What only takes around 30 minutes to create but saves you hours every week? A content plan!
Time to sit down and draft the social media caption of the day. What would I write about…? Nothing comes to mind, and I haven’t published anything for a week!
Okay, let’s just get to work. First draft doesn’t sound like me. Second one is more like it. Add a Call-to-Action, polish the spelling and then, quickly, quickly, let’s get a visual created in Canva.
First stop: Facebook. Then, Instagram. What were my most successful hashtags again?
I’ll also add this to LinkedIn but I need to tweak the language a little first. And change the graph’s dimensions. Oh, and I forgot that Pinterest is part of my social media portfolio these days, too!
Does this sound like you?
If your social media and blog content creation sounds a little bit like this, you’ve probably noticed that writing those 100 words (or less) can take half a morning, and afterwards, you’re only 22 hours away from having to do it again.
Don’t feel bad or upset, if you recognize yourself! There’s nothing wrong with you and dozens of entrepreneurs struggle with this. The chances are you’re missing one essential piece of the puzzle: a simple but solid content plan.
What a content plan is and why you need one
What is a content plan exactly? It’s a document that contains your channels, topics, points of view, content formats and publication frequency.
It doesn’t need to be a big, fancy thing: it can be just a Google document or a spreadsheet where you scribble your ideas regularly.
Read more: How to get content created regularly? Polish your planning process!
And why do you need one again? Here comes the five best reasons to create a content plan today!
1 – Save hours every week
When you have a plan that lays out exactly what you are saying, to whom and where, planning and creating that content will be so much quicker.
It takes a little time to make those decisions in the beginning, but saving hours every week adds up and compensates for the planning time quickly.
2 – Ideation becomes easier
A clear plan also makes ideation much easier. When you sit down for your ideation session, you’ll already have a framework that helps you come up with ideas.
You don’t need to start from scratch every week (or however often you do your brainstorming) and it speeds things up and also makes the job easier if ideas don’t flow easily for you.
3 – Get rid of stress and overwhelm
This is probably one of my favourite perks: a solid plan helps you get your content prepared and created without getting stressed out and overwhelmed.
Creating content consistently can feel like much at times, especially when you have a lot of balls in the air anyway. Don’t stress yourself out because of something that can be changed easily.
4 – Business results improve
Less stress, quicker results – but also better results!
Having a plan allows you to address the pain points of your audience, offer fresh perspectives and differentiate yourself from your competition because your content won’t be something you scrape together at the last moment or very late on a Sunday night.
5 – The world changes
This is the last and the most magical reason of them all: when you get your message across consistently to your ideal audience and maybe even convert them into customers, you get to see, bit by bit, the world change and your vision come true.
And that’s the absolute biggest perk of setting aside 30 minutes (set a timer if you don’t believe me) and scribble down your content plan.
How to do it?
The best part of a content plan? When you set your mind to it, it’s really easy and quick to create. Set aside 30-60 minutes and write down your plan.
Remember: progress over perfection! You can always tweak your plan later but if you don’t have one, just create a first 30-minute draft today.
If you’re still struggling after your first try, schedule a complimentary strategy mapping call with me and we can tackle your plan together!
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