If your New Year’s resolutions usually fall by the wayside around February, the idea of planning out your content schedule for the entire year may seem a little daunting. Hear us out, though! It’s not as tricky as it might sound, and it’s definitely packed with plenty of benefits.
1. Get to see the big picture
It’s far too easy to get caught in the trap of focusing on the nitty gritty everyday details and losing sight of the bigger picture. This is especially the case when you’re drowning in work – who has time to look up and appreciate the horizon when they’re struggling to keep their head above the water?
But, truth be told, you probably are still aware of how important it is to step back, at least sometimes, and look at the big picture. Setting time aside once a year to map out your entire yearly content schedule is a great way of doing this.
It allows you to not be so consumed in the individual details of each piece of content that needs to be written, but rather look over it with an eagle eye view, identifying themes, strategies, and trajectories you’ll be exploring over the weeks or months.
2. Post relevant content
Ever thought about a potentially viral Christmas post a little too late in the game, like, say, Boxing Day? Content timed around specific events, seasons, or occasions has a sweet spot for relevancy – not so early so that you get compared to grocery stores putting out Hot Cross Buns in January, and not so late that it will miss out on potential readership.
A yearly content plan gets around this problem. It allows you to map out exactly when you want content to be written and not be caught off guard.
3. Find more time for research
When you’re struggling each week, fortnight or month to come up with new blog ideas, the time spent on brainstorming usually detracts from the actual time you spend writing it. Having ideas (or at least outlines of them) ready to draw from is much more efficient, so that you can actually invest in researching the topic and writing quality content.
4. Keep your content fresh
Going back to being bogged down in the details rather than looking at the bigger picture, it’s a lot harder to ensure you’re always writing new, fresh ideas without a yearly plan. Writing out all of your ideas at once, you’ll quickly identify if some topics are a little too repetitive or similar to each other, and either eliminate one or plan them out to complement each other.
5. Exercise your creativity
If someone asks you to write down 100 uses for a piece of paper, you’ll probably start out with the obvious ideas. But, as you begin to run out of all the things that immediately come to mind, you’re going to need to start putting those creativity muscles to work, quick smart.
It works in the same way for planning out a yearly content schedule. That may sound a bit daunting, but trust us – the creative process works in mysterious ways. You may get stuck for a bit, but push through the barrier and you’ll find yourself churning out ideas you never thought you had in you.
If you’re already feeling a bit stuck, don’t worry. Shuttle Rocket specialises in writing professional, polished web copy for small businesses around Australia. We even have an affordable blog builder package to get you started, check it out and get in contact with us today!