The first step to creating a robust content calendar is conducting research to inform the topics that will eventually end up on that calendar. You want to know what's out there already, what you have right now, and what your customers and prospects need from you.

In his book Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less, Greg McKeown explains the importance of feeding your brain with a wide range of information to develop the best ideas. Discussing his interview with a well-known journalist, he writes:

Getting to the essence of a story takes a deep understanding of the topic, its context, its fit into the bigger picture, and its relationship to different fields. So she would read all the related news and try to spot the one piece of information that all others had missed or hadn’t focused enough on. "My goal," she said, "was to understand the spider-web of the story because that is what allowed me to spot any 'abnormal' or 'unusual' detail or behavior that didn’t quite fit into the natural course of the story."

At first, feeding your brain in this way may seem like a laborious process. Later, it will become instinctive and natural; you'll take in information quickly and immediately see what's important to see. Think of Neo in The Matrix when he finally comes into his power and can "see" events in the matrix's code. That will be you!

1. THE BRAND CONTENT AUDIT

Let's get started by auditing your own content. You're going to get a handle on what customer/prospect needs you haven't yet addressed with your content, what assets you have already that you might be able to repurpose, and your overall content situation.

Start by watching the Brand Content Audit video:

Having trouble watching this video?  click here

THE WHY

Once you have a full view of your existing content, you'll be able to create a content calendar that fills in holes and shores up weaknesses in your own content, and that leverages existing content to squeeze as much as possible out of your budget.

THE HOW

In the Brand Content Audit you'll be using some of the materials you pulled together in the Get Prepped step to evaluate how well your content matches your mission, and asking yourself a set of questions designed to generate additional insights.

REFRESH YOUR MEMORY

If you have them, you gathered your customer personas, brand messaging statement, mission statement, and a list of common customer/prospect questions. Start out by giving these a quick read if you need to; as you go through your content, you'll be judging how well these goals, questions, and ideals are reflected there. Then you'll be able to correct any disconnects in your upcoming content and reoptimize older content to be a better fit.

Once you've skimmed through these brand documents, open up your existing content in separate tabs in your browser—such as your blog, resources page, and lead-gen reports and other downloads. (Open up your social media profiles only if social is a particularly important channel for your brand.) In another tab, open your content analytics platform if you use one, such as Google Analytics or HubSpot.

SKIM YOUR CONTENT

Next, quickly read over your content. I've provided a list of questions below to ask yourself as you look over each piece. I also explain the purpose of the questions and offer examples of how they'll come into play later in the process. The worksheet 7. CONTENT AUDIT in the Toolkit section has these questions as well, plus spaces to take notes on your findings.

Confession time: I don't have a rigid list of questions that I check off for each piece of content I look at. As you'll see in the walkthrough video, this is a fluid process; and as I mentioned earlier, content is messy. There's no one-size-fits-all process. Our goal is to systematize it as much as we can—and a list of broad questions is a good way to start.

I also don't look at every single piece of content; I skim the titles of the content and dip in only when something catches my eye or seems relevant to the insights from any previous research I've done. How far I go back into the archives depends on how much content there is. At a certain point, you're just spinning your wheels with content that's too old to matter. (This applies to all three audits you'll be doing: your Brand Content Audit now, and after that the Competitor Content Audit and the Media Audit.)

Once you understand the basics of the Brand Content Audit (and the other audits) and get the hang of implementing it, you'll start to grasp intuitively what you're looking for. When you scan through the content, things will jump out at you: that old blog post is even more relevant today! This headline seems "off"! We're missing content around our last product update! And then you can do more sleuthing if needed to validate (or negate) your hunches.

Also, as you go through these questions, don't worry about actually brainstorming new ideas and formats around the answers right now...but if any ideas do pop up, jot them down at the end of the 7. CONTENT AUDIT worksheet, where we've included a space at the end for extra notes.

BRAND CONTENT AUDIT QUESTION 1: DOES THIS PIECE OF CONTENT DO A GOOD JOB OF ANSWERING OUR CUSTOMERS'/PROSPECTS' QUESTIONS?

If not, you might either reoptimize the content to address the top questions and republish it as new or create new content to fill this need. (Use the list of customer/prospect questions you created in the worksheet 3. CUSTOMER FAQ EMAIL SCRIPT for this.)

BRAND CONTENT AUDIT QUESTION 2: COULD THIS PIECE OF CONTENT BE MORE THOROUGH?

We've moved beyond the quick-hit, SEO keyword-heavy content that used to be so popular. Content needs to be reader-friendly, yes...but it also needs to be thorough enough to be worth your audience's time. If any of your content assets are too surface-level, they are good candidates for beefing up and republishing. As an alternative, you might choose to develop a companion piece of content to fill in the missing information.

What do I mean by this? If a piece of content brings up questions in the reader's mind that are not answered by the end of that piece (or at least in crosslinked content), then it's too surface-level.

For example, you've probably seen:

• • Articles or whitepapers that give advice like "Create a positive employee culture" or "Set up training for your sales team"...and then offer no solid strategies for how to actually accomplish these tasks.
  • Case studies that wax eloquent about the client's success but gloss over the challenges.
  • Webinars that are all sales, no substance.

I don't need to tell you that a big part of your content's purpose is to build your brand's authority and credibility by offering actual value. If the point of a piece of content could be expressed in a social media image, it's not thorough enough for your (smart!) audience.

BRAND CONTENT AUDIT QUESTION 3: WOULD THIS PIECE WORK JUST AS WELL/BETTER IN ANOTHER FORMAT?

This is another opportunity to add reoptimized content to your calendar or to spin the topic off into different formats; for example, if you determine that a gated whitepaper would work better as a series of blog posts that are easy to access and read, that might become four new content assets to add to your calendar later. As another example, maybe you realize the webinar you posted last year was not high quality; perhaps you could have it transcribed and publish it as a Q&A-style article instead.

This not only gives you more assets for less work: it also lets you reach more prospects and customers in the channels where they prefer to take in content.

BRAND CONTENT AUDIT QUESTION 4: DOES THIS CONTENT ALIGN WITH OUR BRAND'S MISSION?

Of course, this question is relevant only if your company is actually serious about its mission statement; as I mentioned earlier, too many companies spend a lot of time and resources developing a mission statement just because they think they should—and then they never look at it again.

Assuming yours is a brand that truly cares about its mission: if the content aligns with that mission, it's fair game to pull apart for social media posts and other repurposed content. If it doesn't, you can reoptimize it to fit. You might also commit to focusing more on your brand's mission in future content.

BRAND CONTENT AUDIT QUESTION 5: IS THIS CONTENT UP TO DATE?

Look at any statistics and research that appear in the content. If they're more than a couple years old—or they're newer but seem outdated due to recent events—you might either update and republish the piece or tackle the topic afresh with a new piece of content.

Things change fast, which is a good thing: it gives you tons of fodder for new content!

BRAND CONTENT AUDIT QUESTION 6: HAVE WE DONE A GOOD JOB OF PROMOTING THIS ASSET?

We've all had the experience of creating an amazing piece of content...and then letting promotion fall through the cracks when something more in-your-face comes up. So this great content withers on the vine with zero engagement and zero results.

When you come across solid content that never got its day in the sun, you might add newsletters and social media posts promoting it to your new content calendar.

BRAND CONTENT AUDIT QUESTION 7: WHAT HAVE THE RESULTS BEEN?

This question is the reason I recommended you open up your content analytics platform. Do the numbers show that this a popular piece? How many visitors download the content or take other desired actions after viewing it?

If no one ever saw the content besides your mom, you're free to freshen it up as needed and republish it with confidence, incorporating all the tricks and techniques you've learned since it was originally published to increase engagement.

During this entire evaluation, take notes on what you discover and then write down your overall impressions on your content. What are the strengths and weaknesses? What are you missing? What do you do too much of, and what do you not do enough of? Again, you'll use all this information later in the Playbook to fill in any gaps in your content and to find assets to reoptimize and republish.

2. THE MEDIA AUDIT

In this step, you'll be looking over relevant magazines, websites, and other media outlets.

Start by watching the Media Audit video:

Having trouble watching this video?  click here

THE WHY

If pitching your content to the media will be part of your content plan, the Media Audit will help you determine what your target publications are running now and what they plan to run in the future. As a long-time magazine writer, I can tell you that you have a much higher chance of success if the content you pitch fits in with the publication's upcoming content themes.

If you're interested in pursuing paid placements, the Media Audit will give you ideas for topics and formats that work well in your chosen outlets.

And if you don't plan to pitch or place content in trade magazines, consumer publications, or websites/blogs, this research will give you an overview of what people are talking about in your industry and your marketplace—which will help you brainstorm content topics later. Not to mention, publications typically have a deep knowledge of their readership. By checking out the publications your audience reads, you can leverage all of that outlet's research, knowledge, and audience insights for your own content.

THE HOW

You already gathered the editorial calendars and web addresses of five publications. Open these up for each publication and ask yourself these questions. Use the worksheet 6. MEDIA AUDIT in the Toolkit section, which has these questions as well as space to take notes on your findings.

MEDIA AUDIT QUESTION 1: WHAT KIND OF CONTENT DOES THIS PUBLICATION RUN? (NEWS, OPINION, ETC.)

There are two reasons for this question: first, you don't want to pitch a content type that the outlet doesn't run. Second, it gives you a peek into the types of content your own audience may be most interested in.

MEDIA AUDIT QUESTION 2: WHAT CONTENT DO THEY FEATURE/GIVE TOP BILLING TO?

There are good clues here as to what your prospects want to read!

MEDIA AUDIT QUESTION 3: WHAT ARE THE DEPARTMENTS OR CATEGORIES OF CONTENT?

If any seem particularly relevant to your business, open them up and take a quick look at the content there. For example, if your company offers consulting services for small businesses and the publication has a department called "Small Business Operations," this would be a good place to focus.

MEDIA AUDIT QUESTION 4: WHAT TOPICS ARE COMING UP IN THE EDITORIAL CALENDAR?

Again, these pubs know their audience! If your audience overlaps with theirs, it's very valuable to know what content they're planning.

MEDIA AUDIT QUESTION 5: WHAT CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES DO YOU SEE FOR YOUR OWN AUDIENCE HERE?

These are easy pickings for your own content. I offer an example of this in the video walkthrough for this section.

How will you be using this information as you build your content calendar? Below is an example of an opportunity I discovered for a company that does data analysis for consumer packaged goods businesses.

As you can see, a food industry trade publication reported that regaining consumer trust is a big pain point for my client's prospects. Later, I turned this into an idea for an article on how large consumer packaged goods companies can gain consumer trust through data—which, of course, my client was well-positioned to help them with.

3. THE COMPETITOR CONTENT AUDIT

Now that you have a good overview of your existing content assets, you're going to check out the competition's content.

Started by watching the Competitor Content Audit video:

Having trouble watching this video?  click here

THE WHY

Evaluating your competitors' content ensures that the content topics you develop for your calendar will be unique; after all, it doesn't make sense for a Bootstrapping Content Marketer like you to spend time and resources duplicating someone else's content.

And even if your topics won't be entirely unique, you have the opportunity to make sure they're better than whatever's out there by changing up:

• • The angle you take on it.
  • The style you write it in.
  • The thoroughness and freshness of the information.
  • The layout and format.
  • The distribution channel.

The Competitor Content Audit is also a good opportunity to take note of topics that are sorely lacking in the competitive marketplace. For example, if you're a financial services firm and you notice that none of your competitors provide detailed content on how much it costs to hire a financial advisor, you might want to add that one to your list.

Finally, this audit can give you the scoop on what your audience is looking for. For example, if a competitor has a piece of content that's driven a lot of engagement for the brand, figure out what made it so appealing and add those elements to your new content. 

THE HOW

You already listed your top competitors and their web addresses as part of the prep-work for your content calendar. Open each competitor's website in a separate tab in your browser and quickly go through the last few months' worth of their content—blog posts, resource pages, and the rest. (Go through their social media feeds only if these are important channels for you.)

If they've published way too much content over the past few months for you look over in a reasonable amount of time, just do as much as you can fit in. You'll probably learn everything you need to know fairly quickly; beyond that you'll get diminishing returns on your efforts.

Skim the content and ask yourself these questions, taking notes as you go using the worksheet 5. COMPETITOR AUDIT in the Toolkit section. As I mentioned in the section on the Brand Content Audit, I don't use a written list of questions to check off as I do these audits; the questions here are distilled from two decades of experience evaluating content and are just to get you started. Over time you'll be able to do a Competitor Content Audit sans list. 

Here I provide the rationale behind each question, as well as examples of how you might use the information, but you don't need to worry about actually developing ideas around these questions until the upcoming Brainstorming step. If ideas do come up, add them to the Additional Notes section of your worksheet.

COMPETITOR AUDIT QUESTION 1: HOW HAS THIS COMPETITOR ADDRESSED OUR CUSTOMERS' TOP QUESTIONS?

Use the list of frequently asked questions you created in the worksheet 3. CUSTOMER FAQ EMAIL SCRIPT. This will offer insights into your competitors' approaches to answering common questions, giving you the opportunity to take a different angle or use different formats or channels.

COMPETITOR AUDIT QUESTION 2: WHAT QUESTIONS HAVE THEY NOT ADDRESSED?

Chances are, these are the scary questions around costs, pros and cons of their products, etc. If you're brave enough to tread where no competitor has trodden before, you'll reap the results of great SEO...and grateful readers.

COMPETITOR AUDIT QUESTION 3: IN THE CONTENT WHERE THE COMPANY DOES ADDRESS CUSTOMERS' MOST COMMON QUESTIONS, WHAT ARE THE WEAKNESSES OF THAT CONTENT?

For example, do they avoid tackling difficult aspects of the question? Is the content poorly written, lacking data, or not in ideal formats? This is similar to when you sussed out the weaknesses in your own content.

COMPETITOR AUDIT QUESTION 4: HOW IS THE COMPETITOR COVERING/NOT COVERING NEWS THAT'S OF INTEREST TO OUR CUSTOMER

However they're covering the news, you'll want to cover it differently. And if they're not covering it at all...well, this could be a good opportunity for you to fill that need.

COMPETITOR AUDIT QUESTION 5: WHAT IS THEIR BEST AND WORST CONTENT, IN MY OPINION? WHY?

It can be difficult to look at your own content and deem it "good" or "bad." Doing the same for competitor content, however, is much easier. (Ever notice how much easier it is to spot flaws in others than in yourself?) Asking this question about a competitor's content can give you a fresh perspective into what you consider to be effective (and ineffective) content.

COMPETITOR AUDIT QUESTION 6: WHAT IS MY OVERALL IMPRESSION OF THE QUALITY OF THIS COMPETITOR'S CONTENT, AND HOW MIGHT WE DO BETTER?

This is an overarching judgement of how the content makes you feel after taking it in. Do you feel informed? Irritated? Excited? Slightly icky? As always, no need to overanalyze—you'll simply use this information to inform your own content calendar.

Once you've completed the Competitor Content Audit, you'll not only have a good idea of your rivals' strengths and weaknesses and how you might position your own content to compete—you'll also notice that some topics come up over and over. This is an opportunity for you to put your own spin on these popular ideas; for example, when I recently conducted a Competitor Content Audit for a client, the trends I noted were "holidays during COVID," "ethics and diversity," "safety vs. risk," and "vendor relationships."

Later in the Playbook you'll be developing monthly themes for your calendar, and the topics that come up repeatedly in the Competitor Content Audit can serve as inspiration for this, as well.

Want to see the competitor research in action? Below is an excerpt of a competitor content analysis I created for a client's calendar presentation.