How to write a good content plan

Planning activities in any industry is a key factor in achieving the goal. After all, as you know, humanity tends to put off until tomorrow what can be done today. Website promotion is no exception. You start to put together keywords, but what to do next …

Promotion and promotion of the site begins with filling it with high-quality informational or visualized content, which is optimized for the selected keywords. To do this, it is important to develop a competent content plan (CP). In order not to grab your head in the future and perform all actions gradually and correctly, let's look at the example of a CP.

An illustrative example of a content plan for a web resource

To better understand what a CP looks like, it is recommended to compile it in the form of a table in Excel. Let's say you need to write an article on a category site. The most common content plan takes the following form:

Step by step we make a CP

Before you start creating a plate, it is important to study the main characteristics of the target audience: gender, age, income level, marital status. But this is only the beginning. In addition, it is important to understand what worries users, their hopes and dreams, interests, maximum opportunities. After compiling our plate, it is important to do a competent job of filling it out. In fact, this is a team work, and each item of the plan is designed for a specific team member. Let's consider in more detail. The phased preparation of the content plan is carried out according to the following scheme:

1. the main key for the page is selected - most often it acts as its name and is written in the first column;
2. the place of its placement is determined - the main page, a specific category or article;
3. additional keys are selected based on the subject. This is done to increase the relevance of the page.
4. the meaning of the text is explained - this column is filled directly for the copywriter himself, who will be writing the texts. Remember, if the responsible copywriter did not ask you a single question during the assignment, then you compiled the column correctly. Usually it is necessary to indicate what main questions you want to cover in the article. It can be a short description, video and photo materials;
5. the deadline for the assignment is indicated - if you do not complete this item, you will never move forward. You need a clear date for the completion of the task. And no excuses from our side or from the responsible manager are accepted;
6. a responsible officer is appointed. It is from him that the quality and term of writing the text will be asked;
7. incentives or penalties. It's a kind of motivation. This may be a monetary reward or a reduction in the amount of wages. If you write texts yourself, you will have to come up with the punishment yourself.

And one more piece of advice: before drawing up a content plan, it is important to understand how often you plan to post articles on a website or blog. It all depends on the topic and target audience. It can be like once a month for 5 articles, or once a week for 10 articles.

Common mistakes when creating a content plan

When planning any action, everyone wants to achieve the most positive result. But for this, it is important to be able to avoid several common and fatal mistakes. Among them:

1. unclear goals. You must clearly understand where you intend to end up. To do this, create the required number of columns and rows in your content plan table and specify clear content requirements;
2. mismatched keys. This often happens when the market is monitored incorrectly on a selected topic. So you will spend precious time, do not attract the proper number of visitors to the resource, do not recoup the costs and remain in the cold;
3. poor cost planning. If you want hired employees to perform the planned actions, it is important to think in advance about the amount of money that you will pay for the execution of the order;
4. poor quality of written articles. This most often happens due to the fact that the copywriter misunderstood the task, and you did not control the employee. As a result, you get texts with low uniqueness, high nausea and spamming. Pay special attention to the column where you write your requirements for TK.

Summing up

Creating a competent content plan depends on its organizer. If you follow all the above tips, everything will go according to plan, and soon you will see the first results of the fruitful work of your team. By the way, about the team: it is important to select responsible and competent specialists, each of whom is well versed in his industry. Organize your work on content so that the whole system works without you. But, do not forget about the periodic monitoring of employees. It all starts small, and more specifically, with planning. Clearly set goals will help you achieve quick results. Good luck in this interesting and at the same time difficult process.