The Ultimate Guide to Content Planning [Free Template]

With keyword mapping, you can outline the creation of highly relevant and targeted content for specific keywords. It improves internal linking and ensures content relevance.

This will help you avoid duplicate content so each page serves a unique purpose, reducing competition for keywords and improving overall content quality.

5. Competitor Analysis

How do you start competitor analysis? You can begin this by looking at direct competitors (businesses that offer similar products/services) and indirect/partial competitors (companies that serve the same target audience as yours but offer different products or services). You can also look at businesses whose approach to content strategy you admire, even if they don’t do what you do.

Clearly state what you plan to examine, whether it’s their social media profiles, website, blog, or all of the above.

List the top three to five in your niche. Answer the following questions for each of these:

• What are their business goals?

• Do they have a solid content strategy?

• How good is their brand strategy?

• Is their audience the same as yours?

• What is their advertising strategy?

• What are their strengths and weaknesses?

• What opportunities can you take advantage of?

For instance, can you target that group if they’re slacking in serving a crucial audience? Figure out the key features or advantages you have that they don’t have.

Pro tip: Analyze your major rivals every six months to see whether their strategies have changed

6. Create content briefs

Like the brand guideline, a content brief helps ensure consistency in content production. Here, every piece of content must align with the overall content creation purpose; it specifies the key message for each piece of content.

A content brief can contain;

The goal of having a content brief is to set expectations for the team to produce and deliver work of a high standard in terms of quality and format. Furthermore, it guarantees that the content is planned and produced according to strategy.