Module 3: Create Your Content
Outlining your content
All content creation for your membership should start with an outline.
This gives you a guide to curate your ideas and expertise and focus on the pieces that are most important for helping your customers achieve their transformation.
Tips for outlining your content
Here are some tips for outlining how you’ll provide your transformation via the product type you’ve chosen:
- First, do a general brainstorm on the key information or resources that are needed to provide your transformation.
- From this general brainstorm, identify which items are high-level topic areas that could make up categories (e.g. categories of a content library, or modules of a course) vs. which are more specific content pieces (e.g. a specific template in the content library or a specific lesson in a course).
- Group your content pieces into the broader categories as it makes sense.
- Remember, simplicity is your friend! Organize your content in as a few categories as possible. Trim it down if needed, to focus just on what is required to launch your product. You can always add more later!
Once you have a general list of the key information or resources that will facilitate your customers’ transformation, you can revise and polish your content outline by thinking through the questions below for your specific product type:
Content Library
- What types of content will you include? (videos, articles, images, templates, something else?)
- How will it be organized?
- How will you organize it on your website? (categories? tags?)
- How many categories will you have?
- How many pieces of content do you need to launch?
- How frequently do you envision adding new content, and what is the total size of the content library likely to become over time?
- Will you need to add more content over time? Will existing content need to be updated over time?
- What specific topics or pieces of content do you need?
Outline
- Categories
- Content pieces needed for launch
Online course
- What types of content will you include? (videos, articles, images, templates, something else?)
- What major categories/chapters/modules will your lessons be broken down into?
- How many lessons do you need to launch?
- How many lessons may this expand to over time?
- Are there certain lessons or modules that could wait and be added later?
- Will information change and need to be updated over time?
- What specific topics or lessons do you need to cover?
Outline
- Chapters or modules needed for launch
- Lessons needed for launch
Community
- What types of content will be shared in your community? (videos, articles, images, infographics, something else?)
- What content do you need to launch the community? (group description, profile image, cover image, community rules/guidelines, etc.)
- Depending on the platform you use, will there be different sections or “rooms” of your community? If so, how are these defined?
- How frequently will you post in your community?
- What will you post? Do you need to create content for posts?
- How frequently will you engage with members’ comments or posts in the community?
Outline
- Initial content needed for launch
- Future content plan and schedule *No need to plan out a year’s worth of content! Preparing 1-2 weeks post-launch is fine.
Newsletter
- What content types will you include in your newsletters? (images? video? surveys? downloads?)
- How frequently will you send newsletters?
- How will your newsletter be organized? Will there be different sections?
- How will you choose topics or themes for each newsletter?
Outline
- Newsletter template
- Future content plan and schedule *No need to plan out a year’s worth of content! 1-2 cycles is fine. For example, if you’ll be sending a weekly newsletter, you could prep the content ideas and send date for the first one or two weeks after launch.
Podcast
- How frequently will you record and release new episodes?
- How will you choose specific topics or themes for each episode?
- Will there be different sections or segments in each podcast?
- How will you organize each episode (intro, recap, next steps, etc.)?
- What content prep is needed?
- Will you write/record an intro?
Outline
- Episode structure
- Future content plan and schedule *No need to plan out a year’s worth of content! 1-2 cycles is fine. For example, if you’ll be publishing a weekly episode, you could prep the content ideas for the first one to two weeks after launch.
Event
- What’s the format/structure of the event? (formal presentation, hands-on workshop, interactive discussion?)
- How long will the event be?
- Will there be different parts or sections of the event? How much time per each?
- What formats are needed? (videos, presentation slides, handouts, supplies, etc.)
Outline
- Event agenda
- Event materials needed (slides, handouts, supplies, etc.)
eBook
- How will content be broken into chapters?
- Will there be certain features or sections in each chapter? (summaries, quotes, callout boxes, sources?)
- How will the eBook be presented and sold — as a finished product all together, or dripped chapters over time?
- Is this content part of a series, or are there likely to be other books in the future?
Outline
- Chapters
Video conferencing
- How long will the session be?
- What’s the format/structure of the session? (formal presentation, hands-on workshop, interactive discussion?)
- Will there be different parts or segments of the session? How much time per each?
- What formats are needed? (videos, slides, handouts, etc.)
Outline
- Session agenda
- Session materials needed (slides, handouts, etc.)