Content Planning: Successful Content Marketing with a Plan!

1. What is meant by content planning?
2. What are the advantages of content planning?
3. What are the disadvantages of content planning?
4. In which areas is content planning useful?
5. How can you plan content?
6. How to create an editorial plan / content plan?
7. What tools are recommended for content planning?
8. Conclusion

Do you know this too? The cleverly devised content strategy finally has teeth and now you can get to the much-anticipated and most creative part of content marketing - creating the content. Full of enthusiasm and energy, you simply get started and let off steam in the content. This might feel good! But wait a minute: Does strategic content marketing really work like this and is it successful in the long run? Not exactly. Even if the „just do it” approach feels right at first, in the long run, success will be missing. Not to mention inefficiency. Because there is a lack of strategic content planning.

If you want to be sustainably successful in content marketing, you can't avoid well-designed content planning. But there's good news! With this blog post, you are perfectly prepared to turn your strategy into a structured plan and implement it step by step. Our content marketing expert Adriana Del Solar gives you an overview of content planning and explains how you can create your own content plan.

To make your content marketing really shine, content planning is the be-all and end-all. The time you invest now will pay off many times over later. So let's get started!

What is meant by content planning?

Imagine you're getting into a car, knowing the destination and just hitting the gas pedal. You enjoy the open ride by following your nose. Eventually, however, you realize that you don't know the way exactly and you're going in circles. What's missing is a navigation system to show you the way and lead you to your destination. Without a navigation system, you are wasting both unnecessary fuel and time and arrive late at your destination, if at all. The same applies to content marketing planning. Without content planning, you lack a signpost to guide you to the goal of your content strategy.

But what is content planning? Specifically, concrete measures are determined in content planning, which later form the basis for the implementation of the contents. This is to ensure above all that the content strategy is set down in a concrete plan with exact details, which are then implemented in a structured way one after the other. Are you wondering what these measures should be? Clear answers to this will follow soon. But first, you'll learn why it's really worthwhile to go to the trouble of content planning.

What are the advantages of content planning?

With content planning, you not only have a concrete roadmap that brings your Content Marketing Strategy into a rounded concept and contributes to your goals, but also a clear scheme on how to implement this strategy in practice. And it gets even better, because the structured approach brings with it many more benefits that you can look forward to:

• Commitment! There are clear deadlines, so tasks need to be completed by a certain time and not postponed.
• Focus! Once the planning is done, you can fully focus on implementation and content creation.
• Time savings! With a plan, you always have a structured overview and can handle tasks highly efficiently.
• Substitute! Someone in the team drops out at short notice? No problem, the content plan keeps track of everything you need to know for your content marketing.

A marketer's dream come true. Right? Like any dream, however, there is also a downside, which will now be described.

What are the disadvantages of content planning?

Not everything is planable. Even the most detailed content plan is not prepared for everything. It can quite possibly happen that something unforeseen comes up, which throws you off your concept. Therefore, especially keep an eye on current events from the world in order to consequently adjust or postpone content. Similarly, it can happen that you are dependent on someone and therefore your day of publication is postponed. Therefore, always preserve a certain flexibility. But here too there is good news: There are indeed very few exceptions and you can almost always rely on your content plan.

In which areas is content planning useful?

Content planning makes sense and is recommended in all areas where content is used. From the consideration of what content should be created, the people involved, to the date of publication. This can be the case in social media content planning on Instagram, content planning for apps and websites, the weekly newsletter or the e-book. The possible formats in content marketing are described in the section 'How to create an editorial plan / content plan?'

How can you plan content?

The heart of any content planning is the associated content plan or editorial plan. This is an overview in which all information about the content is recorded in one place. The editorial plan is an absolute must-have in content marketing and is usually presented in a calendar view. It provides a structured overview of the following points:

• How often should content be published?
• Which contents are published when?
• What content format is used?
• On which channels is the content published?
• Who are the responsible parties?
• When should everything be final? What are the deadlines?

Depending on your preference, the contents of the editorial plan can be adjusted individually and supplemented with further points. The goal is to design the editorial plan in such a way that all measures necessary for the implementation of the content strategy are included here, so that those responsible know exactly what to do. The important contents of a complete editorial plan are listed step by step in the following section.

How to create an editorial plan / content plan?

1. Select the content media

Let's start by selecting the content media. The following are available:

• Text
• Image
• Video
• Audio
• Print

You can make your selection based on what fits you best and where your strengths lie. What also comes into play here is the planning of resources.

Especially considering whether content creation is a one (wo)man show or whether there is an entire content team behind it, there are media that require more or less effort and accordingly require resources. In particular, the media video and audio often require more commitment and technical equipment. The associated effort is therefore not to be underestimated and available resources are to be considered. Because the content should not only be planned, but also lead to a later, successful implementation.

By the way, it is recommended to start with only a small selection of media. This way, you can fully focus on these, master them excellently and upgrade with other media at a later date.

Example: Text, image

2. Determine the content formats

After you have decided on the content media, the content formats follow in the next step. There are a multitude of possibilities on how you can use your content. Here are a few popular examples:

• Social media
• Blog article
• Newsletter
• Checklist
• Video
• Infographic
• Whitepaper
• Cheat-Sheet
• E-Book
• Podcast
• Case study
• Magazine
• Webinars

Don't worry, you don't have to master all the content formats right away, because here too, the motto is: quality before quantity! Rather focus on a few formats and do them right. Later, you can still add more formats.

In addition, you can exclude some of the formats right now due to your preliminary selection of the media. From the remaining formats, it is about meeting the wishes of the target group. Here you ask yourself the following questions:

• On which formats does my target group spend time?
• What does my target group deal with? Can a format be deduced from that?
• Which format can I use to reach my target group best?

Moreover, the formats differ enormously from each other. Including in scope and effort. In content marketing, people often talk about 'Snackable Content' and 'Longread Content'.

Snackable Content

As the name suggests, this is about a snack - a quick and easy bite that can be consumed quickly on the side. Snackable content has a small scope, is quickly and easily consumable and therefore often found on fast-paced formats like social media. Also, easily consumable infographics can be counted as snackable content. The creation is therefore often not easier, because especially here the challenge is to bring content to the point in a short and crisp way. This type of content is used to create awareness and win over the target group.

Longread Content

In contrast, Longread Content goes in-depth and has a far-reaching scope. This applies to more detailed formats such as white papers, e-books or blog articles. Here, topics can be dealt with in all detail. This often appeals to a target group that has already had a touchpoint, for example through Snackable content with you or wants to inform themselves about a problem in a comprehensive format. Longreads are therefore often located further down in the customer sales funnel.

These two types of content ideally complement each other to offer your target group both quick consumption and profound content. A good mix of the two is therefore highly recommended.

Example: Combination of Social Media (Snackable) and Blog Articles (Longread)

3. Determine the frequencies of publication

Now it's about the frequency of the contents, i.e. at what intervals the content should be published. This brings a certain regularity to the content, so that your community is constantly played with your content and they have a touchpoint with you again and again. Especially when planning social media content, it is important to convince on the platforms continuously with regular content. More complex formats such as whitepapers or e-books, on the other hand, can have an occasional frequency.

Example:

4. Choose the content direction of the topics

The selection of the content direction of the content is one of the trickiest and also most important disciplines in content planning. At the center again here the interests and needs of the target audience. Therefore, topics should be attuned to these and filled with current and exciting content.

The following questions support this:

• What topics does my target audience deal with?
• What is my target audience looking for?
• How can I provide added value and serve as a problem solver?

A classic keyword research can be helpful, in which it is analyzed whether the target group searches on search engines like Google for specific solutions to their problems and which keywords they use in the process. Topics can then be derived from this, which explicitly pay into what the target group is looking for.

Nevertheless, the task remains to constantly research topics and include current content. You can also distinguish here between News Content and Evergreen Content.

News Content

This includes current content, which usually only has a short-term relevance, but can often reach a high reach in a short time. This orientation is therefore particularly suited for fast-paced content formats such as social media or newsletters, where content has a relatively low 'life span' - i.e., the duration of how long the content is still played out and consumed after publication.

Content for actions like an SEO contest is, for example, only short-term meaningful. In 2024 there was an SEO competition for the keyword RankensteinSEO, which was only relevant for 4 weeks - afterwards it had almost irrelevant demand.

Evergreen Content

Evergreens, in contrast, are created specifically to show long-term relevance and take a correspondingly long 'life span'. What makes Evergreens so valuable is the fact that you once take the trouble to create the content and this can then be found again and again in the long term. This applies, for example, to blog articles. The content created once therefore continues to live long, without much work having to be invested. However, the review of whether the content is still current or relevant remains.

So what's better: News or Evergreens? Here it's not about 'either or', but about 'the mix is the trick'. Try to offer your community both current and long-term relevant topics.

5. Put everything into the editorial plan

If you have come this far, you have already accomplished the most demanding parts of content planning. You now know which media you want to use, in what formats they will be published with what frequency, and what content you're going to use. Congratulations! You have thus created the foundation for your content plan or editorial plan. Now it's just a matter of: put everything in.

Here is a checklist for your must-haves in the editorial plan:

• Title with theme
• Responsible persons
• Involved persons (e.g., author, graphic designer, etc.)
• Content format
• Date and time of publication
• Status (e.g., Idea, In Progress, Finished, Published)

Here's what the whole thing could look like:

The view in the monthly calendar format is particularly practical in the editorial plan. This way you have a quick overview of all planned content in the month.

This is what a typical monthly calendar view looks like:

The list view is also suitable, which can be sorted as desired:

Or the board view:

Here are a few additional tips for your editorial plan:

• Use color labels or tags to add categories
• Work with checklists and subtasks for to-dos for the individual contents
• Use a content planning tool that allows and simplifies these functions

The more information you can include in your editorial plan, the less work you will have later. Therefore, write down all information and thoughts and add your notes to the individual contents.

What tools are recommended for content planning?

Tools are there to make work easier and save time. So let yourself be helped and go back to suitable tools! Finding suitable tools strongly depends on personal needs and requirements. Here are a few tools listed, which are very helpful and recommended in content planning:

A project management tool for editorial planning

A good editorial plan, as described before, includes many details and information. With a project management tool, you can create an editorial plan simply, clearly and in an appealing design. Popular project management tools are for example Asana or Trello. There are various content planning templates there, which are ideal for creating a content plan. Even with the free version, a very extensive editorial plan can already be created here. The paid version, however, offers even more features.

Professional content marketing tools

Content marketing tools provide considerable support deep in content marketing and also in the area of content planning. With Content marketing tools metal, for example, editorial and topic plans can be created, key words researched, or briefings created. With a content marketing tool, content marketing and content planning can be taken to the next level. OMR Reviews has presented and compared the 7 best content marketing tools in a comprehensive article.

The following popular content marketing tools are included:

• ContentStudio
• Talkwalker
• Outgrow
• Curata
• Adobe Experience Manager

Tools for planning in social media marketing

Social media marketing forms a significant part of the content marketing mix. Therefore, there are specific tools for this that are specialized in the field of social media. Especially when social media makes a decisive contribution to the content mix, it is recommended to use a social media tool. A tool can be extremely helpful in monitoring, community management, central control of all social media channels, and content planning.

Recommended and well-known social media tools are:

• Swat.io
• Later
• Hootsuite
• Falcon.io
• Fanpage Karma

Conclusion

Content planning is a key component and success factor in content marketing. It connects strategy with concrete implementation and saves nerves, time and money in the process. A content plan provides a clear, understandable overview of all content marketing activities and is your navigation system in the often chaotic content marketing jungle. Step by step, content planning leads you successfully to your goal. Now you're perfectly prepared for your content marketing journey. Have a safe trip and lots of fun!