6 Crucial Tips to Effective Blog Content Planning

Constantly generating fresh and relevant blog content for your blog can be overwhelming. This is why having an effective blogging strategy and implementing it is critical. Staying organized and publishing your content in a timely manner will keep your readers happy and engaged. In addition, having a strategic plan in place will simplify the blogging process and make your life that much easier.

We have compiled six essential tips to successfully create compelling blog content:

1. Compose An Editorial Calendar

Generating an editorial calendar is essential if you want to post blog content consistently. An editorial calendar allows you to judiciously plan when and what blog content you want to post.

Once you have determined blog ideas and when you want to post them, it’s immensely helpful to visually map out a strategic plan in an editorial calendar. We suggest utilizing an editorial calendar like the one below [download here!] to help you reach your blogging goals and organize effectively to reach them.

2. Collaborate

Coming up with compelling and fresh blog content is easier when you have inspiration from other people. Sit down and share your ideas with your blog authors and invite them to do the same. Another great option is to ask your current and prospective clients what kinds of content like they to see the most and what topics they would like to read about in the future. Once you have a better idea of what kinds of content your readers enjoy, you can build on that and come up with more blog content ideas.

3. Determine How Often

Once you have created an editorial calendar and come up with content ideas it’s time to decipher how often you will post blog content. Posting blog content regularly is a surefire way to keep your readers happy and generate more traffic to your website. In general, the more you post, the better. In fact, companies that published 16+ blog posts per month got almost 3.5X more traffic than companies that published between 0 – 4 monthly posts.

Try to set up a schedule of how often you will post and stick to it. Your readers will come to expect fresh content so it’s pertinent that you adhere to some kind of routine.

4. Mix It Up

It can be a challenge to write about different topics all the time. However, we can assure that it is a must that you mix it up and write about different content. Writing about the same topic over and over again will be redundant. You are much better off publishing a variety of blog content in order to establish your expertise within your field and provide value to your readers.

In the example below, Twenty Over Ten client, FPGuidance caters to their niche market of college students in their blog. They publish an array of content that pertains to their niche.

5. Incorporate Current Events

In a content rut? Blogging about news and current events is a great way to expand your content. Another great idea is to compose blog posts that introduce your team. This shows your readers a more personal side of your business.

On the Twenty Over Ten blog, there is a blog series called “Meet the Team” where each team member gets to share a bit about themselves and what they like to do outside of work. This is a great way to broaden your content and show your clients a little bit more about who makes up your business.

Another idea is to write about the New Year. Publishing content that has to do with new goals and plans for the New Year is a great way to connect with your audience and publish unique content. In the example below, the Twenty Over Ten blog has published numerous blogs that are about New Year’s resolutions.

6. Utilize A Style Guide

Creating a style guide for your blog is necessary in order to ensure that everyone writes and spells in the same way. In addition, if you have numerous authors publishing content on your blog, a style guide will establish unity. In the style guide, you could also explicitly determine the length of posts, the use of paragraphs and headings, and the use of images. Your style guide should be a document that clearly lays out all the things that have to be consistent in your posts.

In addition, a style guide is a great tool to have especially if you work with guest bloggers. A style guide is a great document to help them write a post that conforms with the style and flow of your blog.

Let’s Sum It Up

Composing new and relevant blog content for your blog content will be easier if you have an effective plan in place. Once you have clearly established your blogging strategy, you can set goals to make sure that are able to achieve what you aimed for. We hope that these six tips help ease you into content planning to enhance your blogging efforts.