The key is in planning and strategy
It is common for companies to jump into the pool in certain online communication channels without looking if there is water inside. That is, they open a corporate blog or profiles on social networks without having drawn up a strategy and a publication plan. To succeed with these digital tools, it is essential to work based on set objectives and with the conviction that it is an economic and time investment for the project.
In communication, strategy, calendar and content plan are the 3 necessary pillars to optimize results and transmit professionalism also through the network. A content plan is made up of the information that the company wants to offer through a certain communication channel. To start it, we must make a prior selection of those topics that we would like to deal with, such as corporate information, products or services, sector, success stories, etc.
The advantages of having a content plan are mainly six:
- Improve brand reputation by offering valuable content
- Increase traffic on said platform, be it the web if it is a blog or the profile if we talk about a social network
- Better plan internal work
- Collect information and / or images necessary for each publication
- Organize all the contents with the same approach to achieve the previously set objectives
- See and analyze the actions that have worked best to repeat them again and thus optimize the tool
To design a content plan that is successful, it is essential to analyze the current situation of the company or project. It will be a brief, concise analysis that highlights the most relevant points. It is advisable to emphasize at least two things about what the competition does, two or three keys about what customers are looking for on that platform, two points about what your company can do and what tools it has, two characteristics of the product or service and, finally, the popular SWOT (Weaknesses, Threats, Strengths and Opportunities).
Once we have this analysis, it is time to select the objectives to be achieved. You must set those goals that you want to achieve in the short, medium and long term. Ideally, define between 5 and 10 objectives and gradually modify them, adding new ones or eliminating those that are no longer interesting depending on the results that are obtained. These goals must be specified uniquely for each channel, for example, get XXX followers or increase traffic up to YYY daily visits. Careful! They are not marketing objectives such as increasing sales by Z%, but strictly speaking communication goals.
When we have defined content and objectives, we must move on to scheduling , that is, the organization of all the points already developed by days and even by hours, depending on the channel. It is necessary to define the periodicity of the publications and the distribution of the topics. It is better to put few publications and comply with them than to be very active but not periodic since publishing at the wrong time or with low quality content damages the image of any company or brand.
However, communication is totally flexible and strategies or plans are always open to change. Thus, communication strategies can and should be modified according to the results that are obtained with the different publications. It is advisable to eliminate information that does not work and add others that are better received, change times or dates according to the activity we see on the channel and decrease / increase the frequency of publications according to the response of users.
