📌 FAQ: Strategic Topic Planning in contentbird
What is strategic topic planning in contentbird?
Strategic topic planning helps you break away from ad hoc content creation and focus instead on building a long-term, structured content strategy.
In contentbird, you plan your content using four hierarchical levels:
Topic Field (e.g. "Pets")
Topic (e.g. "Dogs")
Story (e.g. "Senior Dog Nutrition")
Content (e.g. blog post, social media post, etc.)
This structure allows you to define editorial focus areas, analyze content gaps, and ensure consistent messaging across all formats.
You can find this feature here:
Planning → Strategic Topic Planning
What are the views available?
You can plan your topics using:
Mindmap View: Ideal for initial brainstorming and clustering
Table View: Best for larger topic collections and clear lists
You can switch views at any time depending on how detailed your structure is.
What do the four levels mean?
Level | Purpose |
Topic Field | High-level grouping (e.g. Dogs, Cats, Reptiles) |
Topic | Area you want to be known for (e.g. Dog Nutrition) |
Story | Angle or narrative that supports the topic (e.g. Senior Dog Diets) |
Content | Actual pieces of content (e.g. "Top 5 Veggies for Senior Dogs") |
Each Story contains one or more Content Pieces that serve as proof of expertise on that Topic.
How do I create a good strategic structure?
🧩 Best practice: Start from the bottom and work your way up:
Collect content ideas or pieces you've already created
Group them into Stories (what are they really about?)
See which Topics they support
Cluster your Topics into broader Topic Fields
Tip: Use sticky notes or Miro boards in your team to collaborate on this before transferring it into contentbird.
Can I move Stories between Topics?
Yes! In the Mindmap view, you can easily:
Drag & drop Stories from one Topic to another
Move Topics into different Topic Fields
Restructure the hierarchy visually and flexibly
How does this connect with actual content creation?
Once your structure is in place:
You can create Content Tickets directly from a Story
Every Content Ticket will then be clearly assigned to a Story and Topic
You can later analyze your content output by Topic or Customer Journey phase
Why is strategic planning important?
✅ Aligns your content to long-term business goals
✅ Helps identify under- or over-covered areas
✅ Supports collaboration across departments
✅ Makes future content planning easier and scalable
The strategic topic planning in contentbird turns your content operation into a well-structured system, guiding both ideation and production — always aligned to your goals.