How to Create Consistent Monthly Content to Drive Your Business Goals in 2023

As an online business owner, you know you need to stay front of mind for your audience in order to keep making sales. The missing piece that allows you to do that? Content. And not just any content — strategic content. Because content for content’s sake might build that know, like, and trust factor, but it won’t necessarily convert to sales.

In this post, I’m walking you through a simple 5-step system to take your content from idea to eyeballs without the chaos of trying to piece it together on the fly! Let’s dive in.

Psst: If you prefer to listen in, you can do that here…

Step 1: Have an ideal client in mind

Before you put pen to paper, you need to know who you’re going to be talking to! So start with an ideal client in mind. This can be based off ideal clients you’ve worked with in the past or simply clients you want to attract in the future.

Draw on past surveys, polls and interviews to learn about your ideal client. You want to get a sense of who they are on a demographic level (age, location, job, income, etc) but also who they are on a psychographic level (their pain points, desires, mistaken beliefs, big questions, and objections). This will help you form an ideal client persona that’s based on real data, instead of assuming what your ideal clients are thinking. You can then use this data to guide your content ideas and writing to ensure it will actually resonate with your reader.

Step 2: Plan a theme for every month

In the planning phase, you’ll want to make sure you have a theme for every month. Themes can be related to holidays, seasons, or current events; they can also be based on your business goals or audience.

Seasonal Themes

For example: If you have a product-based business that’s focused on being environmentally friendly, then December could be an appropriate time to write content about gifts that are environmentally friendly (and thus align with the holiday season). Or if you’re writing business planning articles as a business strategist, then January could be a good month for writing articles related to business planning for 2023.

Sales Goals Themes

You might also choose themes based on your quarterly goals. For example, one of my goals for Q1 is to increase sales to my copywriting template shop. So each month of Q1 I’m diving into a different area of copywriting that links to the templates in my shop. For example, throughout January I’m talking about “launching” and linking to my Sales Page Plug and Play Template and Sales Email Sequence.

Most importantly — no matter what theme you choose for each month, you should make sure it will pique your readers’ interest. Do a pulse check on this by reviewing the voice of customer data you compiled in step 1 where you planned out your ideal client. If it fits in with what your audience is interested in or needs to know about, then it passes the test!

Step 3: Brainstorm content ideas

Draw content ideas from voice of customer data

Your voice of customer data is the most important part of your research because it shows you exactly what your clients or audience is thinking — the questions, desires, and pain points they have, the solutions they’ve tried before, the obstacles they’ve had to overcome, and the objections they have to your offer or industry.

Voice of customer data is simply anywhere you’ve got a record of what your ideal clients or audience is saying. This could be in the form of surveys, polls, enquiry forms, sales calls scripts, new client intake forms, social media comments or questions, and more.

If you’re starting a new online business and don’t have this information on hand, you can swipe it by reading Reddit forums on your niche, and comment sections on your competitors’ YouTube channels, Facebook ads, Instagram posts, and more! Basically, anywhere your ideal clients are expressing their opinions is a great place for you to find content ideas.

Here’s a snippet of data from one of my surveys:

Here’s how I would draw content ideas from these two frustrations:

1. How to write copy that connects with your dream client without sounding wordy
2. 5 simple tweaks to 10x the amount of time your website visitors spend on your website

Combine themes with topics

Now that you have a list of ideas and themes, it’s time to combine them in your content calendar. You want to make sure the ideas are relevant to your audience, as well as your business goals for each quarter.

For example: if your theme for the month is website design, maybe the topics could be “How to plan the design for your new website”, “How to prepare your website for an upcoming launch”, and “How to design a sales page that converts”.

If you’re an Instagram strategist and your theme for the month is feed posts, maybe your topics could be “How to plan out 30 days of content ideas for your Instagram feed”, “How to create a client-attracting Instagram Reels in just 10 minutes” or “My simple system for creating share-worthy carousel posts for Instagram”.

Create content ideas based on your offers

Drive more attention to your offers by creating posts about them. Here’s how I could do this for my copywriting services:

Brand Messaging and Website Copywriting

• 5 Ways to Improve Your Brand Messaging So You Stand Out From Your Competitors
• The 3-Step Website Copywriting Process That Will Double Your Conversions

Launch Copywriting

• The Essential Copywriting Elements You Must Prep Ahead of Your Next Launch

Monthly Content Management

• My Simple System for Creating Consistent Monthly Content Without the Chaos of Piecing it Together on the Fly

Try this out for your own offers, and make sure you link to them throughout your content to drive action.

Consider these 2 things when brainstorming content ideas:

1. Write down content ideas as they come to you. Don’t try to force them, but write them down as soon as you have one so that it doesn’t slip away from you! You can always develop the idea later — just start by getting it down on paper.
2. If you only choose the very first ideas that come to your mind, the result may be a content calendar full of posts just like the ones your competitors’ wrote… yikes! So while it’s great to jot an initial idea down, make sure you spend some time developing it. How do you know if an idea is worth pursuing in the first place? Here are some questions to consider:
   • Does this topic align with my brand and goals?
   • Is this something people need help with or that they would want more information about? (Review your voice of customer data to check!)
   • Does this content strategically fuel my sales goals? What offer or funnel does it lead to?

If you need some help getting the ball rolling on your content ideas, grab my Plug-and-Play Content Calendar right here >>

Step 4: Set a release schedule for your content

Now that you’ve got a solid idea of who your ideal client is, the monthly themes that will pique your readers’ interest, and the type of content that’ll catch your ideal clients’ attention and fuel your goals, you’re ready to set a release schedule. Here are some things to consider:

• How often you want to publish new content? I recommend publishing hero content (a blog post, podcast episode or YouTube video) weekly, but if that’s too much for you, opt for fortnightly posting — just make sure you can stick to it!
• How many pieces of content do you want to release each month/week/day? (consider micro content like Instagram posts, Reels, TikTok videos, YouTube Shorts, etc)
• How long will each piece of content be? Does length matter to you or your audience (think about their consumption habits)?
• What order does your content go in? (Think in terms of monthly or quarterly themes — is there a piece that makes the most sense to go first or last, or does order not really matter at all?)

Once you’ve got a release schedule mapped out, lock it in and move on to actually creating your content!

Step 5: Create your content

Content creation can feel intimidating. Most people don’t create because they 1) don’t make time to create and/or 2) create as they go instead of batching out content ahead of time.

In my experience (especially as a mum with a crazy schedule), I find it so much easier to plan ahead if my content is mapped out with a pre-determined release schedule.

As I have a theme for my content each month, this is a natural way to break up my content creation. So, I batch out my content for the month ahead. Here’s what my content workflow looks like:

1. Flesh out hero content pieces for the month (think podcast episode, blog post, YouTube video)
2. Record content pieces in one go (4 or 5 depending on how many weeks there are in the month!) — I like to schedule a specific day for this on my calendar (this ensures it actually gets done!)
3. Repurpose content, if need be (if you originally recorded 4 episodes for YouTube, you might like to repurpose these as 4 blog posts, podcast episodes, Instagram posts, etc!). If you have the budget, this can be a great place to bring in a video or podcast editor who can prep your content for you!
4. Schedule out all of your content — again, if you have the budget, this can be a great place to bring in a VA

If you have the budget to outsource your content creation and would prefer an expert handle it all for you, that’s where my team and I can help you! Preview our Monthly Content Management Services to see how we can help you share consistent content without the overwhelm of having to create it all yourself!

Step 6: Align your content with your website copy

It’s all well and good to have GREAT content, but if it doesn’t move your dream client or customer towards your goals (booking more clients, making more course sales, etc), then it’s just content for content’s sake.

Ensure your content is strategic by aligning it with your website copy. This means you should be speaking to the same ICA, having a consistent brand voice, and highlighting your paid (and free) offers in both your web copy and your content.

If you want to make sure your website copy is actually doing the job it should (aka connecting with and converting dream clients), swipe my Ultimate Website Copywriting Checklist.

It takes you through everything you need to include on your Home, About, and Services pages to maximise conversions. Grab the checklist now.

Conclusion

Alright, that’s it! 5 actionable tips for creating consistent content in your business. If you takeaway two things, let it be this: If you want content that actually connects and converts, make sure it reflects your voice of customer data. If you want content that strategically drives your sales goals, consider monthly and quarterly themes that allow you to weave in your offers.

If you want to outsource your content creation, learn more about how my team and I can help you with Monthly Content Creation here >>

If you want to handle your content creation yourself but still feel stuck on where to start, grab my 1 Year of Content Ideas right here >>