How to plan your blog posts for the next 12 months

“I really struggle to know what to write about from one month to the next…”

If I had £1 for every time a client or contact has said this sentence to me, I’d definitely have enough for a round or two at the pub this weekend.

And I totally understand. 

I used to be there. I knew I needed to blog but sitting down every couple of weeks / every month to face a blank screen and try to figure out what to write about was an almighty pain in the you-know-what.

But then I took myself in hand (stop it) and discovered the joy of writing a schedule.

First off, set yourself a realistic schedule. 

Many of the big companies, prolific in the world of blogging, churn out several posts a week and seem to be right on the cutting edge of their industry. 

But more than likely, they have a whole team dedicated to the marketing of that company, whose job it is to create, curate and throw together post after post.

You? You’re up to your neck in your business, with no one else to rely on. You’re so busy working in your business that you barely have the time for a tea break, let alone to sit down for a couple of hours every week to write yet another blog post. Am I right?

Go easy on yourself. Set a schedule that works for you and is achievable. 

Regular is better than never. And if your regular is once per month then so be it. 

Now, take the time to set up a spreadsheet, a hand-written page, a table in a Word document or a page at the back of your diary. Whatever works for you.

Make two columns, one with Month as the title and the other with Subject/Topic/Title (whichever you prefer). Next, write the months down the ‘month’ column and you’ve already started your blog plan. Easy, right?

I’m a pen, paper and pastel highlighter kind of girl so here’s mine…

Now you’re ready for the fun and creative bit. 

If this part isn’t your idea of fun, just remember that you only have to do this once per year. So pull up your big person pants, take a deep breath, set aside a couple of hours and get it done. Future you will thank you when you come to sit down in three months’ time to create a blog post and you know exactly what you need to write about.

And to help, I’ve created a (non-exhaustive) list of things you could think about to come up with blog titles. Let’s dive right in.

• Special dates and events in your industry – think about industry events, exhibitions, seasons, holidays, anniversaries, product launches. These can all be used to create great blog posts – jot them down at the relevant times of year. I wrote a post about a new service I launched back in January 2019.
• Frequently Asked Questions – we all have a list of questions that our customers or clients ask us on a regular basis about our business / service / products. If you can muster enough of an answer for each question why not write a blog post about each one? If not, group them together in groups of three or four and write some posts to answer them.
• Introduce your team – whether you’re a sole trader or have a small team around you, why not do a post per person and introduce yourselves to your audience. It’s true that people buy from people – giving a personal insight into each person behind the business will make you much more approachable and, well, human.
• Tell the story of your business – another way of producing a more human aspect of your business – tell the story of how your business came to be. Lots of your audience will be interested and it provides a personal touch to your blog. Here’s a post I wrote about how I came to start my business, as an example.
• Awareness days / weeks / months – Do some research into the awareness days, weeks and months that are relevant to you and your business. There are so many out there and some might just be perfect for your industry. For example, #NationalMassageDay could be useful for a wellbeing / therapy business, or #NationalTellAStoryMonth might be a good prompt for a writer.
• Case studies – why not choose your most successful project from the past few months and write a case study about it. Interview your client and find out how they benefitted from your service or product and lay out the benefits. This kind of blog post can help other potential clients / customers to see how your business could help them. Here’s a case study post I wrote about one of my copywriting clients.
• How-to posts – offer your readers some free advice about how to do something themselves. This kind of post provides added value to existing customers and helps out others who might not otherwise take much notice of your business. You never know, help them out now and they might come back to you when they need your help in the future. Here’s an example of a how-to post – how to write a blog post, fast.
• Product or service spotlights – shine the spotlight on a specific product or service by writing a whole blog post about it. This provides your readers with more information about your business and what products or services you offer. You can go into greater detail about the features and benefits of your offerings to help them make their decisions.
• Testimonials – they aren’t simply for your Facebook pages. If you have a customer who is particularly happy with your business, why not ask them if you can write a testimonial piece about them. Or collect a few testimonials together in one place and shout about them in a blog post.
• Anecdotes and business stories – step outside the usual and write about a fun/unusual/strange story in your business. This is another way of giving your readers a behind the scenes glimpse at your business. Here’s an example of a post I wrote about helping a client of mine out at a photoshoot.
• Comment on industry news – you’re an expert in your field, so why not comment on industry news or things that are happening in your business world? It helps to establish you as an industry specialist in your readers’ minds and could make you stand out from the crowd too.
• Ask your readers what they’d like to read about – it sounds obvious, but why not ask those people who read your blog, what they’d like to read about? They might come up with potential blog titles that you would never dream up in a million blog-planning sessions.

There you go. If that doesn’t give you enough material for a monthly blog plan for the next 12 months, I’m not sure what will!

Here’s my plan all filled in using the ideas above – how did you get on?

I’d love to find out how this blog post helped you to plan your blog for the next 12 months – please comment below to let me know.

Yours, in words,

Helen