Free Content Strategy Template

Who runs the social media world? GIRLS WHO MAKE CONTENT STRATEGIES!

Content strategies are so important for showing up on socials with authority! Of course we know the worries that come with creating content strategies, like will it be time-consuming to create? Will it be effective? Where do I even start? Creating a content strategy doesn't have to overly complicated, time-consuming, OR ineffective! More than half the issue is knowing what it is, where to start, and what should you all include - this article is here to solve those riddles for you with a free template for you to follow!

A content strategy is an outline of your social media target customer, goals, progress tracking, and plans to connect your brand to your intended audience.

When it comes to what to include, use this outline!

Complete A Social Media Audit

If you already have content on your page, this will already give you so much insight into your strategy! If you’re a new account, skip this part. Go through each category of your account to see what’s currently working for you and what needs improvement.

• What didn't work as well? Why didn't it? How could you repurpose it in a better way moving forward?

• Who's your current audience?

• Who's engaging with your content the most currently?at worked well so far? Why did it work well?

Platforms

• Based on what you now know about your audience, competitors, goals, and current content, what platforms are you going to use?

• How will you use them?

Content

• Content Types: Videos, photos, reels, stories, etc. - what are you going to start making for your brand?

• Content grids - Are you following a grid plan to balance out your feed?

• Pillars: What pillars are you choosing to base your content from?Educational/Knowledge Bombs, Inspirational, Motivational, Connection, Humor

Scheduling & Batching

• How far ahead are you scheduling your content for?

• How many pieces of content can you create at a time?

Consistency

• How many times a week are you posting which types of content?

• What time are you posting based on what time your audience is on?

Hashtags & Keywords

• The last thing you want to do is have hashtags that either take you a half hour to type out every time, OR the same 30 on every single post. Researching hashtags to use is an important step of being seen on some platforms, such as Instagram.

• Create lists of hashtags that are relevant and vary in size, meaning they have different amounts of posts with the tag currently.

Audience Analysis

This is arguably the most crucial part of your content strategy - Get to know your ideal customer and audience! This is where you gather information about your audience, so you know who you are specifically speaking and marketing to. This should be well-researched! Answer questions like:

• Who are they: Hobbies, income, industry, location, career, gender, age group, pain points, struggles?

• Buyer Personas - these are SUPER helpful when it comes to tone and caption creation. You should know who you are speaking to because it will make a huge difference in your tone and direction.

• What are they on: Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok?

• What time are they on: 8:00am; 6:00pm-9:00pm; Noon?

• What types of content do they want to see: Videos, photos, educational, entertaining?

Competitor Analysis

We don't want to copy our competitors in any way, but we can learn from them! Chances are they have a similar audience and goals to us, despite our niche and uniqueness, right? This could be a SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) or you can answer some of the questions below:

• Who are they?

• What sets you apart?

• What are they doing well on socials?

• What is there room for improvement on, that you could possibly capitalize on?

Goals & Objectives

A rough outline of your goals for your social channel is a great place to start. Think about why you are creating this account and what you’re specifically looking to gain from it: connection, leads, community, sales, customers, and start defining them.

• Goals: These are long-term more ambiguous targets. Try using the "SMART" goals method - meaning your goal should meet the following criteria: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-Framed.

• Objectives: Specific benchmarks to reach your end goal.

Example:

Goal: Create a loyal community on Instagram by increasing overall engagement and followers by double in quarter three.

Objective: Reach out to 5 new accounts per week.

Objective: Gain 100 new followers per month.

Objective: Increase engagement by 15% per quarter.

Content

Now is the time to take the information from above and implement it. How are you going to plan your content to pull in your audience and meet your goals?

• What are the content pillars that will serve your audience?

• How many times are you posting {daily, weekly} and what are you posting?

• How are you going to create consistency?

• What hashtags and keywords are you using to pull in your audience?

• What amount of time are you going to put into engagement? Do you have an engagement checklist?

TIP: it’s often helpful to create a strategy for each platform to divide down some of the information.

After you have your content strategy done, you can start creating quality content based on what you learned, what will help you meet your goals, and what your audience will respond to! Remember to revisit your strategy after a certain period of time, and audit its effectiveness.

Have more questions on your content strategy? DM us!