Do you have big dreams of becoming a successful content creator? A solid content strategy is one of the most important steps to get there. As the online space becomes more crowded and content creation consistently grows as one of the most in-demand job titles worldwide, there's still room for everyone–but you need a roadmap to stand out and build an engaged audience. That's exactly what a content strategy does: helping you carve out your unique style, post consistently, build an audience, and attract aligned opportunities. By the end of this blog post, you'll be crystal clear on what a content strategy is and how to use it to scale your growth and creativity as a creator.

Why Creators Need a Content Strategy

As a content creator, the last thing you want is to constantly ask yourself, 'What do I post next?' Your content is your product, and you need to be able to produce and distribute it consistently to build that 'know, like, trust' factor with your audience. A content strategy helps you achieve this by keeping you consistent and organized while giving your content a focused direction. It also enables you to create a roadmap for targeted growth to grow your audience and monetize your online presence consistently.

How to Create a Content Strategy for Creators

Follow these steps to create your content strategy:

Step 1: Define your creator identity and style

As a creator, you need to cultivate a unique identity and style that sets you apart online. Your unique identity and style can include a specific niche you create content about, a specific style or format you use, and incorporating unique qualities of your personality into your content so it feels authentic to you. A great way to figure out what that looks like is to ask yourself questions like:

• What do you want to be known for?
• What do you enjoy?
• What are you good at?
• What types of brands do you want to collaborate with?

Once you define your creator identity and style, you'll have a strong foundation for creating content more easily and attracting your ideal audience.

Step 2: Understand your audience

To build and continue to grow an engaged audience, you need to create content that is the perfect middle ground between what you enjoy creating and what your audience enjoys consuming. Once you understand your audience better, you can develop your content's signature tone, style, and substance.

To gather insights about your audience, leverage the insights available on your key social media platforms. When you create an account in Planoly, you can monitor and review your analytics across multiple platforms in one central place. You can also survey your audience to ask them what they want to see more of. If you're starting your audience from scratch, try analyzing creators in similar niches to get a feel of what resonated with their audience. Once you've gathered these insights, use them to tailor your content style.

Step 3: Define your content pillars

Think of content pillars as core themes that categorize the types of content you create. If your online presence were a newspaper, each content pillar would be a vertical or section that categorizes the different topics you explore in your content. They should be specific enough to keep your content focused but general enough that you can explore creatively, especially in your early stages while you are still figuring out your unique voice and style.

You should aim to have 3 to 5 content pillars that align with your brand, audience interests, and overall goals. For example, if you're a lifestyle creator who loves traveling, cooking, and wellness, your content pillars can include personal growth and wellness, travel and experiences, and food and recipes. Having set content pillars helps to create balance and structure, allowing for creative flexibility while keeping your voice and content style consistent.

Step 4: Set goals and measure your success

As a creator, the key to consistent growth is setting measurable goals, creating a plan to reach those goals, and measuring your success regularly. The first step to setting measurable goals is determining what you want to accomplish as a creator and then quantifying that goal. For example, if you want to start attracting brand partnerships, what is the average follower size of creators working with brands you also want to work with? Based on your current follower count and engagement rate, how much do you have to grow monthly to gain that number of followers? Setting measurable goals like this keeps you accountable and on track and ensures you're not focused on vanity metrics but instead on metrics that are getting you closer to your goals.

Step 5: Create your content schedule and systems

The last but certainly not least step to creating a scalable content strategy is to create a content schedule and systems. Your content schedule should outline when you are posting, including the days of the week and the time you'll post each day, based on when your audience is most active. Planoly uses your analytics to recommend the best times to post for your audience, so this step is easy! To further streamline your content creation, you can also dedicate each posting day to one of your content pillars and use Planoly's placeholder feature to make a visual, color-coded outline for your content calendar, so all you have to do is plug in your content ideas. (If you need ideas and inspiration for what to post, be sure to check out our weekly trends report.) 

From a systems perspective, you should also have a content creation schedule. You should allocate days throughout the month to plan your content calendar, create content, and perform administrative tasks like editing videos and writing captions. And, of course, automate as many things as possible, including scheduling your content using Planoly's auto-scheduling feature.

Scaling and Adapting Your Content Strategy Over Time

A content strategy isn't something you can set and forget. It's essential to refine it as you discover your content style and what resonates with your audience. Revisit your content strategy every 3-6 months to assess whether you need to make adjustments to continue reaching or exceeding your goals. As you conquer your goals, consider other ways to scale, including repurposing your content to different platforms to expand your online presence.

In the ever-evolving world of content creation, a well-defined content strategy is your roadmap to success. With the right content strategy and the support of tools like Planoly, which was designed with creators in mind, you're well-equipped to scale your creativity and reach new heights as a content creator. So, get out there and create - your journey to becoming a successful content creator starts now!

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