The Secret 5-Step Process of Professional Content Creation

If you want to have a content marketing strategy that makes a splash, you need to get organized.

Very few of the real pros sit down and come up with an idea, on the spot, for every post.

If you want to be big time, you’ll need to learn how to put together a content calendar.  Read on my friends for a simple 5 step process…

Step 1: How much content can/should I produce in [INSERT TIME PERIOD] ?

First things first, how often can you make content and how often should you make content.  These are two separate questions but they are related.  Maybe you should blog once every other day, but you only have time for once per week.  Figure out what you want and what’s realistic.

Don’t worry about WHAT you’re going to write, record or produce just yet…just HOW MUCH?  Keep in mind that certain content takes more time to create such as video, or a podcast.  Set a goal for the entire year.  Toe the line between overly ambitious and underwhelming (should you accomplish your goal).

Step 2: Break it into smaller chunks.

Let’s say you chose 100 blog posts for an entire year.  Well, let’s do that math.  100 blog posts / 12 months = about 8 blog posts per month.  8 blog posts per month is about 2 per week.  Check the math 2 per week for 52 weeks is 104 blog posts.  Good.  Now we have a weekly goal: 2 blog posts per week.

Step 3: What are my topics categories?

Well…what are you going to talk about?  Start thinking first about what your audience finds interesting.  Need help?  Check your Analytics for the past 6 months to 1 year and look at the most popular content…that ought to help.

Keyword research isn’t such a bad idea either.   Identify a limited number of topics — 10 or less — and write them down.

For example: we talk about topics in Social Business: Listening, Content Marketing, Engagement & Community Management, Promotion & Advertising, Measurement & Analytics, Strategy, Policy, Storytelling, Industry Insights & Perspectives, and Social Good.

Step 4: Write out headlines, lots of ’em.

Now you can open a spreadsheet and begin doing the planning.

1. The first column is the month, January – December.
2. If you have 8 blog posts per month, the next Column is 1-8 for each month.
3. The next column should be Headline.  This is where you will write a snappy headline.
4. The “last” column is “notes” where you can put any additional thoughts and ideas about the post.

Get in there and get to it, this will also help.

Step 5: Delegate

So if you have a team of people, the next step is to delegate.  That means letting people choose topics they want to write about and assigning the rest.  This is how everyone chips in so no one gets overwhelmed.

Simple enough?

So, did I miss anything.  Do you need more resources?  Do you have a different method?  Where do babies come from?  Answers to all of these questions belong in the comments section…go nuts!