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6/15/26 #ContentChat: Refining Content Ideation and Planning · #ContentChat

• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: Hi everyone, welcome to Content Chat.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: I'm your host, Erica Heald.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: Today we're going to be continuing our journey through my book, Content Foundations.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: We'll be kicking off part two of the book, which is all about implementing streamlined processes and templates.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: Now, as a quick recap, part one, which takes up over half of the book because this part is absolutely so critical.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: So part one focused on building robust documentation, with chapter one being defining your brand voice, chapter two, creating a useful content style guide, chapter three, sketching meaningful audience personas, and then chapter four, which we just went through last week on taming the chaos with taxonomy.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: Now these chapters were all about creating the foundation for scalable content.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: Part two is about turning that foundation into action.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: So as I write in the introduction to this section, scalable content programs aren't just about creating great content.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: They're about creating it strategically in ways that help you protect your time, amplify your impact, and help you grow without burning out.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: So the section's all about building the systems that help you stop reinventing the wheel every time you create content.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: Systems that really allow you to bring that content strategy to life and ensure that you're not spending time on things that aren't aligned with your content strategy.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: Today's chapter focuses on one of the biggest challenges that all content creators face, which is planning.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: I think one of the biggest misconceptions in content marketing and in marketing overall is that organizations have an ideation problem.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: We don't have an ideation problem.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: We don't need 50 more tools to help us come up with more better ideas.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: Really, we usually have the opposite problem, which is that we have too many ideas.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: We get ideas from sales conversations, from customer feedback.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: Part of, you know, we have product launches that come up with ideas of things that would be great for supporting it.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: We attend industry events that create even more source material we can mine and pique our interest, our curiosity, and our passion around different ideas.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: We get those executive requests of, hey, don't you think it'd be great if we did a thing like this?
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: We look and we see what our competitors are doing.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: We are on social media and get other great ideas.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, AI tools, if you're using them, they almost always at the end say, hey, how about these four other things I could do for you?
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: Which may or may not actually be things that you need or that your audience would find to be useful.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: So I think at this point we can all agree that generating ideas is the fun and easy part.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: The challenge is really deciding which ideas deserve your time and attention.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: Without a planning process, every idea feels important.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: Every request seems pretty urgent, and every single stakeholder that you work with believes that their content should move to the front of the line because obviously it is the most important thing you should be working on, right?
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: That's exactly how content teams end up really burnout and creating reactive content instead of creating that strategic content that aligns to their strategy that everybody approved not so long ago.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: Everyone reviewed, they approved it, and they just completely put it on the back burner and come up with all these ideas of yes, but but this thing.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: Here's the deal though.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: When we are approaching content planning, it's important to ensure that the people who are involved understand that the goal of content planning is not to generate more ideas.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: The goal is to identify and prioritize the right ideas.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: The ideas that will help you create content that really connects with the people you're trying to reach and that moves you toward your business goals.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: That's what you're trying to do with the planning process.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: This is why one of my favorite things that I deploy as part of planning and as part of content creation are templates.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: And we need to get, you know, clear the air out before we go forward, which is I think that templates get a bad reputation because people assume that using any kind of a template that that just absolutely means that, you know, you're limiting creativity.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: But I see things differently.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: I think that templates aren't creativity killers, they're actually clarity enablers.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: The value for me of using templates is it helps reduce decision fatigue.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: Just think about all the decisions a content creator has to make if they're sitting down with a blank screen to create some content.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: They have to think through who is this content for?
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: What are we trying to accomplish with this piece of content?
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: What's the key message and that what's the call to action that we should be using for this?
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: What proof points should we include?
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: Do we need to go out and source those proof points?
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: Do we already have them?
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: How should this content be structured?
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: When every project starts with a blank page, these decisions have to be made over and over again.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: Having a good template in place reduces that burden.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: When you have a template for something, like let's say for a blog post, you no longer have to remember all of those things that we just talked about, plus all the things specific to blog posts for your CMS.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: You don't have to remember all those things.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: So it reduces that decision fatigue for trying to decide what is it that you should do and how do you want to align it.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: All of these things are built into the template, so you already know the answers to these questions.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: This also improves collaboration between you and whoever is either the subject matter expert, the approver, or the requester of that content.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_00: It reforces, reinforces your brand consistency, which is so important because it ensures that you're keeping the same way of doing things, the same flow, the same order, the same style, the same taxonomy.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: So for me, I really just love that structured templates help create alignment before content creation begins, which absolutely helps speed the review and approval process.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: So instead of asking people to guess what good looks like and what it is that they need to turn in in order to move something forward, a template provides a framework that guides that same person towards success.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: So if you just come away with one key message from this, templates are not meant to replace creativity or stifle it.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: They remove unnecessary friction so that creativity can flourish.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: One of the major themes throughout this whole chapter is that process documentation matters.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: And in fact, documentation was mentioned in a quote that Ann Hanley shared with folks today that she really liked from my book.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: Because too many teams rely on having institutional knowledge that people carry around in their heads.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: People know what to do because they've been there long enough to figure it out.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: But then what happens when you hire a new employee?
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: You bring in a freelancer, or you bring on a new agency, or you start using AI?
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: Pretty soon all those unwritten rules become bottlenecks.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: They become hurdles that you have to overcome because, oh, suddenly that person who's the one expert in that area absolutely has to review everything before it goes out because they have to make sure that those unwritten rules are being put in place.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: But documented processes eliminate that guesswork.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: They answer questions like how do content requests get submitted, who approves ideas, what happens after a draft is written, who has to review this piece of content, and how does this content get distributed after it's all done?
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: Having good defined and documented processes isn't about creating bureaucracy.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: It creates clarity.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: Process documentation reduces friction and helps content skill beyond a single person.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: Now, let's talk about AI.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: So a theme that you'll hear me repeat throughout this book, and frankly, whenever you hear me talk, is you've got to be giving your AI as much guidance as a new employee.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yet, too often people expect that you can give AI a one or two sentence prompt and get something back that's going to be useful to you and your business in any way.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: And that's pretty silly.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: Would you do that to a new hire?
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I know some people would.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: I've certainly been given assignments when I was a new employee with about that same level of guidance.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, the thing is that your AI, you know, you people expect that AI can compensate for this poor planning, that it can just take those couple sentences, go look at your website, and understand who you are, what you do, and what you're trying to accomplish, but it can't.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: AI is just going to amplify whatever process already exists and whatever nuances you have out there that it can quickly grasp.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: So if you are if your planning process is weak, AI is gonna generate really off-target ideas.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: They're gonna generate generic content that you're going to have to revise extensively before you can use it in any way for any of the various use cases.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: So those outputs are gonna require extensive editing, probably by you, which may not actually take you any less time than if you had just done whatever the thing was that you asked the AI to do.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: So if your planning process is strong on the flip side though, AI becomes that force multiplier that helps you accelerate research, helps identify content opportunities, and helps you execute against that clearly defined strategy and push back when you get requests that aren't aligned with your strategy.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: The organizations that are seeing the best results from AI are not creating more prompts.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: They're providing more and better context to their AI tools up front.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: AI doesn't eliminate the need for planning.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: It is not a shortcut so that you don't have to have that planning and alignment strategy session at the start of the year, at the start of each quarter.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: It increases the value of that planning that you put in place.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: And in fact, the better that planning is, 100% the better your outcomes are going to be from using AI.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the final section of this chapter of the book focuses on creating a sustainable planning process, which isn't about creating more work, it's not about having more meetings, because let me assure you, I love when a meeting could be an email and it is, or when a meeting that's scheduled for an hour wraps up in 10 minutes, that is beautiful.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: I am talking about having a planning process that creates less chaos.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: That to me is the goal.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: So if you have sustainable workflows, it helps your teams prioritize effectively, avoid burnout, maintain consistency, collaborate more efficiently, and scale content creation.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I also know that one of the big uh pieces of pushback that I've gotten over the course of my career about documenting workflows and creating those reusable processes is oh, but what if?
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: What if there's an emergency?
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: What if somebody is out of the office?
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: What if, what if?
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, I get it.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_00: The fact that things happen does not mean, however, that you shouldn't have a process.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: It just means that you do need to build some flexibility into your process because, yep, no matter how carefully your plan, business priorities can change, the markets can shift.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, was anybody expecting so many new trillion dollar IPOs this week?
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: No, definitely not.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um, news happens, executives have ideas, customers ask new questions, but none of that means that you should not be creating and documenting those processes because you're not trying to create a rigid process, you're not creating a punch card that's going into a room-sized computer.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_00: You're just creating a repeatable process that can be updated and adapted when needed.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: So, sustainable content planning, when you view it through this lens, helps you create that consistency without sacrificing flexibility.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_00: It just helps you get more things done without having everyone have to come to you every single time they have a question.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: It really reduces the questions.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if there's one lesson I'd like you to take away from chapter five, it's this.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: Most content teams don't need more ideas, they just need better systems.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_00: The templates matter, the workflows matter, the trackers matter, the editorial calendars matter.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_00: No, these are not this the sexy and exciting parts of marketing, but these are all really necessary foundational elements that reduce friction, they eliminate that decision fatigue and create clarity.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_00: And that clarity helps everyone create better content.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_00: So whether that creator is you, a teammate, a freelancer, an agency partner, or an AI tool, having that really solid content documentation in place tells us what good looks like.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_00: Tells us then those processes tell us how to achieve that consistently.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: So that's why we're uh that's kind of the bridge between part one and part two of content foundations.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_00: We're moving from here are all the really great tools into the how you then put it into work, get those processes documented, and start creating a system that supports everything that you're trying to achieve.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_00: So for those who want to go deeper, chapter five in content foundations includes content planning and brief templates, brainstorming and topic capture worksheets, content pillar mapping frameworks, editorial calendar guidance, content workflow examples, distribution planning template examples, and so many more frameworks and planning workflows and prompts.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_00: All of these things are in here so that way if you need a little bit of extra help getting started, that you've got a starting place.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_00: And the goal is not to use every template exactly as it's written.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_00: They're really designed so that you can adapt them to create the systems that will work for your organization and the way that work gets done.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_00: Next week, we will be continuing part two with chapter six collaborating with external and internal talent.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_00: We'll be talking about how governance, documentation, and processes help you work more effectively with freelancers, agencies, subject matter experts, and other contributors without creating bottlenecks or sacrificing quality.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_00: See you then.