How to Keep Content Planning Rolling Like a River

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We’ll credit you as the source (and include your commentary) if we include your submission in an upcoming Friday article.  A Note From Robert Rose How to Keep Content Planning Rolling Like a River Last month, a client asked me to examine their content creation planning process and make recommendations on managing it better. Let me stop there. What came into your mind when you read that sentence? Did you think of a process in which all the content projects get queued up for production? Something else? In this client’s case, the “process” of content creation planning is about who will produce all the requested ideas and how. As with so many content leaders I work with, my client thought of content creation planning as figuring out how long it will take for people to open some software, put fingers to keyboards, and produce the assets requested. But that’s not content creation planning. That’s production planning. In television, there’s an annual process called broadcast programming in which groups get together and plan out – sometimes to the minute – an entire season of content. Most of the content they consider doesn’t exist – it’s barely conceived of in any detail. The goal of this planning process is to determine which ideas are worthy of filling slots, what strategic gaps remain, and – most importantly – which ideas should be combined or scrapped entirely. Networks won’t order content episodes for production until this planning phase is complete. This is content creation planning – a separate and distinct approach that informs the production planning process. It is, literally, the planning process for deciding which content to create. Our client had never approached content creation planning this way. People send in ideas, and the content team adds each one to the queue for production. Whatever “planning” occurs involves figuring out which resources would be available to meet production deadlines for the growing pile of ideas in the inbox. Here’s the content planning conundrum. Adding a content creation planning process isn’t as easy as empowering the content team to say no to some content ideas and replace them with other ideas that can be produced easily or that fit a strategic need. That approach might be possible if the team is responsible for creating only one kind of content – such as thought leadership or marketing brochures – or feeding only one or two channels. Content planning is never that simple. The content ideation and creation process for different types of content for different purposes and destinations happens at different stages. For example, you might want to plan a whole portfolio of content for a new product introduction. But the sales training, how-to-use articles, and experience videos can’t be created or planned until the new product content is complete. The complete content lifecycle is like a river with many tributaries feeding in at various points downstream. The key to solving the content planning conundrum is understanding this: While the time and place of content creation planning may differ, the process can be standardized. You can plan how each tributary will contribute to the flow of the whole. This is the part of content strategy most teams miss. You need a planning process for all the dependencies of content downstream. You need alignment on a process that takes all the various content types into consideration. Then you’ll know how to plan the flow of upstream content so you won’t flood the teams that lie downstream. It’s your story. Tell it well. Robert Rose Chief Strategy Advisor Content Marketing Institute You're getting this exclusive article from Robert Rose as a perk of your newsletter subscription. Do you have colleagues or friends who would benefit from Robert's weekly updates? If so, please invite them to [subscribe]( here.   A Word From One of Our Content VIPs Agencies: optimize email campaigns through savvy inboxing 20% of marketing emails never hit their destination inboxes. What can you do to ensure your message gets delivered? Get the tips in Data Axle's latest guide "Optimize Email Campaigns Through Savvy Inboxing" to learn: why deliverability is the key to success, a deliverability glossary of key terms and 3 tips to enhance your clients' content and increase inboxing. [Download Your Copy »](   More From CMI Know your customer…. Audience first…. If there ever was a time when you could ignore these old adages, this isn't it. We've pulled together a whole issue full of ideas and advice to help you keep up with the head-spinning pace of audiences' changing behaviors and preferences. Check out the preview of the issue above, then [subscribe]( for full access. (If you’re already a subscriber, you’ll find a link to the full edition in your inbox.) [Subscribe »](    Optimizing content has never been trickier – there’s so much more to think about than SEO alone. In this segment of the Marketing Makers video show, Robert Rose explains how to create a content optimization process for the modern era – one that focuses on all the content attributes that will help you give your audiences the answers they need, when they need them. 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