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Do you blog with a plan in mind, a monthly map of the topics you want to cover, or do you just wing it? While there’s definitely a place for spontaneity in business blogging, there are also benefits to planning out your content in advance.

Why Should You Consider Planning Your Blog Content in Advance?

By mapping out a plan of posts, you can reduce your stress, work in advance, maintain consistency, and build anticipation.

Sitting down each day to think of a topic to write about and thoughts to share can become challenging. There are some days where you might not feel like writing, or might want to write but be out of ideas. And other days where business or life just gets busy. When you’ve got a plan and know what your posts are about you can sit down and write them in advance. This way you can batch your writing and get it done in less time. Schedule the posts in advance and you’ll know your content is all set for the week.

It will also help you to maintain consistency. When you have a content plan and write posts in advance you can schedule them to go live at the same time each day. Your readers will begin to add your blog to their daily routine and expect your posts.

Another advantage of writing in advance is that you can drop hints and let your readers know what’s coming up soon on your blog — build anticipation and draw them back!

Tips to Help You Create Your Blog Content Plan

Begin your plan with a calendar for the month.

Look at the month ahead and check for:

• upcoming holidays
• promotions or sales you’re running
• new products you’re launching
• teleclasses or interviews
• special affiliate promotions you’re involved in

Block out the dates that you want to blog about any of those events or occasions. Then begin filling in the days around those.If you’re launching a new product you may want to write a series of posts in the week leading up to the launch that showcase your expertise on the topic or explain why it’s valuable to learn about the topic.

If you don’t have product launches or special events happening, then you could use a series strategy where you pick 4 topics and write one week on each topic. Do an overview post at the beginning of the week, 5 posts on different aspects, then a wrap up post at the end of the week. In your first post, you can build interest by letting readers know what to watch for during the week. Invite questions with your posts and in your last post in addition to a wrap up you can also answer any questions on the topic.

Another popular option is to have features based on the day of the week. For example, an inspirational post every Sunday or an image focused post every Wednesday. You could make one day of the week the day you create and share a video post. Or plan one day of the month each month to do a giveaway or drawing for readers.

Once you’ve got your plans in place you’ll find it’s easier to keep up with your blog and that your readers look forward to your regular series and features.