This podcast is brought to you by the profitable blogger society, a mentorship program that gives bloggers direction for increasing their income and growing their brand to thrive together dot blog slash Pb S to learn more and enroll today. Welcome to the Thrive Podcast. I'm repair your host and blogging coach here to help you take your brand to the next level. At thrive, we're dedicated to bringing bloggers and influencers tactics, strategies, and behind the scenes info from the best in the business. We know that you have a big vision for your brand and life and we're here to support you with blogging and social media tutorials, workshops, a community and of course, this podcast just head to thrive together dot blog for all the latest tools. If you're ready to grow your brand and looking for education and encouragement, then you've come to the right place. Now let's get ready to thrive. Hey blogging babes. Welcome back to another episode. Today we're talking about using a series as a content planning strategy. I think this is a huge game changer for bloggers and influencers if you guys are not using series to plan your content, or if you want some more ideas for new series for your content, then this is an episode that is going to help you so so much. So creating a content series is a really awesome tool that you can have in your toolbox. For strategic content planning, this is going to help you be consistent. Also, it's going to help your audience kind of have an idea of what's going on. And when your audience is more involved with your content, they tend to be more engaged, they kind of know what's coming up. And they get to look forward to things and get to be excited about what is coming next in this series. I'm going to give you a whole bunch of examples. In this episode, I'm going to tell you how you can plan it for yourself and do a step by step approach and help you take it a step further by using calls to action. And also just how to do this across all platforms. So whether it's your blog, your email, social media, you're going to be able to take this tip, and really add it to your toolbox and start running with it. First of all, what exactly am I talking about with a content series, it might be kind of obvious, but just to like break it down, because sometimes having somebody explain things can also give you new ideas, right. So when I think of a content series, I think of a topic that you are going to be talking about for an extended period of time. Now, that period of time is determined by you. So whether you want to plan a series week by week, and each week has a specific topic. Or if you want to do a month long series, you can choose to do that as well, or even a quarter long, it really kind of depends on what your niche is, and what you're excited to talk to your audience about going into the different weeks and months and seasons. Right. So for example, we could say that we have a content planning series for the holidays right around Christmas time. But we're going to take that a step further, instead of just having like a theme or like these are kind of the posts I'm doing, and really dive into how do we get our audience involved in this more so that way they're more engaged? And how do we use this to help ourselves stay super consistent, post regularly show up. I also think that using a series can really help with burnout, and it can really help take the load off. For me personally, where I start to get overwhelmed. And I'm pretty sure you guys can resonate with this is when you feel like you're just constantly having to come up with something to talk about something new. What am I going to film today to share? I don't really feel like talking about anything on story. So I'm not going to get on or what am I going to write this next blog post about let me dig through some ideas that my audience has had at me. And it feels like a little bit of like, jumbled where you're like, Man, I wish I just knew exactly what I was posting this week. And I knew wish I knew the plan. And so I have found that when you use a series approach, it helps so much with that content planning, which then helps with your strategy and it helps with reducing burnout. I feel like burnout is just it's it's everywhere. And to say that we're all avoiding it, I think is a bit naive to say if you're avoiding it, that's amazing. Please like DM me and share your tips. I have dealt with burnout. I'm feeling a little bit burnt out right now Yeah, girl needs a vacation. If you're watching the video, I'm wearing a bright green shirt, I am like summoning spring and summer vibes because I am just like, tired of the winter and needing a vacation. All of this like contributes to our mental health and like what we have going on in our personal lives, all of that, it's not just work, I know I'm getting a little off track. But when we're burnt out, it's not always just work that is burning us out, we have a lot on our plates, if you have kiddos, if you have a job, if you have side hustles, this could be a side hustle for you. You have things around the house, you have family, you have friends, like there's so many things that we have on our plate and so much that society expects from us as well. And I know you guys know what I'm talking about, like there is just this external pressure that just starts to build. And so whenever you start to feel burnt out, it's very easy for us to blame it on this, it's easy for us to blame it on our social media, on our blog on building our brand, right, I'm burnt out because I just have so much going on with my brand. I have to create content constantly. And all of this, honestly, how I'm feeling lately is that, yes, that can contribute to burnout. But it is not the only thing that can contribute to burnout. This really should be a whole other like podcast minisode or something. But I just want to say it's something that's been on my mind lately, with feeling burnt out and conversations I've been having with my husband and realizing you know, it's not just work that can cause burnout. For me, it's the load of everything else. On top of also trying to grow a brand. I'm saying all this to just hopefully reach somebody who is feeling that way and tell you that you're not alone. I've had a couple of conversations with girls in the profit blogger society or in shift with them thinking that like I have it all together all the time, I was having a chat actually with Elizabeth. I'm like Who was it was with Elizabeth from the country peony. And we were having a coaching call. And I got honest with her, I think it was kind of about this topic of just feeling like you know, burnt out and feeling like you know, I don't have it all together. And so I don't want you guys to ever listen to this podcast and just put me on some type of pedestal like that is not the case at all, I am human, just like you and have a lot going on. And using a content series truly is something that helps take just a little bit of that edge off. For me, it helps me know exactly what I'm going to be posting. Well, it knows, you know, if you have any assistance on your team, I have a couple. And so it helps me feel like I'm more in sync with my team. And I am being a good leader and I am being a good CEO. So whether that's just you or whether you have others on your team, I really think starting to use a content series consistently can help you. Now, speaking about all the other things that can lead to burnout. Don't think that help is a four letter word. I think I've said that before. It's not. It's not a four letter word, you can ask for help. And whether that is your partner, whether that is a family member or a friend or hiring somebody, it's okay to ask for help. So I just felt like I needed to get that off my chest. Maybe that's a little bit of what's going on with me. But I just wanted to share that with you guys. And I hope that's really helpful. So let's talk about like, Okay, what is the nitty gritty of content planning now, now that we know the benefits and just how it can help us in our lives.
So step by step approach, there's like three steps here. The first one is identifying your series topic. So you want to choose topics that resonate with your audience and fit your niche right. So I want to give you guys an example. I'm gonna give you a couple examples here and one is from Liz, at within the grove. She is a member of shift and somebody that I've been working with one on one as well. And something that has really helped her is to have a theme or a series planned month by month. So she does a lot of projects. She's a DIY home blogger. And so she does a lot of projects like right now they're building a greenhouse in the backyard last month, they worked on a home office renovation and did all of that. And so what has been helpful is when she can look at the entire year and be like, Okay, I know I want to do these projects. So let me just go ahead and kind of like map them out, okay, in March, I'm going to do the greenhouse. In April, we're going to do this project outside because it's warmer, and people want to be outside. In May, we're going to do this project. And so she has it set out to where she has an idea of what projects she's going to work on each month. So she's like, Okay, this is a big content series that I've got going on and a theme throughout the entire month. Now, within that month, as well, there's also a bunch of like little mini projects that a lot of them relate to, to that big project, but some of them don't. And so that helps her build out her content. So for example, when she was doing the office renovation, that's like a big overarching theme for the month, right. But in between there, she's also talking about paint and picking paint colors, and how to do so and she's sharing her paint guide that you can go and download. She's talking about different lighting fixtures and having her audience engage and help them vote on which lighting fixtures to put in the office, and then sharing affiliate links. So there's little micro moments throughout that month that she gets to talk about as well. While it's keeping with the entire theme of like, cool, we're focusing on this one room. And that has really, really helped instead of being like, okay, what are we going to talk about this week? What project am I going to do this week? And it kind of being like all over the place having one month where you're like, we're focusing on this thing, and our audience stays engaged and stays excited because they want to see the progress and they want to see cool, How's it coming along? What's going on next? And all of the things like we're excited to see the outcome of it. This episode is brought to you by member fool. Have you ever thought about having a membership for your brand. Whether your passion is cooking, DIY, home decor, fashion travel, family blogging, you name it, you can monetize your content with member full member full allows you to create a new source of income by turning your content into a membership business. With number four, you can focus on creating content that you're passionate about, and that your audience wants to see and make money while doing it. You can create multiple membership tiers, and limit access to certain blogs or videos and other content to better connect with your most devoted followers. There'll be your secret insiders getting all the extra content you don't share with others. Number four has everything you need to get your membership program up and running quickly, which I love. They've got content gating in house newsletters, private podcasts, and so much more that you can do. They also have seamlessly integrate with your existing WordPress website. Or you can use member full to build a home for your members within minutes. Plus, their team is amazing. And they're ready to help you simplify your memberships and grow your revenue. Because they're passionate about your success. We love that. You guys go get started for free at member fool.com/thrive. That's member full M emberful.com/thrive.
The other thing is, so after you've identified Okay, cool. This is like my series topic. This is what it's going to be. You want to plan the topic, right? So we're going to break it into like individual posts, timing key points that we want to cover. So an example for us now. So I wanted to give you guys a blogger example. And then what we're doing over here at thrive. So it kind of varies for us. We have gone where we'll have a content topic for an entire month. And we've also done it where we've had a content topic for an entire week. We're changing it up and kind of trying different methods. Because that's the season we're in right now. And we're seeing what really vibes with our audience. So we've done it before where we've had a month earlier, where we've talked about email. So in February, we did a thrive and five series where we talked all about growing our email list. So we talked about what to email our list, we talked about different opt ins. And so we had a series going throughout the month of February, all about email. And we were also able to apply that series conversation in other pieces. So we had it going out in our podcast. We also talked about it in our emails that went out. We also had an email challenge happening in the month of February. So everything was really synced. And that really helped me because I knew what I was focusing on that month of February. Every piece of content everything I was talking about was about email and it helped my brain to be able to focus because I was chatting with you guys in our email challenge. I was talking here on the podcast about it. And so I was very email focused and able to like answer questions from my audience through other tools for them to try all kinds of things like that. And so it really helped me apply the topic over the entire month and apply it to posts, to our emails to social media, all of the different things that we need to create. What we're trying for the next month, is a different series per week, we're trying to kind of ramp up what we're doing over on social media. And so what we're going to start trying is having a series where we're talking about a specific thing each week, so you can have fun with it and get creative with it. But it really took the guesswork and like the focus and like the Wait, what am I talking about next week? What am I talking about tomorrow, it took all of that guesswork out of it, where I just got to focus on creating content and talking with you guys and having fun with our audience. And I really, really loved that I felt like it really reduced my stress level when it came to creating content that I knew was going to be relevant for our audience. Step three is just a few execution tips. So step one was identifying your series topics. Step two is planning your content. And step three was, is execution tips. So my biggest thing is to batch your content ahead of time. And I know this is not easy for everyone. So what I want you to think of is what pieces do I feel really good about batching. So for me, one thing that I like to do is to film B roll, as I'm going and kind of throughout my days, and so I will have my phone around me and be like, You know what, this week, I really need to get like five to 10 videos of B roll of me working or me in the kitchen or me out and about, that I can use on social media to create reels. Or you know what I don't really feel like I can batch four blog posts. But what I can feel comfortable about is outlining what I am going to do for my content, and outlining what's going to happen this week and outlining what my content is going to look like for the month. Or I do feel comfortable sitting down and writing a couple of emails. So I'm writing two or three emails at a time rather than one per week, because then I feel like I'm on this never ending hamster wheel of content creation. That's why I like batching, I really do not love when I have to just sit down and create one piece of content at a time. I feel like I am wasting so much time when I do that. And when I feel like I got to just create this to get it out today, or I have to just create this to get it out tomorrow. Instead when I sit down and I'm like, okay, you know what, let me get two weeks ahead, let me write two emails, or let me sit down and let me edit like three reels and get them in my drafts and ready to go. That relieves so much stress for me. So if you've been going like day by day, moment by moment, I really want to encourage you to try to at least do to have one thing at a time and sit down to work on it in chunks of time. Rather than just one post at a time. Give it a try this week, see how it goes. So a series can really transform your content calendar as you can kind of like grasp this. So it's going to provide less stress because you know what you're posting. And when it can also fill in any content gaps and give you like a framework for other content ideas. Plus, when you have a series that build on it, you're going to build anticipation and a loyal audience base are going to keep wanting to come back they're want to tune in and when they know when something is coming. So an example of this is have you ever posted when you go on a trip or go on vacation and been like, Man, my stories, I've just like gone up? And I'm like not even really caring about what I post. But people want to see what's going on? Because it's something a little bit different. And there's that anticipation of like, Oh, what is she going to do next? You can pull that in when it comes to content planning. It doesn't have to just be I gotta go on a trip because I needed to get my story views up, although if you need to use that as an excuse to go for it. But you can also use that tactic whenever you're using a series and having it build on itself. So they're wondering, oh, what's coming next? What is she going to teach next? Right. So when Liz is working on her office, she did a built in first and then it was like, Okay, I'm going to pick the pay. I'm going to show you guys what pay I'm going to use and so everybody's like, Oh, I gotta keep going back to her story to see what color paint and she's like I'm also going to use this paint floor to see Like baseboards, everything is gonna be one color throughout the entire office. I was I was glued, I'm like, I gotta see when I'm like, keep going back to her stories and like refresh refresh, When is she going to share the paint color, right. And so it builds that anticipation with your audience. So when you keep building on stuff, you can give yourself a bit of that boost that like going on a vacation or going on a trip would be. So feedback from your audience, and is also something that can also really help boost all of this. So when you talk to your audience, and really use them to help guide your content, it's going to perform better. Now, here's the thing, here's kind of a little trick there. Okay. You want to get them involved in planning your content, but you've already have your content planned. Okay. So for example, let's say that you have two reels in your draft, and you're like, I know, I'm going to post both of these reels this week, it doesn't really matter to me, which one goes first, but they're on two slightly different topics. So let me pull my audience. And let me see which one they want to see first, your audiences and voting, which is engaging in your content and boosting the algorithm to like your content more, and then they're going to be coming back to see, okay, well, I'm invested, now I voted. Now I want to see that reel or that piece of content that she was talking about. So they're coming back the next day, to then see or later that day to then see the reel or the post or whatever it may be because they voted on it. And now they're invested. So you want to get them involved in a way that you already have an idea of what's going to happen. But letting them feel like oh, they get to like choose a little bit and they get to kind of guide the journey in which the content is released. The other tools that you can use to kind of help with like your content planning and execution other than like, I'm going to help my audience help me figure out which one I'm going to post today type of thing is, you know, serving your audience. So again, doing polls, saying like, Okay, this month, we're going to talk about meal planning. Now, what kind of recipes do you guys want to see in asking more concrete questions? So like this week? Do you guys want to see more salad or more pasta based recipes this week? Do you guys want to see a mocktail or a dessert recipe? Right and kind of having them guide so you already have an idea like this month, I already know. There's four weeks, I know that one week I'm going to focus on salads. One week, I'm gonna focus on pasta. One week, I'm going to focus on mocktail, and one week I'm going to focus on desserts. But you're asking your audience to help guide you. The other thing is, then if you're planning for a future month be like awesome. Next month, we're going to talk about meal. Let's continue with the meal planning, right? Pull them, ask them questions be like, what's your biggest meal planning pain points? What recipes? Do you want to see? What vegetables do you love? What vegetables do you hate? What is your favorite dessert? Right? So then you're able to pull all of those things from your audience and be like, okay, cool. I it's easy for me to plan, like meals, because that is your niche. And that's what you're awesome at. So then you can take the content that you got from your audience and be like, Okay, I got so many requests for like, chocolate dessert recipes. I got so many people saying that they were bored with salads. And can you help spice that up, I got so many people saying that they really wanted to see smoothie bowls. So I'm gonna throw in a whole week of smoothie bowl recipes, right? So you're able to take content that they've given you, and plug it into the series that you have planned for the next month, and let that guide how you're create the series. Then, when they come back, they're super invested, because they responded to your polls and your surveys. And they also want to see those recipes that they said like I really told her I wanted to see a chocolate dessert recipe she better bring that. So they're gonna come back and keep refreshing and keep looking to see if you've got that recipe app. So that's how we like survey our audience, get them involved with planning our content, while creating consistency with a series. So it's all reducing stress for you. And it's getting your audience involved. Everybody's always complaining about my engagement is low. My engagement is low, my engagement is low, but are you involving your audience in this way to boost your engagement in a fun way for you? So to take this one step further, before we wrap this up, use call to actions as you're doing this. So if you are doing a meal planning month, for the month of April, and you're gonna have all of these different things What kind of calls to action do you have? Can you create some freebies around this? Can you create a meal planning sheet that you refer to every single week, multiple times a week in your content to get people to sign up for your email list? Can you take that one step further and create a $9 digital product that you sell as an upsell to that freebie, so you have a tripwire set up, they fill it out, you get a thank you page for getting the free download. Before you go, do you want to buy this $9 thing and now you've created a series that you love. That reduces stress for you, you're engaging with your audience and upping your engagement on all platforms. And you're growing your email list and making some extra money through a digital product. That is how we create this full circle and I need to create a graphic now that I'm saying this, I'm gonna get my pen out. I'm going to create a graphic that shows all of this because this is going to help so so much in just keeping this wheel going.
It's like the anti burn out method I feel like and it also boosts content boosts engagement, boosts your email list boosts your money, all the things okay. All right. If you guys liked this episode, I talk about stuff like this all of the time with our gals inside the profitable blogger society, I am constantly brainstorming with them, helping them figure out what is going to be my plan for growing my brand for growing my audience. So if you have not checked out the profitable blogger society head to thrive together dot blog, slash PBS. If you're looking to monetize your content, if you're looking for some guidance, some group coaching a supportive community, then you need to be in there joining us today thrive together dot blog slash PBS will give you all the details. And I hope to see you in there. So as a quick wrap up, make sure you're planning your content and just realizing how this can really help you. Be consistent post consistently reduce burnout, have more fun and engage with your audience. All right, we'll see you guys back here next week where we're going to talk about ways to increase your blog traffic. Gonna be a lot of fun. So make sure you tune back next week or if you're watching this or listening to this a little bit late. You can go and start binging that content right now. I'll see you guys later. Thanks so much for listening. You can find all of the notes from today's podcast at thrive together dot blog slash podcast. Make sure you connect with us over on Instagram at thrive together blog and join our Facebook community to get supported by like minded bloggers and influencers. Just search Thrive blogger community on Facebook. And if you're loving this podcast, be sure to share it with a friend. Hit that subscribe button and leave us review so even more bloggers can get the support they need to grow. Until next time, keep thriving.
