I used to HATE planning
I’m a free spirit. I do things as I FEEL them. This caused me to work very sporadically and not be very consistent. Then I learned to time block and batch tasks. I created a master schedule to make sure that all of the things that I needed to do to run my business got done while completing client work as well. It was amazing! I got more done in one day than I did in several days in the past.
I’m not saying it was easy and suddenly I could plan like a master, but I’ve been getting better and better as I work on it. I’ve definitely been encouraged by listening to the Promote Yourself to CEO Podcast. She has mentioned a quote by Brian Tracy a few times (I think. I might be confused with another podcast, I listen to a lot of podcasts.) “Every minute you spend in planning saves 10 minutes in execution; this gives you a 1,000 percent return on investment.” This really struck a chord with me. I realized how much time I was literally THROWING away by not planning.
I Thought if Batching Tasks is Awesome, Batching Blog Posts Has to Be EVEN BETTER!
So I did some research and found an awesome post on blog content batching by The Write Life on their blog post batching process. It inspired me to rethink my blog post batching process. Up until now, I’ve written a complete blog post all at once. I thought why not give it a try? It can’t take any longer…
Wow! It was amazing! Rather than struggle to come up with a new blog post each week, I was able to sit down and write blog posts without that stress, because I already had a plan. Not only that, but I had multiple posts in the cue. I had time to focus on creating social media posts ahead of time to promote my blog posts instead of rushing to turn out social media posts after I was already EXHAUSTED from writing the blog post.
Thanks to my content plan and batching my blog posts are no longer a major stressor for me. It feels amazing to have blog posts written and scheduled ahead of time instead of rushing to get them done days after I had intended to write them or worse yet, not publishing anything on my blog for weeks because I was too busy doing projects for my clients. I decided to share my process with you so you can save time and publish regular content too!
To REALLY Uplevel Your Content Batching You Need to Start With a Good Content Plan
You need to have a good idea of who you are talking to, what they are interested in and where you are headed. To create a good content plan, take time to consider the following….
- Goals of your blog and business plan for the upcoming months. What services and programs are you promoting in the next few months? Are you starting a new program?
- What holidays or seasons are coming up. Do you want to write special articles?
- What is the focus of your blog? Pick 4-5 topics to write about so your blog doesn’t get too unfocused.
- What keywords and phrases is your ideal client looking for?
Here’s My Content Planning Strategy That Gets My Content Done in Just a Few Hours a Week
I’ve broken the tasks down into monthly and weekly tasks. Eventually, I’d like to take a day or two a month and create all of my blog posts, but that’s a goal for later.
Once a Month I Brainstorm Ideas For Blog Posts
This ensures that I never run out of content to write about. I set a timer and coming up with as many ideas as I can. (The timer keeps me from spending too much time on it.) If you get stuck, try any of the following strategies.
- Looking at my services and freebies. What content supports those?
- Looking at content my competition has done that is popular with their readers and writing my own content on the subject. I use Ubersuggest.org for this. It’s an amazing tool for both keyword research and content ideas.
- What are my most popular posts?
- What do people in my target market want to know or what do they struggle with?
- I look at books on the subject that I write on and check out their table of contents. (Don’t read the content, just come up with your own post on the topic.
- Open up www.google.com and type in my keyword to see what is autofilled.
- Use a blog post generator like: InboundNow, BlogAbout by Impact and Portent’s Idea Generator.
I like to continuously brainstorm ideas for posts, so that there are always ideas that I can pick from. I don’t spend a ton of time doing it.
Once I finish brainstorming ideas. I schedule upcoming posts in my content calendar. I’ve got all of my blog posts planned and organized in Asana. If you want to learn more about creating a content calendar in Asana, check out this amazing post! Also, I have created a content planner in Google Sheets. You can get a copy here.
My second monthly batch activity is to research the blog posts for the month.
I look for resources to link to as well as information and statistics to reference in my post. This could include other blog posts, podcasts, or YouTube videos. I do keyword research on Ubersuggest.org at this time as well. I also look for the content of my own to share in the post. Then, I think about what I want the reader to do next for my call to action at the end of the post. Once I’ve got those things in place, I take a few minutes to outline the post and make notes of any screenshots or graphics that I might have to create. After that, I move on to the next post that I’m batching.
A few notes on keyword research
A good content plan starts with keyword research. If you aren’t writing content that people are looking for, no one will find your posts and that is awful! My favorite tool is Ubersuggest.
- Choose keyword phrases and supporting keywords that have a good amount of search traffic.
- Be sure to choose words that aren’t super competitive if possible, because it’s easier to rank (and get search traffic) with less competitive keywords.
Next Up, Sit Down and Write the Posts
Next I sit down to rough out the posts. I like to use voice to dictation on my Mac. If I’ve done my research ahead of time it is usually pretty easy to write it out in an hour or less. Once I’ve roughed out the post, I put the posts away for a day. This way I’m fresh when I edit the post.
Edit the Posts on the Next Batch
Once I’ve had at least a few hours (preferably a day) away from my posts, I come back and edit them. While I do use Grammarly to catch things, I make sure to read carefully. I also check links to make sure that they work (and go to the correct location.)
Finally I’m Ready to Add All of the Bells and Whistles
This is my favorite part of the process. I add
- all of the headings
- images
- set my categories and the description for the post
- I set the featured image for each post then I set the keyword phrase for the Yoast SEO Plugin.
- Make sure that everything looks good as far as SEO goes. (Since I wrote the post with the keyword phrase in mind, it is usually just a matter of making sure that I didn’t miss anything.)
- Then, I go through one last time and make sure that everything looks good before I schedule the post.
A Note About Images
When you are choosing images for your post, choose at least one vertical image and one horizontal image. This way, you will have something to use for a Pinterest Pin and a Facebook or Instagram post. I love to repurpose these things. Why look for extra images if you don’t have to?
One Last Batch Process – Promotion!
Getting the word out is a very important part of blog writing. If you don’t promote your post, you won’t reach the most readers. While I’m in the mode of writing, I come up with ideas for social media posts. I usually repurpose content directly from my blog post for the week. This way, I’m not having to come up with a lot of other content. I create this content and schedule it to go out on social media after my blog post is live. (Quick tip! – Be sure to check that your post actually got published.)
Part of my Content Plan Includes Content Repurposing
Some ways that I repurpose content are…
- pull out a quote from the post.
- create a video from topics covered in the blog post.
- create an infographic or education graphic to share.
- sending the post to the email list.
- create slides to use as an Instagram or Facebook story.
- share an image from the post, a blurb about the post, and a link.
If you are looking for more ways to batch your social media content creation, check out this post on Social Media Content Batching by Neil Patel
Would You Like to Steal My Content Plan/Batching Process?
There you have it, that’s my content plan strategy to get content written and published in just a few hours each month/week. I hope you find it helpful. If you want to take a look at the content plan that I created for myself, you can get a copy to use with your blog here. It includes prompts for blog posts and ideas to repurpose blog post content into social media posts as well as a sample weekly repurposing schedule.
What do you think of my content batching process? Is there anything that I could streamline or that I left out?
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