How To Create a Content Marketing Playbook in 8 Steps

Imagine you’re watching an NFL game. Your team scores, and the announcer remarks, “What a workflow!” While the comment would be odd, it’s technically accurate: All parties are working together and following predetermined steps to reach a goal. 

In both sports and the content marketing world, smart plays involve quick thinking, collaboration, and the payoff of a strategic vision. A shared content marketing playbook can help a business execute one-off or ongoing marketing requests in a timely and effective manner, keeping all employees on the same page. 

Here’s what a content marketing playbook is, how it works, and why your company may want to develop one.

What is a content marketing playbook?

A content marketing playbook is a collection of action plans that explain how to execute a business’s content marketing strategy. This helps in creating and distributing content that provides value to its target audience, increases brand authority, builds goodwill, and ensures you stay top of mind.

Content marketing plays are repeatable approaches to common business situations, like launching a new product or promoting media coverage of your brand. Documenting these processes increases their efficiency and makes it easier to involve new team members or external partners in content creation tasks.

Running a play from your existing playbook activates a vetted plan, allowing team members to follow protocol and seamlessly coordinate their efforts. For example, a social media content marketing campaign might ask a graphic designer to create images, a copywriter to draft copy, and a content marketing manager to determine the appropriate key performance indicators (KPIs) to launch a new campaign.

Content marketing playbooks typically contain the following elements:

• Use case. The circumstances in which you might use the play.

• Goals. The desired outcome and the metrics you’ll use to define success.

• Action steps. What needs to happen to execute the play.

• Roles and responsibilities. Which team members will handle which steps.

• Key messages or assets. Relevant messages or brand assets and prebuilt play templates.

• Timelines. When each step will occur.

• Publication channels. Where your team will distribute content.

• Audience information. Information about the audience the play is intended to reach.

• Relevant search engine optimization (SEO) findings. Any target keywords or other SEO parameters relevant to your business and the specific play.

Content marketing playbook vs. content plan

A content marketing playbook isn’t the same thing as a content plan. Having a playbook means you don’t have to create new processes and timelines for each new marketing campaign or for posting on each platform. Instead, you follow a series of predetermined steps to turn an idea into channel-specific content marketing assets with a clear plan of when and how to deploy them to reach your marketing goals.

Content plans, on the other hand, are single-use documents that include topics, formats, and publication. Once you’ve developed your playbook, however, you can use it to expedite your team’s content planning efforts. Instead of developing a process from scratch for each new content marketing initiative, you’ll select an appropriate content marketing play and fill in campaign specifics. 

How to create a content marketing playbook

1. Solidify your content marketing strategy
2. Identify key plays
3. Define audiences and outcomes for each play
4. List publications and timelines for each play
5. Prepare assets, messaging, and templates for each play
6. List steps and assign roles for each play
7. Build your playbook
8. Put your playbook to use

Great content is the foundation of any content marketing strategy, but even a brilliant campaign needs to be planned effectively. Here are the steps to create your own:

1. Solidify your content marketing strategy

A content marketing playbook activates your content marketing strategy, so success requires you to have a high-quality strategy already in place. Review yours, confirming it’s updated and consistent with your business and marketing goals. Comprehensive strategies include information about your budget, goals, and audiences; the types of content you’ll create; where and when you’ll publish; and the metrics that define success.

Consider refreshing your audience and market research before you start if it’s been a while since your last analysis. Your various plays will require you to make decisions based on your audience’s preferences and behaviors, and accurate intelligence is more likely to lead to effective plays. 

2. Identify key plays 

The next step is choosing the content marketing situations you want to prepare for. Prioritize circumstances and goals that are important to your business and likely to recur, such as:

• New product launch

• Upcoming sale or event

• New ebook, case study, or other gated resource

• Influencer onboarding and activation

Consider developing new plays to improve content marketing processes that are currently ineffective or inefficient.

3. Define audiences and outcomes for each play

For each content marketing play, define your goals, target audiences, and KPIs. Here’s what that might look like for a product launch, for example:

• Goals. Build excitement around the product launch; educate audiences about product value; build demand prior to launch; drive initial sales.

• Target audience. Existing customers; lapsed customers.

• KPIs. Social engagements; early access sign-ups; site visits; sales.

The goal is to include information that’s detailed enough to help you develop targeted plays but general enough to apply repeatedly.

Also include specifics from your content strategy about relevant audience segments, such as customer personas, demographic profiles, and digital content consumption preferences, as applicable. If this information varies for your different product types, you can either leave it blank or build out multiple product launch plays for different product categories.

4. List publications and timelines for each play

For each play, describe the types of content you need and the channels on which you’ll publish them. Include timelines for when each asset type will go live. 

You can use a table or other visual tool to provide an overview of the timeline, messaging, and other details. Here’s an example of a table that a business might use for a three-day sale. 

Use case: Promoting an online sale

Timeframe: 2 days + sale duration

Channels: Facebook, Instagram, email, SMS

5. Prepare assets, messaging, and templates for each play

Some content marketing playbooks also contain specific assets (such as logos, images, typefaces, and taglines) or templates, which can save you time when you need to adapt your action plans for a specific campaign. Establishing these elements before a promotional push helps ensure consistency with brand voice and tone, provides ample time to workshop options, and reduces the effort required to launch specific campaigns. 

Although messaging will also vary according to products and sale type (e.g., Black Friday sale versus July 4th sale), you can create standardized copy for evergreen situations, like congratulating your customers for signing up for early access and inviting them to start shopping. 

6. List steps and assign roles for each play

Note who on your team is responsible for executing each step of every play, and specify the amount of time allotted per task or place tasks on a timeline. It’s particularly important to think through the project management roles, too. Although an effective content marketing playbook may allow your team to operate with less oversight, assigning a project manager to spearhead the project keeps it on track and helps you avoid missed steps.

7. Build your playbook

A finished playbook is essentially a list of strategic workflows, so consider using project management software to record the steps in each play. If you have an existing content marketing resource that covers routine publication, using the same tool and format can simplify your project management processes. 

For each play, include the action items, goals, audiences, KPIs, publication calendars, and links to assets and templates. Many project management tools allow you to assign tasks by role or team member name and specify deadlines in terms of a project start date, end date, or previous task completion. Another advantage of using a project management tool is that it may be able to highlight uneven workloads or potential bottlenecks, so you can better manage content marketing play assignments with existing workflows

Repeat steps three through seven to build out your playbook with all the plays you wish to include. 

8. Put your playbook to use

When you’re done, decide who is responsible for selecting and initiating plays—often a marketing manager or content marketing manager. Create a content marketing play category, folder, or board in your project management software, and pin or highlight it to maximize visibility. An effective playbook is a valuable resource, so it pays to make it accessible to all team members and to keep it updated.

Each time a new business need arises—a new product launch, promotional period, and so on—your marketing team can refer to the content marketing playbook, choose the play that best suits the scenario at hand, and begin to execute right away.