Planning your Content for 2025

December! A month of frenzy and then, on 26^th December, it all goes quiet for a few days.

For most small business owners, this is a great time to draw breath, reflect, and plan for the new year. So, if, as part of that, you are thinking about planning your content, here are my top tips on what to consider.

1. What worked in 2024

Before you start looking ahead, take a moment to look at the content you put out last year. What worked? What didn’t do so well? What types of content got the best results?

Look at it in context of the year in more general terms. How was it for your business? Were there any major events that got you good results on your content? What impact did the economic and political situation – local and global – have on you and the content you were publishing.

Make sure you review both the dynamic content (things that change a lot, like social media posts) and the more static content (like your website, business cards, brochures, etc.).

2. Think across your whole business

Content is not ‘just your website’ or ‘just Facebook’ – it shows up all over the place. So, think about how content can help you in:

Take a look at the pages on our website which list many of the most common categories.

We’ve also written a blog series on each of these (see below), so cast your eye over them to get some ideas and inspiration on where you might like to focus your 2025 content.

It should align to your business plan and your marketing strategy – so if customer retention is a top aim in 2025, content for customers is worth focus.

3. Know your audience

I know we bang on about this a lot, but unless you know who you are writing any piece of content for you are just ‘dumping’ content on a disinterested world. And, let’s face it, none of us have the time for that.

We wrote a blog about knowing your audience in my series on how to write, which helps here (it pops up in many other blogs too).

4. Work out the themes and ideas

This is the actual planning stage. Once you are clear on ‘who’ and what they need to hear, you can now map out the ideas, themes, and formats for your content for 2025.

Start with a big list. It might be something like this:

Monthly blog
Monthly staff newsletter
Write a client onboarding sequence
Refresh website home page
Write an e-book on how to….
Email marketing campaign targeting….

And so on.

Then flesh that out with more detail. What blogging themes might you like to use? Are there particular offers and messages you want to get in front of clients this year?

Look at our blog on planning content for more details.

We have a blog series on content for specific purposes too – so use those for ideas and things to think about.

5. Narrow it down

You can’t do it all – so don’t try. Go back to your business plan and choose the content which supports your main goals for 2025, and make sure your energies are spent on the content which will do most for you.

There is no point planning content which is impossible to deliver – that just leads to frustration and nothing getting done well. It is far better to pick one or two things to work on and do them really well.

6. Revisit often

A plan is just that – a plan. Which means it can change. Look at it regularly and adjust it. Perhaps a theme you had planned is no longer suitable. Or you’ve decided to focus on a different target audience. Or customer feedback is telling you something you now need to focus on.

Look at how your content is working for you, too. If your blogs are generating lots of interest – increase the frequency. If your website is getting more visitors, consider how you will convert those visitors into enquiries. If your eBook is getting lots of downloads, what could you be doing with email sequences after that point?

Never be afraid to change plans. As humans we are eminently adaptable – there is no reason why that shouldn’t be the case in your content creation too.

Happy planning!

If you’d like our help to develop a content plan, get in touch to arrange a free content review, which will give you lots of ideas for the year ahead.