Marketers who produce high-quality essays never rush content publishing.
They also never just hit the ‘publish’ or ‘share’ button after creating content.
Instead, they develop a detailed content publishing strategy tailored to their marketing goals and target audience’s preferences. This improves the impact of every content piece and the ROI of their content creation efforts.
Let’s take a closer look at content publishing, why it matters, and how to build a strategy for it.
What is content publishing?
Content publishing is a major component of a content marketing strategy.
It involves deciding the best content format for sharing, where it will be shared, and when to do it.
Remember, content quality, relevance, and value are not the only factors you should worry about. There are also your content buckets, posting schedule, content distribution strategy, and post-approval process.
- Content publishing schedule. When and how frequently should you publish content?
- Distribution/promotion channels. Where should you share posts for maximum reach?
- Content buckets. What content buckets or formats can amplify your message?
- Review process. How will you decide if the piece ready for publishing?
To reap the full benefits of content publishing, build a strategy that answers these questions. The more detailed those answers are, the better.
Benefits of content publishing
A content publishing strategy boosts audience engagement, optimises efficiency, and achieves marketing goals.
Here’s how:
Benefit 1: Improve post/content visibility
The timing of your posts affects how many people can see them.
If you publish social content when most of your readers are asleep or busy, chances are your post will go unseen.
And when your audience is ready to consume content, your post is already buried under a mound of content from other brands.
This will limit your post’s potential to generate user engagement—regardless of its quality.
But if you publish you post at the right time, it can appear at the top of your target audience’s feeds. This is a much more favourable position for generating user engagement.
Benefit 2: Streamline content development
A content publishing strategy streamlines processes related to content development.
Let’s say you need to promote a blog post on Instagram.
Your content publishing strategy should outline which formats to use, be it image quotes, carousels, screenshots, or custom graphics.
Simply choose one that best communicates your content’s most valuable and attention-grabbing detail (shareable quote, key takeaways, step-by-step instructions, statistics, etc.), and continuously analyse which mediums perform the best for you.
Benefit 3: Accomplish marketing goals
In digital marketing, having a library of high-quality, evergreen content isn't the end-goal. It’s how those pieces of content get you closer to your marketing goals that matter.
If you want to increase revenue, align your publishing strategy with the habits of your buyer personas. If you need more traffic, focus on promoting relevant content on busy channels, like social media or Q&A sites.
Your content publishing strategy will help you make these crucial decisions.
How to create a content publishing strategy
Before you plan your content publishing strategy, you need to identify your content marketing goals, create audience personas, and conduct content research.
Put them all together to develop a content creation workflow so you have high-quality articles to publish.
Follow my content development guide for these essentials.
Content research reveals valuable insights that supplies you with crucial content ideas. Meanwhile, your audience personas determine the best distribution channels for your content based on your target audience’s preferences.
For example, if your target audience consists of professionals, choose LinkedIn as your content distribution channel.
Scan the network’s top-performing posts to discover the best content types and topics that get engagement.
The next step is to acquire the right tools for content planning and publishing.
Teamwork App is a powerful platform for creating internal content plans.
It keeps everyone on the same page with collaboration features like visual workflow planning, document sharing, group chats, and third-party integrations (cloud storage, virtual conferencing, etc.).
Use the Teamwork App’s file-sharing capabilities for important documents, like personas, content guidelines, and templates.
Use the custom workflow builder to track tasks like editing and repurposing content for social media.
The Teamwork App also has a calendar tool for managing task deadlines and publishing dates.
While it’s designed primarily for events, you can still use it for content projects by entering details, like:
- What’s the post’s title
- Where to publish the post
- Who’s in charge of approving the post
If you need a more straightforward content scheduling platform, try CoSchedule, which is free for the basic content calendar. The platform functions as a centralised calendar for content marketing projects, including blog posts, emails, and social media content.
CoSchedule’s main feature is simplified content automation. Just create a project, define your tasks, and set a schedule to automatically publish your post to the channel you specify.
Go to the calendar page, click ‘Create,’ and select ‘Project’ to plan an automated post with CoSchedule.
Give your project a name and select a project type from the drop-down menu as shown below. Click ‘More options’ to add a project description and tags (optional).
CoSchedule will take you to the project builder where you can add links, use project templates, assign tasks, and set publishing times.
Paste the link to the content you want to promote into the “Add a link” field.
CoSchedule lets you automate posts using four pre-defined schedules: same day as publish, day after publish, week after publish, and month after publish. Otherwise, select ‘Custom Date’ if you prefer to set a date yourself.
To set a posting schedule, click the “Plus” button next to your choice.
Complete the details of your automated post by picking a social profile, writing a description, uploading media attachments, and finalising the posting date and time.
CoSchedule’s “Best Time Scheduling” feature automatically uses proven posting times for the specified channels.
To use a custom schedule, click ‘Best time’ and choose a different time from the drop-down menu. You can also set a specific posting time by selecting ‘Custom time.’
Not confident in the description you wrote?
Click ‘Analyze’ to get actionable feedback about your post.
Based on the feedback you obtain, tweak your description so it gets a better score.
20-point checklist for content publishing
Tools like Teamwork and CoSchedule lay the foundations of a successful content publishing strategy.
But before you publish a single post, double-check the 20-point checklist below to supercharge your results.
Check 1: Is your piece 100% polished?
Have an editorial team review the draft’s quality, spelling, and grammar before publishing it.
If you can't afford an editorial team, leave your content for a week and come back to it with a fresh pair of eyes.
To save time, use writing assistants like Grammarly to quickly identify issues and get correction suggestions.
Check 2: Am I posting at the right time?
Align your posting schedule with your target audience’s behaviour. Research the best posting times for your chosen channels and use analytics data to fine-tune your schedule over time.
Check 3: Does my content answer questions mentioned in the title?
Provide audiences with a memorable and compelling experience by providing takeaways that relate to the post’s title.
Don’t disappoint them by mentioning topics or questions that aren’t covered in your content.
Intent is important here. Don't let your title over-promise or under deliver.
Check 4: Is my title any good?
Use a tool like Headline Studio to create eye-catching post titles. Insert your target keyword to improve the post’s search engine rankings.
Check 5: Is the permalink optimised?
Modify your post’s URL structure to make it shorter and easier to remember. A proven strategy is to use your target keyword as the post’s permalink.
Check 6: Am I publishing on the right channels?
Consult your audience personas to bring quality traffic back to your website. Use content tracking solutions like Google Analytics to pinpoint your most effective traffic channels.
Check 7: Does the post have enough internal and external links?
Sprinkle internal links to your own content to spread link equity across your website and improve the overall rankings of your website.
Add external links to authoritative blogs to improve user experience and the trustworthiness of your brand.
Check 8: Do I have an effective CTA?
Top off your content with a call-to-action tied to your content marketing goals. Experiment with multiple CTAs with split testing to maximise conversions.
Check 9: Did I use enough visual content?
Improve your content’s readability using images, videos, and other visuals that break up thick walls of text. These elements also increase your posts’ shareability on social media.
Check 10: Is the meta description catchy?
Write a punchy meta description that sets your target audience’s expectations. This improves your content’s organic click-through rate from search engine results.
Check 11: Is it formatted for readability?
Use plenty of subheadings (H2, H3, H4, etc.) where it counts to improve your post’s readability. Organise sets of information into bulleted or numbered lists to make them more digestible.
Check 12: Does the intro hook readers?
Review and revise your post’s intro if necessary to ensure it hooks readers. Start with an impactful one-liner, like a question, statistic, or cold hard fact.
Check 13: Is the content short but meaty?
Review your content and trim wordy, redundant, and weak lines. Keep sentences and paragraphs short so the whole piece reads with authority.
Check 14: Is the information up-to-date?
If you included statistics, check the web for more updated data. As a general rule of thumb, avoid citing any data or statistics that are older than 24 months.
Check 15: Is the caption enticing?
Write inviting post descriptions or captions that concisely explain the post’s topic. Pique your audience’s interest with emojis, questions, statistics, or takeaways from your content.
Check 16: Did I use the right hashtags?
Improve your content’s searchability on channels like Twitter and Instagram by injecting relevant hashtags into the description. Find juicy hashtag ideas with free tools like Hashtagify.
Check 17: Does the post highlight your brand voice?
Infuse your post’s description with your unique brand voice. This makes it more recognisable on channels like social media and email.
Check 18: Are my KPIs defined?
Define KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) to measure the effectiveness of your content publishing strategy. Focus on metrics that are directly tied with your content marketing goals, like conversion rate for lead generation and follower growth for brand building.
Check 19: Did I use the right content bucket?
Mould content around content buckets that communicate your message efficiently and impactfully. Some examples of content buckets are online reviews, listicles, short-form videos, and how-to guides.
Check 20: Is the content long enough?
Content length isn't a specific ranking factor, but there is a correlation between length and rankings.
There's also a correlation with length and the number of keywords you will rank for.
Rank higher in search engines by matching or exceeding the average word count of the top 10 results for your target keyword as long as the content is adding value.
Write sentences with a purpose, communicate your points clearly, and avoid adding fluff.
Consider answering questions that people are searching for in Google to improve your content.
FAQs about creating a content publishing strategy
Question 1: What is content publishing on social media?
Social media content publishing involves strategising, creating, and scheduling content based on the audience’s activity patterns.
Tools can be used to automate specific tasks like posting, report generation, and content curation.
Question 2: What are publishing tools?
Content publishing tools include blogging platforms, content management systems, and social media apps. These are applications that allow individual users and brands to upload content privately or publicly.
Question 3: What is online content publishing?
Online content publishing, also known as online or electronic publishing, involves uploading and publicising digital content like blog posts, newsletters, eBooks, social media posts, and online news articles.
A content publishing strategy is needed to optimise the distribution of content for maximum views.
Create your content publishing strategy now
Magnify the reach of your content with an effective content publishing strategy.
Don’t just hit the ‘Publish’ button as soon as your content is completed. Instead, use the checklist above to ensure every piece of content you publish makes big waves on the web.
We can do it together. Contact me if you need to plan the perfect content publishing strategy for your brand.