Creating A Content Calendar

To take an efficiency approach, we need to create content that isn’t just haphazard We want to create content that will speak to people at each level of their buying journey.

First, we identify topics for the 3 levels of content. These are the levels of the funnel, from top to bottom.

Awareness, consideration, decision.

Awareness content is for people who aren’t aware of what you do at all, OR they aren’t aware of a problem that you solve. They aren’t aware that they have this problem, either.

• Example: oh, this new insurance product for my boat. Oh, this new feature on your app. Oh, this new THING i’m selling. “Did you know….?”

  
  

Consideration content is for people that are aware of the problem, and considering solutions.

• Example: oh - this new insurance product is offered in the marketplace, look at the people who offer it. Oh - i like that feature on the app, is it really a problem that i need to solve? Oh, that thing you’re selling, does it do the job better than something that I already use? What are the benefits of the other company i could buy from? Oh, this app is interesting, can I delete it right afterwards? Oh, this new thing does what I need, am I locked into a yearly contract?

Decision content helps people buy the product. It is their final FAQs being answered.

• Example: oh, this new insurance product is interesting, should I buy it from this company? What is the path forward? What is the next step? In decision content, you’re guiding people towards purchasing the product.

I’m going to begin by talking about the 2 types of people out there.

There are two types of people in the content marketing world. The spaghetti throwers, and the brick layers.

Spaghetti throwers go for volume. They throw everything into the audience to see what will stick. Spaghetti is super cheap, so they can throw lots. 1% will stick.

Brick-layers are much more efficient. They have a finite amount of energy, and they need to get that wall built - their business depends on it.

There is a time and a place for spaghetti throwers, but today were going to focus on the bricklaying philosophy.

Bricklaying is about taking an efficient, strategic approach to creating content.

So we know that there are 3 types of content. Finding out what they need to say is where audience research comes in. In this, we search for themes.

One challenge you might have run into is predicting that what you know will be what your audience wants. Just like basic supply and demand. The supply is what you know, and the demand is what your audience wants.

So it is worth spending time identifying the overlap between what you know and what your audience wants.

So we need to identify topics using our own content, audience questionnaires, competitor content, and conferences. Remember - if someone else published content, it is a good thing. It doesn’t need to be unique, it needs to be uniquely presented.

Helpful tools :

Template (google sheet, excel, airtable)

Notebook (digital or physical)

SEO analysis tool: AHREFS, SEMRUSH, BUZZSumo

IDs & Passwords for your accounts

Chat GPT or other Generative Text AI tool