How to Create a Content Strategy that Works
Creating a content strategy is vital when owning your own online business. Today’s podcast builds off of our last episode, as we welcome Morgan Wieboldt again to speak about how to create a strong content strategy. If you didn’t have a chance to tune in to our last episode with Morgan, the link will be posted below!
As an online influencer, it can often be difficult to know how to plan your time accordingly in order to work smarter, not harder in your business. Creating a content strategy is the perfect way to help solve this problem.
This podcast dives into the tips and tricks behind a content plan and how to go about it strategically in order to benefit from creating a content strategy.
EPISODE 010: How to Create a Content Strategy that Works
ABOUT MORGAN WEIBOLDT
Morgan is the owner of Systems to Skyrocket, where she helps bloggers and small businesses create content more effectively using keyword research and content planning. After learning the process of creating a successful editorial calendar on the 3 sites she operates, Morgan has taught her clients how to do the same. She lives in NJ with her husband, 3 kids, and a goofy yellow lab.
WHAT IS A CONTENT PLAN?
As Morgan states, a content plan is “the key to being able to have a blog without losing your mind.” It essentially is a spreadsheet or calendar that maps out what content you want to put out in the future months. Creating a content strategy helps bloggers be smarter about what they post so that their time is maximized to its fullest potential. Having a content plan keeps you organized and on top of all your work.
A content plan is essential to bloggers who post seasonal or holiday content. When creating a post for say, Christmas, the content needs to be planned and posted months before. Posting and having a content plan for seasonal posts gives more time to edit/ gain views. A content strategy is key to make sure content is relevant when it is supposed to be.
In the midst of the pandemic, people now more than ever have time to prepare and search for content months before it is really needed, so it is vital to have your posts and ideas ready.
HOW TO CREATE A CONTENT STRATEGY PROCESS THAT YOUR BUSINESS WILL BENEFIT FROM
Having a content strategy plan gives you wiggle room to build content. Look at the search console to determine where similar posts were ranking last year around the same time. If their ranking was down, fix the post in order to have it rank higher this year. Updating old content maximizes the Google search engine and will improve your SEO. Your content strategy should include updating old posts, as it is an easy, quick win, and a better return on investment. A new piece of content does not help if all your old content is not ranking, you need a good foundation for new content, so fix your old ones first.
If you are adding new content into your content strategy, look at what content has been doing well, and build off of that. Morgan gives a great example of a Thanksgiving gravy post that did well last year. She suggests posting a mashed potato post, etc. this year and interlinking them to gain more traffic off of the content that did well in the past.
Another tip is turning restrictive seasonal content into a year-round post on your content plan. For example, turn that Thanksgiving gravy post into a turkey gravy post, and now you get two posts out of one idea to save time.
In your content plan, be realistic about the number of tasks you can handle. A good content strategy will provide tasks with wiggle room in the event that life gets in the way of your workflow.
Using a spreadsheet rather than a content calendar is important as a content calendar can be overwhelming for many.
HOW TO CREATE A CONTENT STRATEGY WHERE YOU ARE DOING THE RESEARCH FIRST
It is vital to create a content strategy that has posts people are searching for and are interested in, which is why researching beforehand is smart. A good content plan has posts with high search rankings and volume.
Remember to take yourself out of the picture when researching ideas for your content strategy. “Don’t call a baby ugly.” It is so much easier for bloggers to have others comment on their content, rather than taking themselves out of it and looking at the content objectively. Put the keywords that the audience is searching for in your posts to gain more traffic and rank higher. For example, if you have a vegan enchilada post in your content plan, research the keywords that went along with that post. If people are looking for sweet potato and black beans in that recipe, place that in your post as well because the audience is engaging with that content.
In order to have an organized content strategy, create a list of ideas that you researched and have good rankings for future posts. If your pancake recipe did well, keep a list of other pancake recipes that also did well on Google and utilize that idea later.
Some great platforms to use for an organized content calendar are Evernote and Airtable. Both are online content calendars that keep your plans sorted and arranged in any way that works for you.
Morgan also is offering a free crash course on Google search console to better your knowledge on how to use it, which will ultimately improve your content strategy. Get the free link below!
WHAT’S NEXT?
Make sure you grab your FREE course >> Google Console Crash Course
You can connect with Morgan on her website.
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