If you’ve read anything about content marketing, you already know marketers need to start thinking more like publishers. Every major publisher has an editorial calendar: a planned agenda for their content.
A content calendar isn’t just a calendar marketed with content assigned to dates. It’s much more than that. It’s part of the action plan that complements your content strategy.
No calendar? Then you’re likely just flying by the seat of your pants!
Executing a content strategy is an undertaking. Content calendars can guarantee the human and financial resources necessary when you need them
Consistency matters.
We all know blogs that have dropped off. Keeping your audience regularly engaged means churning out new content on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. Your personas should indicate when your followers are going to be paying most attention to your content.
Depending on the timing of your buying cycle, your audience may respond to difference content at different times of the year. For example, if we sell umbrellas, we want to push content in the spring, rather than during winter.
Your content can also piggyback on key dates and industry events throughout the year. As well as providing inspiration for topics, writing about events helps you be part of the story, and ensures that you have a captive and interested audience.
Content calendars help you be consistent. If you plan your content ahead of time, you’ll be in a better position to maintain your strategy. Here are four basic steps to implementing a content calendar:
1. Know what you need.
Know what the most critical content assets are to your content strategy. Do you need blog posts, social media, or white papers? Maybe you need all three! With defined buyer personas and experience selling your product or service, you know what it takes for your audience to follow, sign up, or buy. You also know the channels to reach them.
2. Know what you have.
Is it just you, or do you have a team? What’s your budget? Index how much time and money you have from yourself and others on your team. Content will need to be created and managed, and it takes resources to do that.
3. Plan a realistic publishing frequency.
The key word here is realistic. If you start a content strategy, you have to maintain it. You’ll want to define days of the week, times of day, and how frequently you publish to develop a content rhythm. It’s completely dependant on the resources you have.
I recommend starting small and working your way up just to see how difficult it can be to maintain your frequency. Right now, I post a weekly blog on Thursday mornings.
4. Fill in your calendar.
What should your content calendar contain? Here are the most important sections:
- Publication date – when will the asset go live?
- Working title – what’s the content about?
- Audience – which persona are you writing for?
- Medium – is this a blog, white paper, or case study?
- Location – which channels will the content be published on?
- Stage in buying cycle – is this for buyers in Awareness, Consideration, Preference, or Purchase?
- Category / Tags – which theme(s) is this a part of?
- Call to action – if it exists, what is it?
There are a number of solutions that currently exist to help you plan this out. Some of them have more or less sections than I defined above:
- Microsoft Excel spreadsheets such as Convince & Convert’s, Vertical Measures’, or HootSuite’s
- Google spreadsheets such as Postcron’s or BrandKit’s
- WordPress’ Editorial Calendar Plugin
- or using Trello as a calendar
My personal tip would be to sync your content calendar with your current calendar or agenda book. I can always make sure that I have the cycles necessary to maintain my own content strategy.
John is the Founder & CEO of Wriber. He’s passionate about entrepreneurship, high-tech startups, thought leadership, content marketing, and artificial intelligence. John frequently volunteers his time at the University of Waterloo to help young entrepreneurs get their businesses off the ground. He’s also a faithful Toronto Maple Leafs fan, frequent Redditor, and lifelong learner.