Laying the Groundwork
What do you want your content to do for you?
If you're wondering where the "purpose" part of the course comes in, this is it. Your content is not (and should not be) simply filler material on your website or social media accounts. It is not a flag you simply plant in the ground to check that box off on your to-do list. Good quality content serves an important role of helping your ideal customer along their journey to get from discovering you to buying from you. It's key to get really specific on how that is accomplished.
The role of content in your business is going to change depending on what you are currently trying to make visible or sell. One very prime example of that is this course. For me, I have a few reasons for creating this course and I'm happy to be transparent about it.
For one, I've never developed a course before, so this allows me to practice and hopefully create something that's valuable to you. It also helps me to work to establish myself as someone who knows what they're talking about (hopefully). And thirdly, it's an subject that goes hand-in-hand with my Creative Planner that I'm releasing on October 1st. So, in essence, if I can help someone in understanding why content planning is key, and also how they can create their own strategy, then I can show them how The Creative Planner can help them do that (because I designed it for that purpose), and then they may be more likely to buy. Does that make sense?
Homework
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Try to think of what things you feel you need to have happen in your business (or future business) right now. Do you need to try to show you know what you're talking about? Do you need to move product? Do you need to build rapport with your audience? It can be more than one.
The customer journey
The customer journey is its own elaborate topic that is incredibly important, but we can touch on it briefly here.
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The typical customer journey goes as follows:
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Point A: The customer discovers you
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Point B: The customer learns to know, like, and trust you
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Point C: The customer decides to buy from you
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That's an incredibly simplified version of the journey, but at least you can see that you have to somehow help this person walk through these different steps in order to make a sale. Just because someone discovers you and your product, it doesn't mean they will immediately buy. It happens, of course, but it's unlikely they will, especially in today's age where the markets are completely saturated with literally everything under the sun. Honestly, though, why should they buy right away? They don't know anything about you or why you do it. That's something a consumer needs to be sure of.
Intention-setting
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Setting an intention is not as "woo" as it sounds. In many cases, it's synonymous with goal-setting, but on a broader, and sometimes more emotional, scale. You can certainly view it as putting your energy out into the universe or as something you can measure and analyze. Either way, it's something to work towards.
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Let's think about your goals and start with a solid timeframe, such as a quarterly plan. Now, as a side note, if you want to plan for an entire year, you certainly can, but keep it loose and flexible in the event that something, you know...like a pandemic, comes in and shatters it all to pieces. But for a quarterly plan, I like this amount of time because it breaks down nicely into three separate steps, or focuses, and each one of those steps can be broken down further into three more steps. I will illustrate below.
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You can see what I mean by the groups of three. It feels very clean this way, but of course you can either add more steps for yourself, or even continue the path of breaking tasks down into even smaller bites.
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I'm going to use a goal of "Audience-Building" (which more emotionally could be phrased as "Increasing connection" for those who want to set more of an internal anchored intention) in another illustration so you can get a better idea of how this looks in practice.
Are you starting to see how intention-setting can be beneficial? This chart doesn't mean you only need to focus on or do the things you listed, but it gives you an area to put more of your energy into.
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Once you find a flow that works for you, you can carry that energy into the next month while taking on a new focus. It won't always stay the same and you will have to make adjustments regularly as the seasons of your life change, but it will at least give you a framework to start.
Homework
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In your workbook, you'll see a section where you can start filling in your focus goals. Once you have an idea of where you would like to go in your business, you can complete this area with your desired tasks.
Calendar creation
The next step after your intention-setting session is to start to sketch out a calendar of key dates. You can use your calendar to put in deadlines for yourself (if you need them) to have to-do list items done by or jot in which dates you're going to work on those items. You can do this in any way, or place, you choose. The calendar inside the workbook is an example of the one in the undated version of The Creative Planner and will allow you to craft a month out for yourself.
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Your calendar can also be used to highlight holidays and "awareness days" like "National Chocolate Day" or whatever. Awareness days drive me batty because they seem to arbitrary, so I didn't include them in my planner, but they can be very effective for marketing. You can always research and add in the ones that mean something to you and your audience. There is always content that can be created around them, especially for daily posts for Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook, and a lot I see used are for building rapport. I recently saw someone use a "National Left-Handed Day" to chat on their Instagram stories and ask questions, and she got loads of engagement.
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Some individuals use upcoming events, book releases, or movies (do movies even get released anymore?) unrelated to their business to do the same. You can use your calendar to mark those dates and that may help you find a flow for your content.