The Importance of Content planning

byTheCatherine

14.5K followers

3 weeks ago

If you know me even a little, you know how much I thrive on a solid plan. I need a step-by-step process for practically everything in my business, including scaling it to seven figures or content planning. It's a shame I can't do that in other areas of my life, but that is another story.

Let’s be real: sitting down at my desk to write a blog post or draft a newsletter without a clear idea of what I’m doing is a recipe for disaster. Without direction, I end up chasing tangents that serve no one—not me, not my audience, and definitely not my business. See paragraph one I reigned that tangent in.

When I’ve got a plan, though? It’s like clockwork. Everything flows. And let’s be honest—that’s the dream for any business owner, right? So, in this post, I’m going to share how I mapped out an entire year’s worth of content in a morning using a stack of index cards and my Google Calendar.

The Big Rocks Framework

I’m borrowing an idea here from a productivity expert—maybe Stephen Covey—who talks about prioritizing your “big rocks” first. The concept is simple: if you start with the most important, non-negotiable tasks, you’ll always have room for them. Everything else—the smaller, more flexible things—fills in around those.

When I plan my content, I think of my “big rocks” as the key promotions or launches for my business. For 2025, I have three main areas of my business I want to concentrate on this year.

1. Building a five figure book publishing empire consisting of creating visionboards. I mapped out several areas to concentrate on travel and mapped out a new title for every month of the year .

here are ten prompts I wrote to plan a year content

1. General Planning

"Help me brainstorm blog post ideas for [your niche] to fill a 12-month content calendar, with each month focusing on a different theme or topic." Give me the topic or theme for the month

This prompt helps with your SEO because you are not writing random content you are writing focused niche topics.

2. Audience Research

"What are the most common questions or pain points for [your target audience], and how can I turn those into engaging blog post topics?" Give me an idea for every month of the year

3. Seasonal Content

"Suggest seasonal or holiday-themed blog post ideas for a [your niche] blog to publish throughout the year."

4. Evergreen Content

"What are some evergreen blog post topics for [your niche] that will remain relevant and generate traffic year-round?"

5. Keyword Research

"Help me identify high-ranking keywords or topics for [your niche] to build a year-long content strategy around."

6. Repurposing Ideas

"Suggest ways to break down a single big topic into multiple blog posts for a [your niche] blog."

7. Content Variety

"Provide ideas for different types of blog posts—how-tos, listicles, personal stories, and expert roundups—for [your niche]."

8. Pillar Content Strategy

"Help me outline five pillar topics for [your niche] blog and suggest related subtopics for each."

9. Call-to-Actions

"Suggest blog topics that naturally lead into promoting [your product, service, or affiliate offer] throughout the year."

10. Trend Forecasting

"What are the predicted trends in [your niche] for the upcoming year, and how can I create timely blog content around them?"

Your Turn

Here’s how you can replicate this process:

1. Identify Your Big Rocks. What are your major plans for the year. when you have identified this then use some of the prompts to help you

Whether you’re a meticulous planner or more of a “fly by the seat of your pants” type, this system can bring clarity and consistency to your content strategy.

Now, I’d love to hear from you—how do you plan your content? Are you a big-picture planner like me, or do you prefer to keep things flexible? Drop a comment below and let me know.