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Finally, you have decided to make a blog, but the important part is to make an editorial plan. This is the only way to know exactly what you will post and the consistency of your blog.
In case you don’t have a blog yet, you need to know one thing from now on. The biggest challenge for any blogger is not the technical part, nor the aspects related to search engine optimization. The challenge is, in fact, creating long-term content.
If you are new to blogging, we recommend you this guide on how to make a successful blog.
If everything that means technically is learned and becomes a routine, the creative part is what gives us, most of the time, headaches. That’s why when it comes to writing articles, you don’t have to wait for the creative idea to come to you every time.
Because the key to success in blogging is always the content, in order to succeed, you need an editorial plan for the blog.
Let’s see what it’s all about.
What is an editorial plan?
Whether you are a blogger, vlogger, social media manager, journalist, PR, and communication man, podcast administrator, you need an editorial plan
This is a plan of topics to address in your content. Depending on your needs and the complexity of your project, an editorial plan may contain the following:
- Articles / video / podcast topics;
- Keywords for optimizing each content created;
- Date of publication of each type of content;
- The category/heading/topic in which each type of planned content falls;
- Sources of inspiration for each type of content created;
- The text of the post on social media for each topic created and the hashtags used;
- The author, publisher, or team that implements each type of planned content.
The editorial plan can be made in the form of a Word document, which you can create monthly, on your laptop. Or, it can be an Excel with the information that interests you, from the above.
It can be a common document on Google Drive, to which an entire team has access, to complete it periodically. Or it can even be a project that you can manage using a project management tool such as Trello, Basecamp, or Asana.
You can summarize your plan only in the first two elements: article topics and keywords.
The choice is yours. All that matters is that you need to update your monthly plan with new topics in order to keep a constant post on your blog.
What are the steps to create an editorial plan for the blog?
#1 Choose the right keywords
Any editorial plan, whether it’s for a blog, vlog, or podcast, starts with a series of keywords.
When we say ‘keywords’, we mean word structures, questions, or even whole sentences that people search for on Google, either using text or voice searches. That’s why you need to know in detail what your audience wants to know so that you can develop content around these topics.
We developed this topic in more detail in the article on how to do keyword research.
When choosing keywords, you need to put yourself in your audience’s mind, find out what expectations they have to find. You also need to keep in mind that each article must be based on a unique and informative keyword.
A keyword of information looks something like this: “how to make a blog”, “recipes with peach jam”, “how to lose weight healthily”, “how to read a tire”, “how to install windows 10”, etc.
If you identify that your audience is searching for keywords that are strictly related to a particular service or product, keep those keywords for the sales pages on your site – if necessary.
However, do not use them in articles, as this would mean competing with other sites that use those words as part of the sales pages. This would be a bit difficult.
#2 Identifies article topics
When you are a specialist in a certain field, you can hardly think like a beginner.
Think that over 90% of your audience, regardless of your field, are beginners. This means that they either have nothing to do with your field, or they want to learn, or they want to find information that you have and they did not know.
Therefore, identify those simple topics that everyone can understand. Find the topics of the articles according to the state of knowledge of your audience.
As is mentioned in the content marketing guide, there are three stages in which your audience can be:
- Education – here are the people who do not know your field of activity. These are beginners who need theoretical advice, who answer the question “Why”. These people are not at all ready to buy from you, they may find out about you for the first time. Usually, these articles are the most read on a blog.
- Consideration – here are the people who know your field of activity in theory. They have little experience and are looking for practical information that answers the “How” question. These people are not ready to buy from you, but they would be ready to become leads: to download an ebook, to subscribe to the newsletter, to follow you on Facebook.
- Decision – here are the people who, in principle, are no longer looking to learn anything. They have experience in your field, but they need someone or something to help them perform. This is where you intervene. Any sales, here you have the opportunity to present, in the decision articles, which answer the question “What”. These are usually the least popular articles on a blog and require paid promotion to attract traffic.
Conclusion
Your goal will be to create monthly articles in all three categories. However, keep in mind that the articles in the first two stages must be in a share of 80% of the total articles on your blog.
Remember that planning saves you a lot of time in the actual writing process.
Hopefully, we have included in this article the basic tips you need to get started.
If you have any questions on this topic, leave me a comment and I will be happy to answer.
