A great motto we at K.I.S.S live by is “fail to plan, plan to fail”. People who fly by the seat of their pants when they blog are only setting themselves up for failure.
Creating your blog plan
Know your goal
Content writing has taken on a journalistic approach in the past few years but remember: it’s still marketing. You want the reader to take action. This action may be different from the bigger picture action, but should still align with your overall content plan. Match your blogging objectives to your marketing objectives.
Know your audience
Content marketing is all about value. Deliver value to your audience and they will engage with you. We aren’t talking “50% off tinned peaches” type-value here. We’re talking uncovering the questions, triggers, or pain points experienced by your audience typically searching for your products or services. Then, proactively answer them. Use your content to answer these questions and your audience will love you for it.
Categorise your blog topics
Choose 4-8 categories that address relevant topics of discussion in your business. If you’re stumped we usually start with the service offering of our clients and build out categories from there. For example The K.I.S.S Marketing Agency’s blog categories are:
On your marks, get set
There is no set rule for creating a blog schedule. The frequency of how often you blog depends on your capacity. We advise first time bloggers to start with a monthly blog and increase frequency once they’re up and running. It’s much easier to increase frequency than decrease. For consistency, make sure you publish your blog at the same day and time.
Create your calendar
An editorial calendar should include the date you want to publish it, the blog topic, the pain point the topic answers and the category that the blog falls under. Your editorial calendar should run in 3-6 month increments and include spaces for ad-hoc and seasonal topics.
Need a kick-ass blog strategy? Let’s talk.
See you next week,
Darnelle
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