Want to know how to plan months of content for social media that won’t overwhelm you? If so, you’re in the right place.
Not that long ago, I used to create content on the fly.
I’d scroll through my photo albums in the desperation to find a suitable image. If and when I saw something, I would sit on the couch at 8pm frantically wracking my brain for something witty or interesting to say.
I didn’t really have a clear idea of who I was speaking to and who my ideal client was. So as you can imagine, by the time I posted my photo onto Instagram by 9pm, all I heard was crickets.
I was too late posting, the image didn’t look consistent with the rest of my grid, I had no idea who I was talking to, and there was no strategy behind my hashtags.
Who else can relate?
Taking A Break
When lockdown happened, I took a couple of weeks off. No phone calls, no emails and no social media. Not only did I need to come to terms with everything going on in the world, but I also needed time away from my business.
I wanted to reassess my workflows, my own branding and my marketing strategy. Lockdown was the best thing that could have happened in my life and business at that time. I was on a hamster wheel, keeping myself busy but not getting anywhere.
The frustrating thing was, I knew what to do, but I never felt I had the time to implement it into my business. I also didn’t appreciate the power of social media when used strategically. When I actually started doing the work, nothing could have prepared me for the growth I saw in my business.
So I wanted to share my journey, in this blog post I will be covering;
- the steps I took to create a marketing strategy
- how I plan and schedule my posts
- how I use my time effectively to batch my content
How to create a marketing strategy
While this may seem a daunting task, I promise it’s not. Once you understand how to plan months worth of content for social media, it’s an absolute game changer.
I would highly recommend downloading my free branding workbook to get clarity on who your target market is and how you want your brand to be perceived.
Once you understand your ideal client’s pain or pleasure points, it’s easier to plan your content around this by providing the solution they need.
I created a Google sheet with a breakdown of my yearly, quarterly, monthly and weekly goals and marketing strategy so I can focus on each day, knowing I’m always doing something to move the needle and to get me where I need to be.
Content planning can feel overwhelming, but when you break it all down into bite-size pieces, it makes it more manageable and removes all the stress that usually comes with creating content at the last minute.
Yearly Goals
What are your three top goals would like to have achieved in 12 months from now? Do you want to be earning a certain amount? Have a clear number of clients you’d like to have booked or products sold? The more specific you can be, the easier it will be to measure and plan for your goal.
Quarterly Goals
Splitting the year into 3 month periods gives you enough time to reach your goals without getting too overwhelmed. You want to map out your goals and the associated actions required in the next 90 days. If you know that you have something launching at the beginning of the next quarter, then you will want to include your action steps in the previous quarter.
Monthly & Weekly Goals
Your monthly content calendar allows you to plan your topics for the month.
I break this into 4 sections with each week splitting up each area I use to market my business; i.e. Instagram, Pinterest, blogging etc. For each week, I write in my area of focus to keep me on track to hit my monthly and quarterly goals.
Don’t let this task overwhelm you. Set aside a whole day to get clear on your goals and spend some time breaking them down. Once this is in place, it makes the rest of your life so much easier.
Instagram Content Planning
I use Planoly to schedule my Instagram posts and stories. From switching over from another platform, this has been a complete game changer!
I can auto-schedule my posts, and it even includes my hashtags in the first comments. Planoly is so user friendly and you can easily drag and drop images to plan out your grid.
I usually have 60-70 images organised in the app. That’s 10 weeks/3 months of posts planned, ahead of time!
By doing this, you remove the panic of not having anything to post, scrambling through your photo albums with nothing suitable and no strategy behind the post.
Having a library of images gives you lots of variety to plan your grid, so it looks evenly balanced.
You want to make sure your brand colours weave throughout your feed to provide a cohesive look. I also recommend using images with negative space (space around a subject) to break up busier images.
In doing so, your giving your viewer the brain space to take in each picture, without feeling overwhelmed.
Pinterest Content Planning
For scheduling Pinterest, I use Tailwind, and like Planoly, this has made a big impact on my growth how to plan months of content. I grew my monthly unique visitors from 7k to 450k within just a few months.
It actually didn’t take a whole lot of work, and I’ve seen a significant increase in the click-through rate to my website.
It’s essential to create your own pins as Pinterest now favours fresh/new content. I make pins using Canva and upload these to Tailwind and assign to the appropriate boards.
Blogging
I never used to like writing. It’s never come naturally to me, and being a perfectionist is not ideal! If I wasn’t happy with what I had written, the post simply wasn’t published.
At the beginning of 2020, I decided I needed to get out of my own way and just write, no matter how terrible I thought it was. Done is better than perfect. I’ll say that again, done is better than perfect!
I use Grammarly when I write my posts to ensure I haven’t made any silly errors. Sure there are probably the odd few, but I feel more confident in publishing what I write.
By writing a blog post, it creates my long-form content which can be broken down into emails, captions and stories.
Time Management
Marketing can feel like a full-time job but doesn’t have to be. I find batching content the most practical way to save time without losing my mind.
Once a week, usually a Sunday afternoon, I organise my posts, design my pins and schedule them both in Planoly and Tailwind.
I spend the first hour every morning to write a post for my blog. By breaking it up into smaller chunks, it means I have 5 hours of writing time. As writing isn’t my strongest area, I find that this doesn’t overwhelm me and I have time to go back and edit.
Shooting Content
Creating content can be the most time consuming aspect of it all. I highly recommend booking out a day or two every month to focus on shooting or curating content.
You can either go out by yourself, take a friend or book a professional photographer. I highly recommend shooting every month or two so you have enough content.
Doing this will mean you have a library of images to go to when planning and scheduling your content saving you a whole load of stress.
If you plan ahead, it gives you time to think about what kind of images you will need in the upcoming months so all your content will attract your ideal client.
Booking A Content Shoot
Now you know how to plan months worth of content for social media, it’s time to schedule some time to create a marketing strategy and set aside some time to create your content.
To book your content shoot, check out my personal branding and and product photography packages or send me an email by clicking on the button below.
Thank you Kate, this is such a helpful post xx