Why you need a content bank?

A content bank helps you stay organized! It will make it easier and faster to find content you’ve created in the past. You’ll be able to quickly find related content to new topics, share a link when asked for it, or easily schedule marketing for blog posts by doing a little bit work ahead of time. Linking your new blog posts to old posts is great way to build authority on a topic improve high performing posts.

It also creates a really organized backup of your content. If you ever had the unspeakable happen you can use your content bank to rebuild your content. I highly recommend you have a backup of all your blog posts. I do this by saving all my posts in Pages or a Google Doc before publishing.

How to create a content bank?

I personally use Trello for  my content bank. I love it because it’s really easy to organize things, plus I love having the visual layout. You could also set this up in a spreadsheet or AirTable if that’s your jam.

The way you organize your content totally customizable to your needs. Use this checklist printable to make sure your content bank includes everything you need to stay organized and promote your posts.

In my own board, I have one list for my “Info” - This where I keep general info that I reference often and my color coding system. Things like the HTML code I need to embed in my blog posts for my email list, copy for call to actions I use frequently.

Then I have a list for each category of blog post I tend to write about. For me it’s; Squarespace, Website Design + Strategy, Creative Business, Tools/productivity, Blogging, and Portfolio pieces. I also have a list for guests posts I’ve done.

I personally like to do this by category because then it’s easier to scroll through and find related blog posts.

I also have a lists for newsletters that got a good response, instagram posts with good engagement that I can recycle, links to all of my YouTube videos and Facebook Live videos, and links to every place I’ve been featured and guest posted.

For each post in the lists, I have a checklist of the things I want to make sure to add to my content bank to make sure I never forget an important detail. My lists looks like this (feel free to copy + paste).

• Post Title

• Final URL

• Publish date

• Images and description for Pinterest

• Photos, quotes, and captions for Instagram

• Captions and questions for Facebook

I like to keep a lot of things in my content bank, because I want it easy. I’m not the most detail oriented person, so keep all the details of my posts in one system means I can do it correctly the same way every time. If I have to go hunting for something I use often, I’ll probably just wing it and mess things up. So anytime I find myself using something frequently I’ll add it to my content bank.

I also like to flag my popular posts so they are easy to find and then I remember to refer to them in new posts. I also flag posts that are older and need updated. I also use this board to keep track of my popular content every month so that’s easier for me to quickly scan and see the trends in popularity.

Setting up a content bank is not hard, but can be a little time consuming if you have a lot of blog posts already. Start with new posts then you can add older posts as time allows. Try setting aside 1-2 hours a month to add older posts to your content bank until you’ve done them all.

How to use your content bank?

How many times do you want to share a blog post about a topic and then you have to scroll through your blog and try to find the post? Your content bank is going to save you so much time scrolling. It will be easier and faster to find those blog posts.

Your content bank is also great place to find content to recycle and promote in new ways to drive traffic to your website. (hint: grab this free worksheet that includes 21 ways to promote your blog posts.)

Use your content bank to track popular blog posts to create more content around that same topic.

Easily find related blogs to add links to new blog posts for related posts.

Do you have a team that helps you publish and promote your content? Give them access to your content bank and let them help you keep track of the content you create.

In every way, your content bank is going to make your blog post promoting a million times easier. I use my own content bank nearly every single day and it’s the key to driving traffic to my website.