out irrelevant content.
My launches got more successful, my bank account start to bulge at the seams … and I was no longer stressed and running around in circles.
I knew exactly what was being created, why t was being created, how I was going to use it, what was working and what was not working!
So … today’s blog we’re going to be diving into 5 awesome content creation tips to help ease that overwhelm and help you finally get to grips with your content creation … so that your content actually benefits your business in awesome ways.
So let’s dive in …
1 – KNOW WHERE YOU ARE NOW
In order for you to plan your year ahead in your business, you have to know where you are RIGHT NOW!
Planning for future growth is all about data and stats, girl1
I know, that’s not so sexy and hot … but the end results of having money flowing into your account and a huge tribe of raving fan is pretty hot 😉
You have to check your stats and figures and keep checking them.
This is the very first step in getting your content creation and business planning in order.
Each person and business is different and what stats you chose or need to monitor will be up to you but here are a few of the common ones that we monitor here at DFYD:
- Website traffic
- Email list/subscribers
- Total number of customers/clients
- Income and expenditure
- Social media following
- Social media engagement
- Results from content [engagment, sales, leads etc]
- Paid advertising stats
What you need to do right now is take a look at those stats, make a note of them and start tracking for the rest of the year.
2 – SET NEW GOALS
Now that you know where you are starting from and you have those key numbers in front of you – you’ll be able to get a clearer picture of where/what needs to be improved and where/what needs the most attention.
Set yourself new clear goals for each area. Don’t be shy and modist with your goals … go big girl … really push yourself and give yourself something awesome to aim for.
I always find big scary goals are way more fun and exciting to work towards.
Once you have set your new goals you can now start to track them easily alongside your starting stats – monitoring your stats is vital to planning out your year and knowing what is working and what is not working.
You will now be able to clearly see if something is not working well just by looking at your numbers – then you can quickly put steps into action to change that and keep your business moving closer to your goals.
For instance … if you are focusing on growing your YouTube channel but notice you are not getting many views on your videos … you can look into way and start making changes to help you increase your views.
If you were not monitoring your numbers, you’d never know your videos were not reaching people and sooner or later, you’d give up.
3 – CREATE A CONTENT INVENTORY LIST
Ok, this is going to sound like a really big job … and I’m not going to lie to you … it is lol
But it is totally worth it and once it is done you’ll be glad you did it.
You need to create an inventory for ALL your content.
You have a load of content already published and properly a lot still sitting on your hard drive collecting cyber dust.
Time to make a list of all that content and put it all into categories based on the topic and also note down what format it is in – such as written, audio, live stream.
Also do the same for your products and services.
Once you have this inventory system set up – all new content can be easily added to it on the go.
but what this will do is give you easy access to everything – ready for you to use as and when you need to.
For example, if you are planing out a launch of a new course on “how to write sales copy” … you can look at your content inventory, see what content you already have created on that topic and REUSE and REPURPOSE the content. You can quickly fill up your launch calendar plan with content and you will know exactly what you are posting, when you are posting it and where you are posting it.
Ahhhh … stress-free launching! Pure Bliss.
Repete this same process with all your paid and free products and services – so you know exactly what you have.
4 -CREATE A SIMPLE YEARLY CALENDAR
This is the fun bit and where you really start to get a handle on your content creation and start to create a solid content and launch plan for the year.
Make yourself a simple calendar for the year and start choosing certain dates you will do promotions of your products and services.
Think about things like national holidays, seasons, special dates people know and love and also any that are connected to your niche … for instance, if you are a productivity coach for entrepreneurs, you could do an awesome promotion on June 20th … as that is, in fact, World Productivity day!
Make a note of all the dates you like and what “theme” they are associated to and then take a look at the product/services inventory you made before and see which of your current offers will best match that day.
Then … mark it on your calendar ready for you to launch!
Now you have a clear and very awesome launch plan for the whole year!!!
Once you have this clear launch plan in place – you can start planning out your content for each launch.
Again – look at your content inventory [do you now see why doing the inventory is a huge help?] find all the content you have that will support your launch and start filling up your calendar with that content.
If you have any gaps you want to fill up or you are low on some content somewhere – then use our done-for-you content bundles.
This is a great way to fill up your calendar with awesome new and fresh content … and it also means you don’t need to create new content from scratch. Just edit our bundles to suit your needs and your brand and you are good to go!
Now look what you have … you just created a whole year launch and content plan 😲
You know exactly what you will be launching throughout the year, you know exactly what content you’ll be using to help you promote and sell your offering and now you don’t have to stress or feel overwhelmed by it all.
5 – TRACK YOUR NUMBERS
Always, always. ALWAYS track your stats.
Remember the stats you made at the start? Those are the same numbers you are going to track continually throughout the year to ensure you know exactly what is working and what is not.
You’ll be able to see what content gets the best results, what promotions bring in the most money and anything that might be a flop.
Different types of content will work well for some and not well for others – so it is really important that you know what works well and have the biggest results.
Maybe you are doing loads of live streams but not getting much traction from them compared to your written content … as you track your numbers you’ll know this and then be able to write more instead of wasting your time on videos.
Or maybe you launch an audio-based workshop but it doesn’t do as well as you hoped but your video-based workshop really crushed it … you now know that remaking your audio workshop into a video for next year would have a much more positive effect on your bank balance!
Your numbers are important and they will really help you plan out the best content and offers for your tribe.
You numbers will tell you everything you need to know … so watch them closely.
Do all these things this year, then when next year comes around you will KNOW exactly what your best products and services are, what kind of content your tribe can’t get enough of and be able to plan out a killer new year!
It just gets easier and easier!
I hope you have found this post helpful and if you want even more help with your yearly planning then why not download my FREE planner called PLAN-LAUNCH-CASH IN.
It has easy to follow step by step instructions to show you exactly what you need to do to plan a killer year, easy to use planners and calendars to help you map everything out with ease!
It really is an awesome freebie … Click on the image below to claim your copy now.
