How to Prepare Content for 2022

1. Brainstorm and get your ideas out

In marketing, the ideas phase of content creation is usually the most fun! Combining a mix of your own ideas, thoughts inspired by your community and the data that your analytics provides you will give you a solid starting point.

• Your own ideas: The most unique and personal ideas of course come from you! Whether you kept a list of ideas from the previous year, or you had some inspiration over the weekend, use the creativity to your advantage and conceptualise.
• Community thoughts: Have you seen something posted in your community that you liked the idea of? Perhaps you asked your followers what kind of content they like to see? Explore those ideas and see if there is scope!
• Analytics: Many think that data can be dull, but if you use it correctly it is a huge window into your audience and what they like / don’t like from you. There is a reason they say data is king! You can try looking at what posts your audience interacted with the most and see if you can recycle or reuse that content.

Once you have a few ideas to work with and have looked over your analytics, you can now start to solidify some ideas.

A great way to resonate and relate with your audience is simply to take a moment and try to get into their minds. What are they thinking about this time of year? Is there something to celebrate? Will they have a problem I can solve? Can I help them learn? All of these questions will help you to promote content that is effective to your end user.

2. Create content pillars

Now you have some ideas and audience insights, you can think about your content pillars! But what are they?

Content pillars are 3-5 topics you can turn to to make sure that your content is consistent and is appropriate for your brand style and tone of voice. They can help you to get clarity on your offering and deliver that message to your audience. 

For example, your content pillar topics could be things like day in the life, reviews or Q&A’s.

With content pillars, you can benefit from researching your competitors and trying to work out what pillars they use. This can help you identify pillars that are already doing well for them and see if you can incorporate those into your mix. 

When you have settled on your content pillars, write them at the top of the page and write your post ideas underneath each relevant heading. This will help you to identify which posts fit your vibe, and which ones might not work quite so well. 

3. Plan and create visuals

You’ve spent time planning your ideas and getting them organised, now it’s time to make the visuals to bring them to life!

Don’t underestimate the power of a good visual. Stock images are suitable if you don’t have your own content, but it is generally known that content that has people featured on it will generally perform better especially if it’s the team behind the business. Try organising a photoshoot, whether it’s with a professional or a simple one using your phone.

There are platforms available to create your own designed images such as Canva, but remember that you can always ask a designer to set up some templates for you to make sure your brand looks right.

Showing your face to your audience can help them build a connection with you that will subconsciously make them look out for your content and interact with it more. Nothing sells better than authenticity and personality.

If you’re more of a talker, you could try creating a video that is based on your content pillars. Perhaps you can answer questions from your followers, or show behind the scenes of your work space. The more you open up, the stronger the connection with your audience.

If you find creating visuals overwhelming, you can try batch preparation where you create the visuals and captions together for many posts all at once. This way you can plan in weeks worth of posts without having to take the time out to make more.

4. Create your content calendar!

You’ve done all the hard work collating ideas and creating visuals, so now is the time to get your content all pulled together into a calendar.

Looking at 12 months worth of space can be a bit scary, but taking it in baby steps can help. For example, look up the national holidays that you think your brand suits or important dates for your business and place content in for those. After that you can fill in any other posts around those that fit in with your content pillars.

Some social media platforms allow you to schedule your posts directly on their platforms, however we much prefer using a platform such as Later or Hootsuite as these have calendars that you can schedule your posts straight away.

Marketing is a game of consistency

The key to a good marketing and content plan is to stay consistent & to be authentic.

It is an integral part of any business to help you position yourself accordingly within your industry. If you are looking for more information about marketing and managing your social media presence, speak to one of our Creative Designers to see how we can help you build a credible brand for your business today, call us on 01562 747411 or email kidderminster@nettl.com