A content plan encompasses all the processes and workflows that drive your content marketing initiatives. Although sometimes used interchangeably, content planning and content strategy differ widely. A content strategy outlines high-level marketing goals, while a content plan is an operational document that helps you achieve those goals in a timely manner. Simply put, a content strategy defines the desired result while a content plan lays out the roadmap that you follow to reach those results.

Why do you need a content plan?

A comprehensive content plan delivers many benefits to companies. It helps:

Overcome the day-to-day operational challenges around content topics, deadlines, and other things that can hinder campaign completion.
Plan resource allocation so that your campaigns are executed in a timely manner.
Ensure that every content asset gets the attention it deserves.
Give visibility into the short- and long-term content pipeline to all stakeholders.
Maintain a consistent publishing frequency to stay top-of-mind on cluttered media channels.

What are the elements of a content plan?

A typical content plan has five core elements:

Workflows: Workflows for content production and approvals keep your campaigns on track and enable collaboration across teams.
Content calendar: A content calendar outlines the assets that need to be made and related timelines.
Onboarding and training plan: All internal and external stakeholders need to learn the plan so that everyone is on the same page and content planning becomes a repeatable, frictionless process.
Communication: Transparent communication between stakeholders is the key to good teamwork and timely goal completion.
Collaboration and optimization: Content planning allows all stakeholders to weigh in at any point of the process and ensures improvements are made when they matter most.

What is the content planning process?

Content planning involves the following steps:

Set your goals. It’s essential that you set clear goals for your content marketing campaigns and state them in measurable, time-sensitive terms in your content plan.
Define your target personas. Tailor content to users’ needs so you can win their trust and become their preferred brand.
Decide on a publishing schedule. Break through the noise on busy digital channels by publishing consistently. To stay on track, draft an editorial calendar that outlines deliverables on a daily, weekly, and quarterly basis.
Analyze and optimize your content plan. Measuring your content’s performance can help you analyze flaws in your content plan and optimize it to achieve the desired outcome.

Protecting Brand Messaging and Eliminating Risk with Sprinklr

Take control of your content planning process with Sprinklr Modern Marketing & Advertising.

Today, most organizations function with siloed teams and disconnected workflows — which leads to inefficiencies in the content publishing process. Sprinklr Modern Marketing & Advertising brings your teams together and empowers them to collaborate in building a unified content plan. The result: 40% faster content production and streamlined publishing. Using our advanced AI-powered content planning and marketing software, you can:

Plan all your marketing activities across 30+ paid and owned channels with a unified editorial calendar
Define all your campaign guidelines and content requirements in brief templates and collaborate on them with different stakeholders
Submit your message ideas for approval with key details, documentation, and notes
Produce and publish cross-channel content in a single message with predefined content templates
Build message variants based on geography for your global content to drive collaboration and visibility between global and local teams

Take advantage of the world’s only unified customer experience management (Unified-CXM) platform to build a solid content plan and expand your reach, engagement, and revenue exponentially.