It’s (almost) the end of the year, and you know what that means… It’s time to plan a new one. (!!!)

Personally, I love the feeling of a new year. The fresh slate makes a huge difference to me, and I always enjoy everything from the goal-setting and business plans to the Christmas leftovers and cold weather. And, while I am always interested in a resolution-planning type of blog post (love that content, as long as it’s realistic!), I wanted to share some of my go-to tips for planning CONTENT for 2024 — especially as it pertains to ads, courses, and launches.

Are you ready?! Here are my favorite tips to take with you as you plan your content:

1. Think through your approach:

How do YOU want to approach your launches and corresponding content this year? This matters. For instance, some of our clients have monthly promotion plans for launches 6 months in advance and it’s sooo helpful to plan and prep for… vs. some clients who are like “I think I want to launch this course next month.

There’s not a right answer here — it’s just YOURS! But if you’re a planner, keep that into consideration. And if you’re not a planner, make sure you do leave holes in your general year map to account for time.

2. Dedicate some time to scaffolding out your year:

It can be really hard to sell courses this time of year (besides Black Friday & Cyber Monday), so consider taking the time to plan for next year instead! Some of our clients use sticky notes on a wall and some of them do team brainstorming sessions — so find something like that that works for you. It can also be super helpful to designate people to specific planning areas to divide and conquer, but I’d always recommend spending time coming up with overarching goals and KPIs first.

3. Analyze your last year of marketing:

The key to continuing to succeed lies in continually analyzing your data — and that’s extra true with marketing, ads, and launches. Take the time to pull stats, put together learnings, and rethink your marketing strategy as you plan. This way, you’ll know you’re on the right track (or the wrong one), and you’ll also be able to stay strategic. 

Wondering what to revisit? Each year, a lot of our clients — and US! — pay special attention to any changes in target markets, overall focuses (have your market share, positioning, or offerings changed?), and goals for the following year.

4: Get back down to the basics:
So often, we forget about the very basic pieces of our business — but I want to encourage you to come back to those as you plan. Are your vision statements, mission statements, and values still the same? Are you HAPPY with where business has taken you in the last year? Are there any glaring issues you need to think about? Zoom out a bit and focus on the basics like that — and you’ll be amazed at how obvious your priorities become.

5: What kind of content do you want to focus on?

When you’re planning content for the following year, it’s important to know where you want your direction to lie. Are you going to focus heavily on social media and short-form video? Do you want to write long, SEO-heavy blogs? Do you want to try out user-generated content? Do you want to record a podcast? Consider this in your planning, and then think about ways that you can mix, match, and reuse throughout the year.

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Those are just a few of my tips — but I am always down to share more like this! Let me know if you have any must-includes, and then holler at me if you’d like to see more of this type of content. I’m here for it!