You know the importance of content. It is a way for you to speak directly to your target audience, in their language and on their terms. Content helps you establish and build your credibility with your audience and thus your relationship with them. And content helps your audience move through the buying journey. So when it comes to creating your content, you want to get it right, and that’s why you need a content checklist to refer to with every piece of content you produce.
A content checklist is a tool that’s keeps you consistent and on track whenever you create content. It’s something you can refer to time and time again to ensure you are doing the things that will make your content succeed. It’s meant for you – and everyone on your team – to refer to it before you even sit down and start writing.
According to a Content Marketing Institute survey of B2B marketers, the most successful content is the content that is aligned with a business goal or objective, and is also part of an overall strategy. In other words, you don’t want to create content simply for the sake of it.
A content checklist ensures that you’re not. It makes sure that it is aligned with a specific company goal, and that it spells out the goal for the content itself. That could be to drive more traffic to the website, direct people to a lead magnet to download a piece of information, submit a form for more information or something else. You get the point.
Along with helping you align the content you’re writing with a company goal or objective, your content checklist also helps you formalize things like the type of content you’re writing, the topic and distribution channels. It also helps you think about what you want the content to do and why, when a draft is due and who is responsible. This is important because it keeps you accountable.
Finally, a content checklist ensures your content tight and focused. You know everything you need to know about it before you sit down to write it, so that when you do, its purpose is crystal clear.
We all have hacks and tricks to stay organized and focused, from to-do lists to Trello boards. A content checklist is another tool for you to use to make your content creation easier and more intentional.
We have a free content checklist you can try for yourself. Click here to get it, and see the difference it makes in your content.