Do you have a process for organizing your ideas into published content?
I want to share a content creation method that has helped me defeat any overwhelming thoughts that may come with creating content quickly.
It’s a simple four-step method that helps you go from ideation to creation very quickly.
Here’s how you can use this method to help you consistently turn your brain dumps into content ideas.
Step 1 – Layout your content pillars
The first thing you want to do is write out all of your content pillars.
Content pillars are the 3-5 topics that you consistently talk about. Write them out on a piece of paper to jot down your ideas.
Your content pillars help ground your content as you talk about products, services and offers with your audience.
They also help you to create content that is relevant with your audience and your brand’s message.
Why is this step important?
Content pillars should help you avoid creating random content and when used consistently, they can help you build trust and nurture your audience.
Leveraging your content pillars helps you stay consistent with your messaging and ensures you stay strategically aligned with your marketing and business goals.
Related: How to Maximize Your Content Pillars for Content Creation
Step 2 – Posting Frequency
Creating content is a numbers game and it starts with knowing your posting frequency.
Ask yourself how often you’re going to publish content. Think about what you can create and sustain for weeks to come.
You want to aim for something that is consistent for you to maintain. Avoid creating 5 social media posts per week, then 3 the next week and then nothing the week after. Aim for something that you can sustain over a period of time.
Questions to ask yourself:
- How often will you publish a blog post? Once a week?
- How often will you publish content on social media? Four times per week?
- What is a strategic number of posts that helps you stay consistent and helps you capture, connect and convert your audience?
For this example, I’m going to post four times a week on social media so I’m going to number my content pillars so I can come up with four unique content ideas.
Related: Habits of Consistent Content Creators
You can do this exercise all content. For example, if you’re going to publish a weekly blog post or YouTube video, it means you’d need to come up with about 13 content ideas for four content pillars to generate 52 content ideas for the whole year.
This is a numbers game and it doesn’t have to be complicated.
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Step 3: Brain dump
This is the step in the process that should feel fun for you! Brain dump content that aligns with each content pillar.
If you need a starting point, here are a couple of things you can do:
- Review your analytics to get a pulse check on what’s doing well. Analytics can be a good indicator of content you can repurpose or expand on for posts.
- Ask your audience what content they’d like to see more of.
- Evaluate the questions and comments you receive in your posts to determine some of your highest-performing content.
- Research topic ideas through forums and online groups such as Reddit, Facebook groups, Amazon reviews or other research methods.
In this scenario, here’s some populated content for a yoga instructor who may be creating content for social and publishing posts four times per week. In this scenario, their content pillars are wellness, lifestyle, services and yoga information.
Related: Creative Ways to Improve Your Content Through Research
Once you’re done brainstorming content for each section, you’re ready for the next step!
Step 4 – Content Planning
After you have all of your content laid out, you want to map it out into a calendar so you know what you’re publishing and when.
You want to transfer items from your brainstorming list to a calendar.
You can mix things up throughout the month or talk about a content pillar topic for a week. Whatever is easiest for you or whatever preference you may have.
I like to stay consistent with a content pillar per week because it helps me eliminate context-switching while creating content. It also helps me stay consistent with my messaging a week at a time, which I find easier to manage and organize on a calendar.
The orange post-it notes are for each content pillar topic and the grey post-it notes represent a sales-related post.
It’s important to remind your audience of your offers at least once a week (or more!) so that your audience knows about your products or services.
How often do you need to share your offer with your audience? Remember that your audience needs to hear and learn about your products at least a handful of times before making a purchase.
There’s a “Marketing Rule of 7” which states that your audience needs to hear about your offer at least seven times before they take action to purchase your product.
Don’t shy away from promoting your offers. How else will your audience know what you offer?
How often should you post on social media?
This will be different for every person depending on the resources and time available to create content.
It may also depend on how many followers you have and the platform you’re publishing on.
For example, for YouTube, publishing once a week is a minimum. For social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, posting at least 3 times is a good starting point. For LinkedIn, generally posting 1-3 times a week is fine. For Twitter, posting 5 times a day is generally a minimum.
Sometimes this guidance can feel arbitrary or feel overwhelming for people or guide them toward burnout, so instead, focus on just being consistent.
Determine how consistent you can be on one platform and focus on mastering your content and engagement on that platform before jumping on too many platforms and spreading yourself thin.
Come up with a posting frequency that is doable for you and also make time to engage and be social with people online.
How often should you be planning content?
Aim to plan your content on a quarterly, monthly and weekly basis. Once you have your content planned out, aim to stay 1-2 weeks ahead of your publishing schedule so that you’re creating random or create scattered results.
As you get ready for the week ahead, try to put this content brainstorming process into practice so you can feel more strategic and focused with the content you create.
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What’s your current process for brainstorming content?
