A content marketing plan without a clear direction almost always underperforms. 

Direction comes not just from your writing but is driven by your business objectives, audience insights, and distribution methods. 

Maybe you’re like me and initially thought there isn’t a need to overanalyze- just let inspiration take you. But hear me out, a strong content marketing plan doesn’t kill your creativity but nurtures it. 

I’ve found that a content marketing strategy provides your ideas with momentum. This ultimately cultivates your creativity, not as something fleeting, but as a reflex- repeatable and scalable. 

Not convinced? Keep reading to see that I don’t depend on ephemeral inspiration, but my content marketing plan creates the circumstances for it to appear consistently. 

I’ve been an editor with beehiiv and started writing for them because I love their content. I’m a technical writer who pivoted to B2B and D2C articles because of my knowledge of SEO strategies and optimization. 

Marketing in 2025 looks a whole lot different than marketing in even 2023. Algorithms change faster, and audiences expect high-value content in a short time. 

That’s why your 2025 content marketing plan has to be intentional, lean, and created with conversion in mind. 

Don’t be intimidated! I’ve outlined the structure I’ve used to build content that aligns with real business outcomes, so let’s get into it. 

Regardless of what area your business is in, what matters most is revenue, audience growth, and conversions. All of your content decisions should lead to one of these objectives. 

Your content may be awesome in your eyes, but what about through the lens of KPIs? This is one of the biggest mistakes I’ve seen, and one that baffles many business owners— they think their content is of great quality, so it puzzles them why it’s not translating. 

Just remember, all roads should lead to… revenue, audience growth, conversions!

I want to clarify that “target audience” doesn’t mean that your audience is composed of all of the same kinds of people. There most likely will be different personas within your audience. 

The best-performing content is tailored to these different personas. But how do you know what the different groups are? With beehiiv’s built-in segmentation and automation, you can personalize content by interest, behavior, or stage in the funnel. 

They’re called content pillars for a reason. Without them, your marketing plan would collapse. 

As Mischa McInerney, the CMO at Digital Marketing Institute, said, “To create your content pillars, think about how you want to be perceived as a brand. What are people interested in that you have to talk about?” 

Choose content pillars that support your business objectives. For example, the Grow Kind Journal has pillars of story, emotion, and value. You can see these three elements throughout their posts, and the result is a deeper reader connection. 

You may be a writer first and jump to ideas of topics to write on, but we need a mindset shift to thinking about distribution first. That may seem backward to you, but instead of first writing and then wondering how to get people to see it, reverse the process. 

beehiiv is a great asset to help you prioritize email campaigns, SEO, repurposing plans, and partnerships with referral and recommendation tools. 

There is the temptation to treat analytics like a post-mortem, something you check after the damage is done. But establishing feedback loops early is preventative, so you can course-correct in real time. You want to know if and how people are interacting with your content- what drives clicks and conversions, and what to trim down to focus on what works. 

A strong content marketing plan in 2025 cannot solely exist on borrowed platforms. Strategies that excel prioritize owned platforms.

You may have a large social media following, but that number is variable, dependent on algorithm shifts or at the mercy of that platform. There is strength in a sense of control. 

beehiiv gives you agency over your own audience, your messaging, and your data. Social media may give you short-term visibility, but you want a long-term plan that supports growth, engagement, and earning. 

An owned platform also fits well into a modern content ecosystem. It connects every step of the funnel. 

Let’s do a rundown on The Rundown AI by Rowan Cheung to see what I’m talking about. 

At the top of the funnel, Cheung uses social content and SEO to direct traffic to their owned newsletter. 

For the middle of the funnel, Cheung sends out weekly newsletters of the top AI stories. This not only gets out quality content to his audience but also builds trust and credibility.

Lastly, for the bottom of the funnel, The Rundown AI utilizes beehiiv’s Ad Network to earn and beehiiv’s analytics to pinpoint the best placements.

Don’t think I came out of the womb with a strong content marketing plan. I’ve had my share of mistakes and been bewildered when my audience engagement didn’t reflect the level of work I was putting in. 

Maybe you’re like me and want to publish three posts a week, launch a newsletter (maybe multiple with all the ideas I have floating around), and have a strong presence on all kinds of social media platforms. 

You love the hustle, but if your hustling involves burnout, it’s not effective. 

Prioritizing is key. Which channels are the most productive? I would focus on your email newsletter and one social platform. Give yourself time to study the analytics and focus on distribution. 

Speaking of analytics, do not ignore them! 

I had only focused on writing content that felt right to me. And yes, you want to write on what you feel passionate about, but passion can convert; you just have to identify the patterns. 

Your content marketing plan should involve weekly performance checks of opens and click-through rates. I can’t say it enough- track your KPIs. 

I had a list of topics I wanted to write about, and my prompt for generating content was, “What do I want to write about?” This led to some of my content driving traffic and some flopping. You want posts that will be seen by eyes other than your own, and if we could increase the number of eyes on it, why would we not? 

This is where you want to tie in your content pillars with the marketing funnel. Each post is not just taking up space, but doing their part to further your goals. 

I definitely exposed all my mistakes to y’all, but frankly, my mistakes helped me identify what I was missing and what tools would help me to achieve my goals. 

A large part of content planning is the tools you use. They not only make planning easier but also replicable, collaborative, and more efficient. Here are some of the tools I use for project management and ideation. 

Trello is great for visualizing your content planning. I love to organize my workflow into kanban-style boards with columns like “Ideas,” “In Progress,” and “Published.” The con here is that it is difficult to execute with more complex workflows. 

Asana is a great platform for structured planning. Their content calendar helps to visualize your plan in day/week/month formats. It is also a great place for collaboration, so you can assign tasks, track the progress of posts, and comment. Things like who is responsible for what, due dates, and hierarchy are made very clear. 

If you want a place for more complex workflows and team collaboration, Notion is your best bet. I have to say, I love Notion. It’s an all-in-one workspace with tables, calendars, docs, embeds, drafts, and more. It’s a great place for nitty-gritty planning, asset management, and collaborative work. 

This is a content planner template that I used when I was starting out. 

In my experience, Notion is a great starting point, with its templates and workflows, and can also allow for more complex planning. 

A blank page can be one of the most daunting things. Frankly, whenever I struggled to find a topic that genuinely inspired me, I would panic that I couldn’t meet my goal of a weekly newsletter. But beehiiv’s built-in AI tools put some pen strokes on that blank page to help get my ideas flowing so I could stick with my content publishing schedule. 

I also love using ChatGPT to spark creativity. If you’re still feeling like you should be an infinite idea generator, think of ChatGPT as a partner to brainstorm with. (I personally think of ChatGPT as “she,” so don’t be alarmed by my referring to her that way.) She is great at helping you consider new angles, generate ideas, or organize your thoughts so that you’re poised to infuse your writing with your personality and voice. Literally, a perfect partner. 

You may have the most beautifully organized and color-coded content calendar, stacked with great ideas. But don’t pat yourself on the back just yet. A plan without execution is similar to a well-organized graveyard. 

Sorry if that was too dramatic, but I wanted to get my point across- execution is what converts your strategy into results. 

Don’t be a one-hit wonder or a three-hit wonder, where you have a few amazing posts but rarely publish content. Because of my perfectionist mentality, I would wait for the perfect idea instead of publishing regularly. But publishing consistently not only builds trust and credibility with your audience and search algorithms but also does something for yourself; it creates momentum. 

Pick a realistic publishing cadence, whether it’s a weekly newsletter or one video every week. Contrary to what we may think, creativity thrives in structure. 

A large part of being able to publish consistently is to constantly learn from what you publish. We can only plan so much. Don’t be afraid of making a mistake because your mistakes will teach you even more than a perfectly curated plan. 

View publishing as a way to acquire data. You may think you understand your audience, but with each post, you collect insights into what actually resonates. This allows you to iterate and to adapt. 

Platforms like beehiiv help you grasp these opportunities and make the most of them. With tools like A/B testing, 3D analytics, audience segmentation, and so much more, you’ll form a positive feedback loop of publishing, learning, adjusting, and earning!

Content strategy in 2025 isn’t about publishing “perfect” content—it’s about choosing a rhythm that works for you, following through, and having the mindset to learn from your analytics. You’re shifting from guessing to goal-setting, from publishing to performance. 

And beehiiv helped me make that shift. How? Because everything you need, from brainstorming ideas to scheduling content and getting helpful feedback, is all in one place. 

If you’re ready to plan and execute your content marketing strategy, start building on beehiiv.