I started Express Writers with nothing but $75, a dream, and my passion for writing.
It all began in 2010. I was in college, trying to get a degree I didn’t even want. One morning I woke up and thought: Why not do what I love?
That day, I decided to figure out online writing. At first, I was only doing work for cheap clients. But that was how I learned — and it motivated me to keep striving for more. I pushed on, honing my writing, SEO, and content marketing skills writing hundreds of articles.
Within three months, I reached a point where I had more work than I could handle.
What did I do?
I found and hired smart people.
That was my very first step towards smart content managing. Instead of writing everything myself, I hired skilled writers who shared my passion for creating powerful online content. It was one of the best moves I’ve ever made. I’ve since learned that this is how top leaders in the content marketing space do it.
They don’t write. They ideate. Then, top writers ghostwrite.
This is how to get your afternoons back, entrepreneurs. Instead of writing in the den all dang day, this is how to have a life of creative freedom.
Delegate.
You just need to learn how to delegate to the right people with smart content management.
And like us, your business can save $58,000+ a month (while getting the same results) — this is the figure my brand, Express Writers, saves by not having to spend on a PPC campaign to bring in our monthly traffic and focusing on organic content marketing instead.
(Crazy, right?)
We’ve never done a single PPC ad, by the way. Not even once.
Yet our website earns 90,000-100,000 visitors a month.
How?
The secret is through successful content marketing and smart delegation.
In this post, I’ll teach you how to do both, after we define what kind of content you should be writing.
Today’s blog contains my top secrets to avoiding content burnout while writing five books, 1,500 blogs, and countless email/social campaigns.
Read on for the keys to the content castle. ?
Content Marketing Planning Success: 6 Types of Profitable Content and How Often to Post Them
1. Social Media
2. Blogs
3. Emails
4. Website Pages
5. News/Ads/Sales Content
6. Creative Content
Your Ultimate Guide to Smart Content Marketing Planning
The Who, What, and When of Smart Content Marketing Planning
Who to Delegate To
What to Delegate
When to Delegate
6 Types of Profitable Content and How Often to Post Them for Content Marketing Planning Success
There are 6 types of content you should be posting regularly if you want to succeed online. What are they? And how often should you post them? Let’s discuss!
1. Social Media
With more than 3.5 billion users, social media is a huge opportunity for marketing. But it isn’t enough to have a Facebook page and post when you feel like it. You need to be active daily with relevant, intriguing, helpful content.
How often to post: Daily.
Speaking of social media, make sure to follow us on Facebook for daily tips, updates, and more!
2. Blogs
Posting long-form blogs (1,500 words up) impresses both your readers and Google. Blogs can:
- Establish you as an expert.
- Gain your site an increase in organic rankings on Google.
- Help you gain credibility (blogs are rated as the 5th most trustworthy source for information online).
How often to post: 1 time a week minimum. For better results, go for 2-3 or even 4x a week.
Learn how to write a long-form blog and gain up to 125% more organic rankings on Google here.
3. Emails
Email marketing promises you constant engagement with leads and huge ROI (return on investment).
Source: Lyfe Marketing
How often to send: Weekly.
4. Website Pages
What good is the traffic you get from organic search if visitors are unimpressed by your website? What you need to keep their attention is a concise, impactful copy for all your site’s pages.
How often: As needed.
5. News/Ads/Sales Content
Press releases and ads that solve your prospects’ problems and long-form sales copy are all necessary to keep leads informed about your products.
How often: As needed.
Need copy that converts? Visit our content shop for pricing.
6. Creative Content
Creative content helps you stay relevant and fresh in your prospects’ minds. These include videos, fun emails, poems, short stories, and more.
How often: As needed.
Your Ultimate Guide to Smart Content Marketing Planning
Right now, you might be shaking your head and wondering how you can create all of that content consistently.
How do you write 3 long-form blogs, daily social media updates, web copy, ads, emails, and video scripts… and still stay sane?
The secret is to stop doing, and start managing.
Chances are if you’re thinking of ‘doing it all’ yourself, you’ll end up completely burnt out, missing deadlines, and the content itself will lack quality because it had no space to breathe. Rushed content is never good content.
Switch to “managing,” and you’ll see so much more success. (See a story about my timeline in content, and how getting strategic in 2016 and getting out of the hamster wheel actually brought in more profits from our content. Managed content is successful content!)
The Who, What, and When of Smart Content Marketing Planning
When you switch to managing instead of doing, you need to be sure you get three things:
- Quality
- Quantity
- Consistency
Let’s dive in more on each.
1. Who to Delegate To
If you’re a content marketer, quality should be your #1 goal. Without this strong foundation, your content house will fall apart.
Take a look at these two examples:
- Today’s world is definitely full of people who are unhealthy, people who eat a lot of fatty food and therefore gain unnecessary weight. If you are like these people, you might be concerned about your overall health. It is a fact that being overweight can cause a number of debilitating health problems. What you must do, then, is to seek to lose weight in a healthy and safe way. There are definitely a lot of benefits which can be achieved when you experience weight loss.
- Blogs that are between 400 and 699 words (the conventional number for blog word count) see a lot of quick readers come to the site, read what they came for and move on to the next site. Blogs that have 1,500 words or more give the reader substance and encourage them to stick around on the site, increasing metrics and clicks on the site.
As you can see, the first example is generic and uninteresting. Most readers already know the facts stated. Also, the paragraph’s length will scare even the most daring away.
The second paragraph? It’s clear, concise, and full of helpful facts that convert. With quality content like that, your reader will stay on your site and keep reading.
To get quality content, you need to hire the right people. It doesn’t matter where they’re from. What matters is what they can do.
- Hire people who are experts in their field. Yes, online writers can always do Google research on topics you assign to them. But to write in-depth content and copy with authority? Only an expert with significant experience can do that.
- Hire people with writing skills that make content pop. You don’t want your online content to look like a legal document. So instead of hiring just any lawyer for expertise, hire a lawyer who has a passion for and talent with words. This will make your online content jump from the page.
2. What to Delegate
We’ve already looked at the six types of content you need to boost your online presence and brand. Now, let’s look at what you should delegate to members of the staff you’ve hired.
Here’s a quick birds-eye view of that:
Social media posts and updates should be handled by a skilled social media manager. Here are things to look for if you’re hiring one.
- Ability to recognize leads.
- Experience with branding and marketing.
- A healthy sense of humor.
Blogs and email copy require a content strategist, expert writers, and yourself (sounds like a lot, but definitely worth it!). For our own blog, The Write Blog, we have over 5 content creators and a full-time designer!
Lastly, web pages, copy, and creative content should be delegated to trained copywriters and strategists. Make sure your copy:
- Isn’t salesy.
- Follows the correct templates for successful marketing copy.
- Is concise, clear, and compelling.
3. When to Delegate
When planning your content, the when is as important as the what.
So instead of coming up with blogs and emails a week before they’re posted, create a calendar and make a plan for 3 to 6 months, or even a year of content!
Here’s why this is so important:
- You don’t get caught off-guard with seasonal or overarching topics. You want to be able to see the bigger picture. When you plan ahead, you’ll know how to stay current all the time with your content.
- You can do enough research. Nothing says amateur louder than the lack of information. When you’re behind on the latest trends and the hottest topics of the day, you’ll lose your relevance and credibility.
- You can grab attention by matching dates with topics. For example, the release of a much-awaited movie is a great way to spark reader interest. With a far-reaching calendar, you can plan blog topics for holidays, elections, special events, and more.
- You can strategize more. First drafts should never be final drafts. The same is true with planning content. If you have enough time to plan what to write about and when, it’ll lead to better content all around.
- You won’t duplicate content you already posted. Surprisingly, this can happen more than you think. Staying organized with a far-reaching calendar, however, will prevent it.
So get started with your content calendar as soon as you can, and make your plans as far-reaching as possible.
As an example, here’s what our content calendar looks like.
We plan content for months in advance!
Get Ready for the Future with Smart Content Marketing Planning
Six types of content, posted consistently, is a huge deal if you plan to do it yourself.
But, with smart content marketing planning, things become simpler, clearer, and more enjoyable. Content quality increases. Best of all, you can sit back, sip your favorite drink, and watch your company explode in growth.
