Tips for Bulk Planning Content
You know content is important and you have great ideas for what to post. Sometimes. You have information to share, but you always seem to be throwing it together last minute. If you have these or other struggles with content, now might be a good time to try bulk content planning.
Why Care About Bulk Content Planning
Bulk content planning, or content batching, is a process where you plan and create a few weeks or months of content at a time. This might sound like a lot of work, but it actually saves a lot of stress and headache.
Think of bulk planning like menu planning and meal prep. Instead of asking yourself what’s for dinner or what you are going to post each day, you sit down ahead of time and plan a menu of what you are going to eat or post.
Go a step further by prepping meals or content ahead of time. This way, when you need to post that announcement, or dinner time rolls around, you have everything ready to go and aren’t left scrambling.
If lack of stress isn’t a motivating factor for you to bulk plan, here are a few other benefits. You can save time and resources by doing similar tasks together. This is like going to the store once in the week with your grocery list instead of going each day for dinner ingredients—your mind can stay in one mode instead of hopping from task to task.
Planning your content out this way also lets you have more control of the long-term plan. This will strengthen your content and make your work more cohesive. Now that you’re on board with bulk content planning, here are some tips on how to do it successfully.
How To Bulk Content Plan And Create
Identify Pillar Topics
Before starting on any journey, know where you’re headed. Make sure you know what you want your content to be about. Think big picture here—you want a handful of topics and themes that fit your brand to create consistency and cohesiveness. Write this down so you don’t accidentally stray from the path, getting lost in a mist of good ideas.
Brainstorm Ideas
Once you have a big picture laid out, start brainstorming ideas for content that fits under your pillar topics. Here are some things to keep in mind during this stage:
- Important dates and events
- Announcements you want to share
- Frequently asked questions you want to cover
Don’t be afraid to put down old ideas that it’s been a while since you’ve used.
Create Content
Now that you know what content you want to create, you can get to work creating. This can be done:
- By the type of content (blogs, videos, or social media),
- By the task (researching, outlining, and finding images)
- By the content (create your long-form, and then break the same information down for shorter forms).
There isn’t a right or wrong way to do this, so feel free to explore different ways to batch things while you figure out what works for you.
Depending on what types of content you are creating, various steps in your creating process might include:
- Writing posts or captions – think about each part such as hooks and calls to action
- Sourcing photos or other images – this includes your own images and stock images
- Filming content – outline your scripts and then set up and record multiple things at once
- Designing graphics – keep dimensions in mind, and create templates to save time
Schedule Content
Plan to do some of this before the creation stage so you know what content to focus on creating. Either way, plan when you’ll post your content so you get the most from your awesome content. Bonus points if you automate your content posting once the content is created.
Extra Tips
Repurpose Content
One way to repurpose content is to use the same material for multiple forms of content. This can be done as you take a blog post or YouTube video and create a Tweet or Facebook post with the main idea. Here you’re taking one idea and sharing it multiple ways.
Another way to repurpose content is to recycle old content. People forget things and you get new viewers, so it makes sense to share old ideas again—especially if they performed well originally.
When recycling content, you can update old content in the same format. Or you can take the information from your old content and share it in a new format (ie. take an old video and turn it into a written post).
Analyze Posts
Before your brainstorming sessions, analyze old content if you want it to have the greatest effect. These are some things we recommend looking at.
- What times and days to post for the most views and engagement
- What format do your viewers engage with the most
- What type of content your consumers like and find beneficial
Start Small
Before you get overwhelmed, remember that you don’t have to do all of this at once. You should spread this process multiple days. The goal with bulk content planning is not to rush or half-ass it, but to be more resourceful and intentional.
When you start out, do a little bit extra and add a little more each time. Tackle a few days or a week of content at first, and gradually build up to larger batches as you feel comfortable.
Be Consistent
Are you ready to give this a try? Bulk planning and creating won’t work well sporadically. Schedule a regular time to plan and create your content. Like the tortoise vs. the hare, consistent effort will get you further than sporadic bursts of effort. Plan a time now to take your first step.