Content Productivity:
How to Create Great Content Consistently

Your guide to staying on top of your content creation every day

#Content #Productivity

By: Rebecca Steurer

Blogs, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, SnapChat. Reddit. You have an abundant amount of platforms available to reach and connect with your audience. You’re excited! You have big plans to share your knowledge and insights with a 2000 word blog, an Instagram story, Facebook posts! And then reality hits. A little voice in the back of your mind asks, ‘How am I going to create all of this great content and still have time to do everything else that needs to get done?”

I’m here to tell you, YOU CAN DO IT! As long as you have a clear strategy, an easy-to-follow implementation plan and the discipline to reflect and assess your content, you will achieve success.

Ready? Let’s get started!

Step One: Define Your Content Strategy

A content strategy is your guide to what you want to say, how you want to say it, who you want to say it to and when you want to say it. You’ll find that once you create a content strategy, you’ll have a clear vision into the type of information that is needed to support your audience needs and business goals. Once you establish your content strategy, you’ll find that your mind is free and clear to focus on developing great content with intent.

While I am a proponent of documenting your overall content strategy for your entire content ecosystem, you don’t need a 100-page document that outlines every little detail about your message, voice, tone, presentation style and so on. Instead, start simply by asking yourself key questions:

Understand Your Business

  1. What do I ioffer?
  2. What problems does what I offer solve?
  3. What do I want people to know about what I offer?

Understand Your Audience

  1. Who needs what I offer?
  2. How do they talk about their needs?
  3. When do they need what I offer?
  4. How do they think about what I offer?
  5. Which social media channels do they tend to use?

Once you’ve answered the questions about your business goals and audience needs, go back and read through your answers carefully. Use your answers to identify the following:

Define Your Key Message, Voice & Tone

  1. What are the main points I need to share?
  2. How do I want to talk about my main points?
    Note: your brand voice is your personality. I recommend you complete a thorough exercise to define your brand voice at some point.
  3. What’s the mood of my audience?
    Note: you base your tone on the mood of your audience.

Define Your Message Types

You may have several messages, such as announcements, promotions, thought leadership, etc. List all types of messages and see if they can be grouped into concise categories.

Define When You Will Post

For each message type, determine how often you’ll post and when.

Download my simple content strategy template

Step Two: Create an Editorial Calendar

Okay! Your content strategy is defined! Now you can create your editorial calendar that list all the messages you want to post, where and when. You can create a weekly, monthly, quarterly or yearly calendar. Do what feels right, but maybe start with a weekly calendar so you can get the feel for what works and what doesn’t work.

Download my sample editorial calendar
Note: Not one calendar will fit all needs. Adjust accordingly.

Step Three: Schedule Your Writing Workflow

Now that you know what you want to say and when you need to say it, you can start writing your blog, social media message, etc. Schedule your writing workflow.

Workflow Scenario

Let’s say it’s Monday. It’s a great day to reflect on the past week and develop your editorial calendar for the next week. You decide to write one blog post and 20 social media messages. You now need to block out time this week to make time to write and gather your supporting media. Here is a sample schedule:

Monday: 8 to 10 am
Assess the success of the following week’s posts and develop an editorial calendar for the following week
Tuesday: 8 to 10 am
Blog Development: Define what I want to say
Wednesday: 8 to 10 am
Blog Development: Write the first draft
Wednesday: 4 to 5:30 pm
Social Media Development: Write half of the social media messages and find imagery
Thursday: 8 to 10 am
Blog Development: Edit and revise the first draft
Thursday: 4 to 5:30 pm
Social Media Development: Write the second half of the social media messages and find imagery
Friday: 9 to 11 am
Final edits
Friday: 3 to 5 pm
Schedule posts in your social media management tool

You’ve spent 15 hours this week developing your content.

Step Four: Reflect & Assess

In my upcoming podcast interview with The Keto Blog founder, Jeanine Escobar, she said that one of her keys to developing the right content is to reflect and assess the messages she posted each week. Again, this does not have to be a deep-dive report. Make it simple and quick:

  • Look at your Instagram page to see how the images flow together
  • If you have you Instagram for Business, look at the analytics they provide; you can also look at your social media management tool
  • Do the same thing with Facebook and Twitter
  • Write a summary of your assessment and keep to review each month
  • Adjust your message strategy based on your assessment

Final Thoughts

Developing content makes a huge impact on reaching and connecting with your audience. While it does take time, it’s definitely worth the effort. The more you practice, the faster you’ll work and the more efficient you’ll become. If you have content productivity tips or tricks you’d like to share, leave a comment on this post or email me at [email protected].

Take Advantage of Content Strategy Coaching to Elevate Your Brand

If you need help getting your content strategy and content development plan going, I’m here to help with content strategy coaching services. Visit succeedwithcontentstrategy.com to learn more or email me directly at [email protected].

Become a Content Strategist

Need more convincing to start a career in content strategy? Check out my Become a Content Strategist webinar where I share information and insights into what it’s like to be a content strategists. Or, feel free to email me directly at [email protected].

SAVE MY SEAT

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