Welcome back to the Notion for Blogging series! New here? This collection walks you through how to use Notion to streamline content creation, manage your tasks, track your blog expenses — basically stay on top of everything involved in managing a blog and brand.
If you’re wondering what Notion is, here’s a quick description: it’s an all-inclusive tool that combines the functionality of several programs in one clean, minimalist app. Spreadsheets, task managers, word processors — Notion does it all. (Except posting your social media content for you. You’ll still need your schedulers for that. But hey, who knows, once the API comes out?)
Anyway, let’s dig in to today’s topic: using Notion to create and organize content offers.
What is a content offer?
Content offers are lead magnets, freebies, downloadables, products — basically any resource you offer to your readers, prospects, and customers. Specifically, a content offer’s job is to attract leads. So you might entice them with a freebie and then nurture them to buy your paid product.
If you’re a veteran blogger, you probably already know that and have created your fair share of content offers. If you’re new to the game, well, now you know!
Why should you use Notion to plan and create content offers?
A sneak peek of the Content Offers template, available as part of the Notion for Blogging Premium Template Pack!
If you’re anything like I was before discovering Notion, your content plan is scattered across several different apps. You’re constantly losing track of tasks or forgetting where you stored things. It’s easily done when you’re dealing with multiple calendars, task management apps, social media schedulers, graphic design platforms — you get the idea.
Planning a content offer requires a lot of work. Even short PDFs require hours of copywriting and designing. Not to mention a solid promotion plan complete with social media posts and paid ads to get that offer in front of as many eyeballs as possible.
Wouldn’t it be handy to see every piece of content associated with an offer in one place? I’m talking every video, podcast episode, social media post, blog article, email — you name it.
Notion lets you do exactly that: plan your content offer while also linking to every piece of content associated with it.
Let’s use my own setup to illustrate. I’ve got one database for my content offers. One item in that database is this very series: Notion for Blogging. I use Notion’s relations property to link up my content offers database to my content creation hub. This is where all my blog, social media, and YouTube content lives.
That relation allows me to see individual social media posts, blog posts, and videos associated with this offer. So I know exactly what I need to work on to promote the offer.
Having a separate database gives you space to plan every element of your offer and keep notes. Here are a couple of screenshots of my Notion for Blogging offer page, which includes filtered embeds of my content creation hub and editorial task database for better visibility and task tracking:
An overview of all the templates included in my premium template pack and smaller bundles
Under my offer details, I’ve embedded filtered views of my Content Creation Hub and Editorial Task list to show only content and tasks related to the campaign
How to create a content offers database in Notion
As I’ve briefly mentioned above, the content offers database works best with an accompanying content creation hub (or whatever you want to call your master content database).
Your content offers database will take much less time to set up than the content creation hub, but I recommend creating the content creation hub first. This database will be the backbone of your content planning in Notion. If you’re anything like me, you’ll probably embed it on just about every other page you create.
Now that’s out of the way, here’s a step-by-step guide on creating your own content offers database in Notion.
Step 1: Create a new page
Step 2: Choose a view under “Database”
I recommend table view for the initial setup.
Step 3: Add properties
Now that you’ve created your page, it’s time to start adding properties to your database. I recommend these basic fields to get you started:
- Offer/campaign name (Name, a default property that automatically populates when you create a new database)
- Deliverables (Select or Multi-select)
- Campaign Dates (Date)
- Status (Select)
- Price (Number) [optional]
Step 4: Add templates if needed
Notion templates allow you to create new items with properties already filled out in one click. But unless you’re cranking out a ton of resources regularly, you might not need templates. However, they can make things easier if you’re creating a lot of similar resources regularly.
For example, if you publish a video tutorial series every month, you might want to create a template for Video Tutorials that adds “videos” to the Deliverables property. This saves you a few clicks when creating new offers.
Here’s how to create new templates in Notion:
- In the upper right-hand corner of your database, click the drop-down arrow next to “New”
- Click “Add a template”
- Start formatting your template. I suggest adding an icon, filling in relevant properties, and adding notes or tasks to the main body of the template page.
More ideas for your content offers database
Your content offers database doesn’t have to be super complicated or fancy. Personally, because I like seeing the relation to my content creation hub, I prefer to keep things minimalist. But here are a few more ideas to inspire your content offers database.
Make notes and brainstorm within the offer page
This is my favorite way to use Notion to organize content offers. For the Notion for Blogging series especially, I had a lot of plates spinning. In addition to creating a paid template pack plus several smaller template bundles, I also had YouTube videos, blog posts, social media posts, and email campaigns to create and organize.
The offer page kept me grounded and on-task. I created a full list of all the templates and template bundles, which pages were included in them, and their prices. Underneath all that, I embedded filtered views of my content creation hub and editorial task list to show only content and tasks related to the offer. Which handily leads to my next tip.
Track campaign-related tasks
Depending on the scope of your offer, you’re probably juggling other miscellaneous tasks:
- Creating graphics for ads
- Auditing old posts to add the new CTA
- Creating and designing a landing page
I have a separate database for editorial tasks, which I embedded into my offer page. If that’s too complicated or extra for your needs, you can also create a simple checklist right on the page for subtasks associated with your offer.
Planning and creating content offers in Notion: wrapping up
You don’t need me to tell you that content offers are essential for monetizing your blog and growing your audience. But maybe you do need me to tell you there’s an easier way to plan your offer and create all the content associated with it in one place. (That’s partly why you’re here, right?)
Creating supplementary social media content to promote the offer can get scattered across apps. Social media scheduling apps also offer limited views of your content. You might get a calendar and a list if you’re lucky. Not to mention your other content living in other apps — blog posts in WordPress, YouTube in your video editing software, podcast episodes in your audio editing software. You get the picture.
Will you still need those apps? Sure. But Notion offers something they can’t: a unified content calendar and fully customizable content plan that allows you to see a big-picture view of every element of your blog and brand. Not just content, but also tasks, expenses, SEO, design, branding — the possibilities are truly endless.
I know all this because I use Notion for all these things and about a dozen more! As I continued using Notion and refined my setup to facilitate a seamless workflow, I had a eureka moment. Maybe my approach could help other bloggers like me who were previously so disorganized they didn’t know what was publishing when, or where that draft went, or what was that post idea again…?
Sound like you? I feel you. And I got you!
Reclaim your precious time with Notion for Blogging templates
Complete with 75+ pages and templates to unify your content plan and take it to the next level. Save $15 during the launch sale!
Don’t need the whole pack? I’ve also got these template bundles for sale:
- Content Creation Hub Template
- Social Media Dashboard Bundle
- Finance Tracking Bundle
- YouTube Hub Bundle
- Email Hub Bundle
- Podcast Hub Bundle
Not in a position to purchase? I understand, and no hard feelings at all, my friend. I’m still creating free Notion resources right here on the blog! Subscribe so you don’t miss a post:
If you do find my free resources useful, please consider supporting me with a double-shot mocha from my favorite local coffee shop. It keeps me caffeinated and in prime position to keep creating these resources!
Whatever form your support takes — even if you’re just here to read — know that I’m endlessly grateful, and I’m glad you’re here. I’m not and never have been a number-chaser, whether it’s traffic or revenue. I appreciate each and every view I receive. And I receive a lot more of them these days than I used to! So thank you!
Do you use Notion for blogging? Share your setups, tips, tricks, and questions in the comments! I need more Notion nerds in my life, tbh.
Until next time, happy Notioning!
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