3 Formulas for Content Planning
If you ever find yourself stumped when planning content, you’re far from alone. Most clients that I talk to say it’s much easier for them to advise people on their business than on their own. And it makes sense. When looking at your business, it’s hard to see through the thick weeds. You are clouded by your own dreams, stress, and overwhelm. To simplify content planning for you, I put together some content formulas. These formulas serve as a content planning tool that will help you think strategically as you map out emails, blogs, social content, and more.
Nurture → Build → Sell
If you were to keep one formula tucked away in your back pocket, it should be this one. This is the essence of marketing and exactly how I approach the work I do with my clients. Let’s break it down.
Nurture: When nurturing, you are focused on building a relationship with an existing or potential customer. You can do this by working on the know, like, and trust factor. Share blog posts or podcasts. Offer quick tips on social media. Create quality lead magnets.
Build: Think of building as straddling the line between nurturing and selling. Building happens before an upcoming launch or big sales event to warm your audience to a specific offer. This will often look a lot like nurture-based content, but it’s very intentionally planned to build to your offer.
Sell: Hopefully, this one is obvious. During a sale, you are formally pitching your offer. Your messaging should be focused on the desires and transformation your audience wants to experience and how you have the solution to their problem.
How to Plan Content with Nurture → Build → Sell: With this content planning tool, you can plan a month or quarter at a time. It works best when you plan with the end in mind. For example, mark down the dates for a sale, launch, or promotion. Then, identify how long you need to build before each sale, and then fill in the remaining piece of content with nurturing.
Poke → Promote
If you like to keep things simple, this is the formula for you. This content planning tool works best when planning a week or month at a time. Maybe you can’t think too far ahead (or simply don’t have the time to).
Poke: With the poke, you are directly addressing a desire, transformation, or struggle within your audience. You are calling it out and agitating it a little. This isn’t about making your audience feel like shit but simply saying, “Hey, I see you. I hear you.” Then, offer a soft solution, like a blog post, YouTube video, podcast, etc.
Promote: During the promotion, you are pitching an offer. This can be a lead magnet, waitlist, course, digital download, etc. However, you want this promotion to further solve what you “poked” at in the previous piece of content.
How to Plan Content with Poke → Promote: This content planning tool works best for people with low-cost offers. The reason for this is you don’t need as much build-up (most of the time) with lower-cost offers. I would start by determining the offers you want to promote, then brainstorm the desires and struggles you will address in the content leading up.
Soft → Soft → Hard
When I first started my business, the easiest (and quickest) way for me to plan was through themes. Each month, I would have a specific theme I would focus on, and all the content would revolve around that. This won’t work for every business, but it can help simplify planning if you feel overwhelmed with where to start.
Soft: When planning thematically, the beginning of the month (or quarter) will start “soft.” This means the focus is on nurturing and building, and any promotional material you are doing isn’t a hard sell. It’s more indirect. The goal is to warm up your audience and build brand awareness.
Hard: After a period of “soft” content, you’ll get into the hard sell. This is where you are directly promoting an offer and calling on people to take action now. Hopefully, your audience is warm and ready to buy.
How to Plan Content with Soft → Soft → Hard: This content planning tool works well when planning a month (or even a quarter) at a time. It also works great with thematic planning. Start by looking at each month, identifying a focal topic, and determining which offer you are building towards. Then, create your “soft” content to warm your audience to that offer.
Need help creating a content plan? Grab the Free Airtable Content Planner! I’ve used this planner for over two years, and now I’m passing it along to you. Along with the free planner, you’ll get a walkthrough video to help you understand how to use the planner and customize it to your needs.
Hey, I’m Branda! I’m a copywriter and content strategist for female entrepreneurs who want personality-packed, nurture focused copy. Let’s make your copy something people want to read.
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