As we’re rolling right along into the third half of the first month of 2023, it’s more important now than ever for businesses to have a solid content plan put in place.
So I’m here today to give you 6 of the BEST content planning strategies and ideas for your business in 2023 and beyond.
We want to ensure that you are consistently putting out valuable-to-your-best-people, relevant content and that you stay organized, on top of things, and can track performance throughout the rest of the year.
In this article, we’ll talk about 6 of the best content planning strategies, and ideas for your business in 2023 (and beyond) – including tips on which types of content to focus on and when.
This post comes on the heels of sharing the concepts listed here and then some with my clients inside my monthly group mentorship program at the beginning of January…
Then after compiling it last year, I realized how much most of the people in my free Facebook group for entrepreneurs and small business owners needed access to this information – not just my paid communities.
So let’s dive in, shall we?
First Thing First: Pull Out Your Calendar:
-Look at your year by quarters
-Add in time off FIRST
-And THEN decide how you want to proceed with content for 2023 (or at least Q1)
And for the love of God, don’t try to plan out the entire YEAR in one shot.
Give yourself 90 days of content AT MOST.
And if you use any of the ones that require some reverse engineering that we’ll be getting to further in – you can have your 90-day overview:
>>>While planning/scheduling a month at a time max with the one exception – quotes/testimonials – you will find that these can often get sorted for months at-a-time rather quickly once you have the resources gathered and housed easily accessible in something like Airtable or Notion.
For example – I currently have approximately two years of quotes banked that I’ve sourced – with another roughly six years worth waiting for me to go through, pick, choose and weed out. And yes, the graphics for those two years are already done and ready to go.
Next: Now that you have looked at your calendar and decided your time off, vacation, holidays, etc. –
Ask yourself the following questions about how you want to proceed with content planning and strategy for 2023:
Will your content be:
*Launch-focused
*Theme-focused
*Topic-focused
*Seasonal
*Objective-focused
*Season of growth in your business focused – Brand Awareness, Growth, Promotion of Products, Services, Courses, etc.
*SEO-focused
Take a moment now to assess where you are currently in your business and your content, and what you’ve done in the past 3-6 months (90-180 days) – that will help you decide what you need to work on moving forward.
And yes, some of these can be combined. It gets to be both when doing things like SEO + launch-focused, for example.
Now is the time to take a moment and assess where things are currently regarding planning your content for 2023.
Which topic, before moving ahead, do you feel pulled to put in a focused effort?
Now it’s time to dive into each one deeper!
Are you excited? I know I am!
Launch-Focused:
Pull out your calendar and get a good idea of what offers you want to launch and when. And then count backward 4-8 weeks, depending upon how long you tend to do a launch cycle.
For those who only have one program (2 max), course or event, you can take it back 12 weeks to six months for longer, more creative marketing campaigns and cycles.
***Exception: In-person events. These tend to need longer launch cycles – approx. 3-6 months to give people the time they need to make arrangements.
Look at your content pillars (these will be part of your brand), and the sub-pillars they contain, and then create the following posts:
What Posts – Explain concepts, industry jargon, uncommon terms, processes, systems, or programs.
This type of content is about educating people on the terms and concepts they need to know more about before buying from you.
How To – Either an actual micro-transformational how-to, how to know you’re ready, or how to know you need x, y, z works here.
These are super quick-to-implement micro-to-midsize wins your people can get before working with you in a longer paid capacity – thereby making their decision to work with you a no-brainer!
Why posts – Explaining why they have the current situation [problem] they will come to you to solve – not just the surface layer why that they think it is, but take it deeper, tap into the internal monologues, dialogues, and mind movies they have playing when this problem surfaces and resurfaces and resurfaces again.
Posts of this nature can also include the cost of not fixing the problem/moving forward on the desire – ex: it keeps repeating, the cycle continues, or even something as simple as still being in the same place they are now.
In My Experience/My Work Has Shown Me – These are the “when I observed…”, “the thing I’ve noticed/found is…”, and “lessons learned…” posts.
These are your op-ed pieces based on your life or business experience, what you’ve observed, the lessons you’ve extrapolated, and takeaways that will benefit your audience and position you as their go-to authority.
^^^Make sure that you create enough of these posts for your buyers to make an informed decision to work with you.
Then comes posts like sales posts with calls to action, invites to your event, and ways to work with you – by this point, they want to buy from you, they can’t wait to buy from you, and are feeling like “my GOD would you hurry up, take my money, and let me buy from you”.
Do this for each course launch, product launch, service launch, etc.
Each different thing you launch gets these types of posts. Keep that in mind if you plan to launch 50 different things this year. 😉
Theme-focused:
Have a word or words for the year/quarter you want to dive deeper into with your audience?
What different ways can you showcase them throughout your content?
Think visuals, stories, micro-movies, etc. The only limit to this is your imagination.
Perhaps you want to share your brand values and dive deeper into how they came about, what made you pick them, and why were they chosen.
Did you have some that were close yet not chosen? Share that too, and why you chose the ones you did over the ones that got left on the cutting room floor.
We’re riding that micro-movie metaphor, oh yes we are!
Are there ebbs and flows in your business or industry that can become themes that your content directly addresses by educating your buyers – AND positioning you as the authority that not only understands them but can also understand what they’re going through?
Speak to these in your content, call them out front and center, and boldly address them, allowing your audience can see you as the trailblazer you are.
Topic-Focused:
You may have heard these called content buckets in the past. However, it’s not 2016 anymore and –
Those buckets have always been made SO dang generic in everything I’ve seen throughout the years…
AKA – Booooooooooring! Ugh.
But not THIS day!
Not you!
Not here.
Especially not now.
Not EVER.
Can I get an Amen?
Okay, passion rant aside, what are the topics that matter to YOU, that will also matter to your people – even if not yet, perhaps over time – that tend to be recurring in your business and your life?
You can pick 3-5 to start.
But to not become too repetitive or a one-trick pony, start creating awareness around you, what you do, recurring themes you see with your audience, and what they ask questions about and post, and see where the overlap lies. Then expand this to 7-10.
So for one person, that may be:
*My favorite finds
*Monday mood
*Nature walks/photography and what you witnessed along the way…
– along with a brand pillar or two that you could speak to in various ways until the end of time.
For another, it could be:
*My favorite outcasts/underdogs
*How I give the current industry/establishment the middle finger and laugh in their faces
*How I get away with
*The secret to my social-deviant success
*Quotes from fellow rabble-rousers
– as well as how you do your top brand pillars differently than anyone else in your industry.
Make the topic-based content super specific to who YOU are, what YOU do, and the areas people may not see in their day-to-day. Doing this gives them an immediate behind-the-scenes with you – and is so uniquely crafted to your quirks, experiences, and joy de vivre that it will have them know in an instant when something was posted by YOU and desiring to read it!
That is how and when you know that your people are your people and are there because they want to be – ready for whatever you have to say next!
Seasonal:
Is your business seasonal? Do you have seasons that are busier than others?
Or perhaps you go by the seasons of your zodiac in your work?
Do you have certain seasons where you know you have higher energy levels and those where your energy is lower?
You can plan your content accordingly!
Just as a restaurant may create its menus based on seasonal ingredients, you can plan your content around your work seasons.
Have a busy, frantic, hectic season? Share that!
Share the pace, show the behind-the-scenes, share the stories – both the fun/funny/endearing and the lessons learned – let your people feel the energy of it so palpably that they feel like they are there with you!
Have down seasons you spend more cocooned, planning, dreaming, scheming, relaxing and thoughtful, and brooding? Share that too!
Show them your cozy blankets and candles, your fuzzy socks, a glimpse into your planner, the mindmaps, and where the plans are taking you – which is where you will then be taking your business and your audience!
Don’t hold back – let people in!
Whatever you do, please avoid falling into the trap of thinking you are the only one in these seasons – or that feels that way! Or that your business is not exciting enough.
Your people like insider looks. Give them some in a way that honors your boundaries – yet still gives them a glimpse.
Sharing your down times when you are relaxing, as well as your more energetic and productive times, in essence – gives your people the permission that, frankly, some of them NEED – to be able to do the same in THEIR lives. 🙌
Main-Objective-Focused:
Do you have certain goals that you want to focus on for 2023? Maybe it’s list building so that your email community is there no matter what happens on any social platform…
Maybe you’re working on mastering a new modality?
Or perhaps you’re branching out onto a platform that is new to you or hasn’t received as much attention as you’d like and you’re working on growing that now.
Will you do it in an “I’m focused on this for the next 30, 60, 90 days” way?
Or will it be, “these are the focuses for the year, once focus number one hit X-goal, THEN we move on to the next focus”?
*I highly recommend doing it in 60 to 90-day runs, ultimately 90, so that you can break it down into the mini-accomplishments needed to make it happen and you’re more likely to EXECUTE on processes that accomplish that with a time limit set.
If you’re objective-focused, all roads should lead to that during that time while having at least the minimum to maintain what you’ve already built running in the background.
For example – if you’re focusing on growing Instagram followers, but FB is your main platform, schedule as much as you can ahead of time for FB while keeping your main objectives focused on all the steps you need to work on to grow on IG.
Or if list building, what will you use to grow it?
Are you creating downloads for opt-ins?
These can be as simple as a one-sheet or as complex as a full-on ebook or mini-course.
Are you creating a quiz?
Make sure you’re listing out all the steps needed to not only build it out with the questions, but any downloads, results pages, etc. needed once the quiz is completed.
And don’t forget you still need to create the content to share, share, share, share, share, share, share, share, SHARE some more once it’s done!
This is the biggest piece most people miss. They think that they’ve shared a few times and that should be enough.
I promise you, it’s not.
When it feels like it’s been too much, it’s probably STILL not enough for the number of times people need to see your offer before deciding to click through and purchase.
Yes – even for free – because people are not as quick to give out email addresses these days as they were even just 3-4 years ago.
And you have to account for the first 15 times you shared the thing… you’re people STILL probably haven’t seen it yet – because of life, and algorithms, they don’t open every email in their inbox, other obligations, etc.
Share when people have taken it.
Share the results from the leading majority of quiz takers with your audience.
Share which results have come up the least.
Share what others have said about it so far, no matter how big or how small.
It’s up to YOU to create the buzz! No one is going to create it for you.
Capeesh?!
Season-of-Growth in Your Business Focused:
Now, this one can be a little tricky if you’re not careful…
We’re breaking this into the big 3 here: Brand Awareness, Growth, and Promotional.
Yes, you still need to look at what you’re wanting to sell and when, just like launch-focused – the first one we discussed here.
And a lot of times, people will tend to stay STUCK in one of these three areas.
It’s typically either the promotional and allllllllll they ever post about is what they have for people to buy OR it’s the brand awareness, maybe a wee bit of growth, and then they shy completely away from asking for the sale.
The sweet spot here is to rotate the 3.
And how often you rotate them will depend on you and where your business is right now, plus, your ability to take action on each of them enough to have it be and feel smooth, both for you and your audience.
So for some, this will be about 4-week cycles or so.
For others, it may be longer – approximately 90 days.
Yet for others, it may be significantly shorter – every 10 -14-ish days.
There is no right or wrong here, just what works most naturally for you and your business.
For brand awareness, you’re sharing things like your processes, your values and beliefs, life routines, and intimate moments where the curtain is pulled back so your people get insight into who you are, what you do, and more importantly, why you do it –
Plus, why it’s something they will then also care about if they don’t already.
You’re sharing your story, your lessons learned, mistakes you’ve made, things you’ve overcome, problems you’ve encountered – and solved.
For growth, you’re sharing where you’ve been featured, podcasts you’ve been on, and where you’ve been recognized or published, or won awards.
You’re teaching, whether it’s around your main brand pillars, or taking them through the steps of how to work with you.
You’ll be teaching them what the concepts are that they need to understand before working with you, or what they need to understand about how things work overall either in your offers or in your field.
For promotion, you’re giving them the scenarios of the cost of not taking action on their current situation, or what their life looks like once they have what they desire.
These can be anything from mic drops, and hard truths, to “imagine when…” type posts, depending on your marketing style and your audience.
Share testimonials, both older ones that are still relevant, and newer ones as they come in.
Share solution-based content, directly tying your solution to their current situation and/or desire.
These are your sales posts, don’t beat around the bush on these, and don’t leave them vague.
There should be no question in your audience’s mind about what their next step is after seeing these posts.
SEO-based:
SEO-based is beneficial to give your content longevity.
Both long-tail content and even some short-tail content platforms have started focusing more on SEO.
Some examples of places where SEO-based content will give you more longevity over time – even if their content “lifeline rate” is shorter than some of their counterparts:
-Blog
-YouTube
-Pinterest
-TikTok
-Instagram
One of the fastest ways to Create SEO-based content is this:
Write a list of the 12 most important topics/terms your people want to know about, need to learn, AND that you want to be known/the go-to for and you have experience and expertise in.
Go to google, and put just the topic/term in the search bar…
Scroll down to “People Also Ask”…
Expand the first 7-10 topics until you have about 20-30 that you’re satisfied with…
Then create content answering each of them with YOUR opinion, hot takes, experiences, expertise, lessons learned, and a-ha’s.
Once you’ve done this, you have your content for 1 month.
Do this each month for the 12 topics/terms, so that you have the freshest content based on current searches, and automatically have content that is keyword rich and relevant to the now, but will also be timeless so long as you’re not only doing current, trending topics!
Note: You can post SEO content along with things like topic, theme, seasonal, or launch-focused content.
In closing, I hope you’ve enjoyed this little ditty on content planning strategy and ideas for your business. By now, you hopefully have a deeper understanding of the various effective approaches you can take to create content that resonates with your aligned audience and helps you to achieve your business goals.
Did you enjoy this article? If so, I ask that you share it on your favorite social platform and tag me. I’m @sunshineboatright on Instagram and @SunshineBoat on Twitter thanks to blasted character count limits. 😅
If you want to dive deeper into content creation and ways to make it smarter and not harder, I highly recommend you read Utilizing Content Creation to Attract Bomb-Diggity Clients and New Mad-About-You Customers.
Would you like this article as a download to reference time and time again whether you’re online or off? Check back here as we’re cooking up something special for you exactly for that purpose!
Until next time, happy creating!
Sunshine “Let’s create epic things and send them out into the world” Boatright