Become a content-creation powerhouse
Would you believe me if I told you that you can build enough content ideas for 12 months in just 30-60 minutes! It seems too good to be true, right?
It’s not.
I’ve been using this method for years, and have recently “formalized” it (i.e. I got my shit together, finally) and it is a game changer.
Imagine having a database of content to draw upon whenever you’re feeling inspired?
Or having tonnes of ideas lined up for your monthly content creation batch days?
Or even having an entire year’s worth of content planned out in *minutes*.
Are you in?
All you need to know before you start is your niche.
If you’re unclear on your niche, take some time now to really think about what you want to be known for in your field. What do you want people to call on you as the expert? Where do your strengths lie? What do people constantly ask you about? What excites you? Have a little brainstorm and make sure you’re super clear on your niche before you proceed.
If you’re a multi-passionate like me, don’t worry - try to zone in on one of your passions, and know that you can always pivot, diversify or adapt your niche later on. The most important thing to do is to make a *tiny* decision now and take action.
ACTION ITEM
I created a 20+ page workbook that you can either print or fill in digitally as you go through this post, along with a template for content planning in Notion and/or Google Sheets (pick your poison). You can access all of the resources (FOR FREE) here. They’re not essential - you can use your own system, but they will save you time, and we’re all about that here.
Let’s get started!
Step 1: Brainstorm your content pillars
What are content pillars and why do you need them?
Content pillars are simply the categories of content that you produce. They should be focussed on your specific niche, audience and products.
It’s great to set up a business system that utilises content pillars because when you follow them, your content will always be on brand, relevant and useful for your people. They give you a structure to create content around and take out the guesswork when you’re building a content plan, or even if you create content on the fly!
Your content pillars will fall underneath the larger umbrella that is your niche. If your niche is “Product Photography”, your pillars might be “Photographic Lighting”, “Technical Tutorials”, and “Photo Editing”.
If your niche is “Online Business for Course Creators”, your pillars might be “Content Marketing”, “Money Mindset”, “Course Creation”, and “Social Media Marketing”.
ACTION ITEM
I want you to go crazy with content pillar ideas! Write down as many content pillars that you can imagine! These are content pillars that you *might* use in your content creation, don’t edit yourself right now.
Step 2: Identify 3-5 content pillars
Ideally, you should focus on 3-5 content pillars. Having more than this can be overwhelming for you, and confusing for your audience. Don’t worry if it feels “too narrow” right now, you’d be surprised at the wealth of content that can fall under your 3-5 pillars. Make sure that the 3-5 pillars you select are topics that you love talking about, and are valuable to your ideal clients. Content creation should be fun, so make sure you choose pillars that you’re passionate about.
ACTION ITEM
Look at your brainstorm list and select your top 3-5 content pillars that you’ll focus on.
Step 3: Brainstorm content for each pillar
Now that you’ve chosen 3-5 content pillars that excite you and are in your zone of magic (your expertise!), it’s time to get brainstorming!
For each content pillar, it’s time to brainstorm 10+ ideas of content you could create. At this stage, just create a title or a one sentence description of your content idea, you can expand on it later. If you’re feeling inspired and have lots of ideas flowing, don’t stop at 10! Write out as many as you want, you can modify the list and clean it up later on.
To help you generate ideas here, think about the questions that people often ask you, either on social media, in your comments, or by email - these are a great starting point for generating content ideas! Answer the questions your audience are asking and you’ll be respected and viewed as an expert in no time. You can also think about your learning process for your niche. What did you struggle with in the beginning? What kind of challenges did you need to overcome? The chances are (my magic 8-ball says “it is certain”) that people in your audience have the same exact challenges - write about how they can be overcome!
If you’re allergic to math, by the end of this process you should have 30-50+ content ideas cooking!
ACTION ITEM
Get into a writing flow and just let all of your ideas pour out, don’t edit yourself right now! Write out as many ideas as you can think of, aim for a minimum of 10 topics you could create content around for each content pillar.
Step 4: Identify the purpose of each piece of content
You should have tonnes of ideas right now, so start out by mapping 2-3 pieces of content for each pillar. Alternately, you could choose to focus on one pillar per quarter, or alternate pillars each month. As usual, I want you to choose the plan that works for you! I get bored easily, so I use a mix-up of all of my content pillars, not sticking too closely to one theme or plan unless it’s for a launch and I want things to be super-focussed on a single topic.
To identify the purpose of each piece of content, think about the way you were taught to gather information way back in elementary school. That’s right! Good old Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How! This is a great way to create content with integrity and purpose, and is used by journalists and professionals all the time.
WHO is this piece of content for?
Beginner business owners, or entrepreneurs looking to hit 7 figures? Both might fall under your “Course Creators” niche, but the content will be super different for each “Who”.
WHAT is this content for?
You can simply include the Call to Action for your content here. What action would you like people to take when they interact with your content? What outcome will they have?
WHEN is this content relevant? [optional]
This step is optional, but have a think about it. Ideally you should be creating content that is evergreen, but sometimes seasonal content is appropriate. For example, if you have a cooking blog, perhaps you have seasonal content, so note down the “When” your idea is due to be published.
WHERE will this content live?
I recommend having one primary home for your content, especially if you’re just starting out. Make sure to label where this content will live, for example “Blog Post”, “Podcast”, “YouTube”, etc. You should always repurpose your content as much as possible, so if your primary “where” is a blog post, make sure that you take that blog post and turn it into social media content, a livestream, or something else! You should be able to create 10-20 pieces of smaller content from each “main content” piece.
WHY should your audience consume this content?
Why is this content important and how will it help them? I like to think about my website tags (which fall a layer under my “categories, or pillars”) as my why. You could also think about this like hashtags on Instagram - why does someone need this? Is it a #productivityhack, #biztips, #moneymindest?
HOW can your audience use this content?
How can they connect with you on a deeper level? How can they find out more? This part of your content is a great place to think about linking your services, your other relevant content, and your social media channels.
ACTION ITEM
Note down your WWWWWH for 2-3 content ideas for each pillar. It’s ok to repeat these answers where it’s appropriate!
Step 5: Map out your content library
For this stage, I’d recommend creating a system for tracking your content. I have gone ahead and created a Google Content Creation Spreadsheet template along with a Notion Content Creation template that you can use to map out your content clearly. You can grab those along with the Ultimate Content Creation Workbook for Creative Entrepreneurs here.
This is where you can map out your calendar and plan content for the year! I personally prefer to have the freedom to pick and choose ideas on a shorter time frame, so I treat this content as a database of ideas. But some people might like the feeling of having everything mapped out for the year, so you do you! If you don’t want to commit to an order of posts or certain dates, just leave the publishing and/or due date blank so you can draw upon these content ideas when you’re batching your content monthly, or quarterly. If you don’t already batch your content, check out my in-depth post here.
Here are some things you can include in your content library to make the creation process smooth as butter:
Title
This might be your final title or just a simple description of the content
Status
I have a little dropdown color-coded selection in Notion to show if a post is Published, Ready (to publish), Review (final edit needed), Draft, Outline, Idea - these may change depending on your content - if it’s video or audio (like for a podcast), then you’d want to change these to include things like “recorded”, “scheduled”, or similar.
Author
Use this if you have multiple people creating content on your platform
Due Date
When the draft is due, or you want the content finished (different from the publishing date, right? Riiiiight?)
Published Date
The date your content is “live”
Content Pillar
Another lil dropdown menu to show the category this content fits under
Opt-in freebie
Include any resources or downloads that will give your audience something extra related to your content (and add it as a download to your content)
Call to Action
What do you want your audience to do after consuming this content? Subscribe to your email list? Get further information on how to work with you? Download something?
Resources list
Include a list of resources related to your post, or further reading at the end of your content
Related product or service
Note whether this content is related to a product or service that you offer - have you mentioned it in the post? Or linked your sales funnel to the post in some way?
Channels
Select where this post has been published - I do this after the fact so I can see at a glance where this content lives.
SEO friendly title
This is an SEO friendly (hint: using your keyword!) title that appears in search results - you can change this in Squarespace under the “SEO” tab on your blog post.
Meta Description
A short SEO friendly description of your post (including a long tail keyword) that will appear under the title in search results
Images
Notes on images to be created, or a link to your images to be used in this piece of content
Keywords
Use a tool like Ubersuggest to gather relevant keywords and long tail keywords to include in your post (so people can find your juicy content!)
Headline Ideas
Note down your headline ideas here - they’re really important so spend some time on this, I usually brainstorm 15-30 before choosing one.
Content Notes
You can outline your ideas or make notes here
Hashtags
Jot down any hashtags you come across in your research, or if you know any that will be suitable for this content when you share it to social media. I do like to keep a whole separate document of hashtags, but that’s another post!
URL link
Once the content is published, copy the URL here for your reference
Word count
I like to include my word count goal, and update it when the post is done for reference
Social sharing checkboxes
As you’ll see in the template I’ve created, there are checkboxes for sharing this content on Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. It’s way more efficient to re-purpose long-form content for social, and your brain only has to come up with one idea that can be divested into 10-20 (or more) pieces of content
Virality/traffic notes
Once the post is published, check in periodically and keep notes if it is popular - your popular posts are prime candidates for updates or upgrades later on, as well as keeping them fresh with your latest offers and freebies (as relevant).
ACTION ITEM
Transfer all of your content pillars, ideas and planning notes into your project management system. If you don’t want to put a due date or strict schedule, leave that part blank for now, but still put your ideas in the database. Whenever you’re ready to create content, you’ll have a library of ideas (a whole year’s worth!) ready at your fingertips. Don’t forget to grab your Google Sheets or Notion templates to make this process super quick and easy!
You’re all set!
Whenever you get a new idea, you can pop the “title” into your planner and select the content pillar it falls under, then get back to what you were doing. Using this kind of system is awesome for honoring your time that you’ve dedicated to certain tasks, without ‘losing’ the ideas that come up as you go about your day.
Whenever you’re in content creation mode, you won’t have to stare and a blank screen, you’ll always have tonnes of ideas to use. It’s a win-win.
I’d love to see your content creation adventures, so comment below, or even better, share them with me on Instagram. And if you know someone who would benefit from this information, be an awesome friend and share the post with them!
xo
Shell
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