TJ Vasquez
Planning is an essential part of any successful content creation process. Having a thorough plan in place helps guide brands through the complexities they encounter while trying to reach their goals. It helps ensure that there’s always a deliberate and strategic path to follow and ways to anticipate challenges before they occur. One of the most important elements of a marketing strategy is the content calendar brands use to organize their publications.
In this article, we’ll cover what a content calendar is, why it matters, and how creators can build their own calendars.
What is a Content Calendar?
A content calendar, which is also known as an editorial calendar, is a planning tool that individuals and businesses alike can use to organize, schedule, and manage content creation and publication. These calendars serve as a sort of roadmap for a brand’s marketing efforts. They help to ensure the consistency and timely delivery of content across an array of unique channels and platforms.
Much like the way a travel itinerary helps vacationers ensure that they reach each of their destinations on time, a content calendar is designed to help brands and content creators release content according to a predetermined schedule. It gives creators a way to structure their marketing efforts so that every publication they release is done according to a plan that makes sense. With a proper content calendar, brands can make sure that they don’t miss out on any opportunities or trends that matter to their audience members.
Components of a Content Calendar
Key components of a solid content calendar include:
- Publication schedules: the daily, weekly, or monthly outline of when content is set to be published
- Content types: the various types of content a brand has in its arsenal, such as blog posts, social media content, podcasts, videos, and the like
- Content topics: an outline that covers the topics and themes that a brand’s content is going to center around
- Authors/Contributors: a list of individuals or teams that are involved with a brand’s content creation strategy
- Status tracking: information that covers the status of each piece of content so that teams are constantly aware of where a piece is on the production line
- Keywords/SEO: lists of keywords and SEO practices a piece needs to include for the best possible search engine results
- Channels: a collection of the various platforms and channels a brand uses, as well as the posting schedule to follow for each
- Holidays & events: the observance of special holidays or events that the brand wants to dedicate certain pieces of content to
Building a Content Calendar
Building a working content calendar doesn’t have to be complicated, but it does require dedicated time, research, and effort. For smaller teams, building a content calendar might be a little more simplistic than it is for large corporations. In any case, though, consistency and care are key.
To get the most use out of your content calendar, it’s important to understand the different elements that go into its creation. In this section, we’ll review several key steps you need to take to build your own content calendar. This way, whether you’re an experienced content creator or one who’s just starting out, you’ll be able to enhance your brand’s efficiency and create consistent workflows.
Review Your Existing Content
Before officially starting your content calendar, it’s a good idea to take a look at the content you already have. If you’ve published content, use different metrics and analytical tools to determine which pieces have performed well and which can be improved upon. For example, if your audience tends to favor infographics and video content over long-form blog posts, focus on catering your plans so that they meet the needs of those who follow your brand.
List Your Goals and Ideas
Next, you need to have a solid idea of what you want to accomplish with your content. Start by establishing a set of goals and identifying the audience you want to appeal to. Consider the type of content that resonates with your customer base and aligns with your overall marketing objectives. Understanding your unique goals and being familiar with your audience will help you shape your calendar. As such, you’ll be able to consistently produce content that performs well within your industry or niche.
Use a Content Calendar Template
Once you know what sort of content you want to produce, you should create a calendar template that includes all the relevant information you want to cover. Everyone’s calendar details vary to some degree, so do your best to make sure that the calendar template or layout you use includes all the components you’re going to need.
For example, you could include the following categories in your calendar:
- Titles of your content pieces
- Topic clusters
- Keywords and SEO tips
- Author
- Editor
- Publication channel
- Content format
- Deadlines
- Publication dates & times
Choose Your Channels
Depending on your audience’s preferences and your marketing goals, certain channels will be more appropriate than others. You’ll need to decide which platforms you’re going to focus on when it comes to publishing content. Monitor which channels your audience consistently engages with so that you can ensure your content is going to be seen by as many interested parties as possible.
You might choose to market your content through email blasts, social media posts, video-hosting websites, podcasting platforms, or a combination of them all. It’s up to you and how your audience prefers to interact with your brand.
Set Your Publication Frequency
Consistency is essential when it comes to marketing your content. As such, you’ll need to determine how often you want to launch your publications. Whether you plan to post daily, weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly, it’s important to establish a regular posting schedule. This way, you can continue to grow your audience by meeting their expectations and keeping your brand at the forefront of their minds.
Your posting schedule may differ depending on the platforms you’re using, so don’t feel like you need to follow the same schedule for every channel. You might, for example, choose to write a blog post each week, an email newsletter each month, and social media posts every 3-4 days.
Plan Your Content
Finally, the process of actually planning your content comes into play. This element of building your content calendar is often the most time-consuming and laborious part of your journey. It requires you to combine all the work you’ve done so far and start filling out the calendar template in front of you.
During this step, you’ll need to brainstorm all of the different pieces you want to cover throughout the year. You’ll need to decide on which content types you’re going to go with for each piece, and when you want your pieces to launch.
Let’s say your brand revolves around reviewing movies and you’re compiling a list of topics you plan to cover throughout the first quarter of the year. Your basic content strategy includes 12 different movies you’re going to review, and now you need to plot each piece of content into your calendar.
You might choose to review one movie per week for the first twelve weeks of the year. To provide your audience with enough content, you might plan to publish:
- 1 video review per week
- 1 long-form blog review per week
- 2 social media posts per week (on 3 popular platforms)
With this plan in mind, you’ll need to determine how long each piece of content is going to take you or your team to complete. From there, you’ll need to schedule deadlines and publication dates based on when your audience is most likely to interact with what you produce.
Start by planning your more important pieces of content and fill in any blanks that occur in your schedule with smaller publications or those you create just for fun.
Analyze and Adapt Your Content Calendar
Once you’ve created a sound content calendar, don’t leave your work as it is. You can use the plan you’ve built to help you continue creating compelling content. Regularly review the way your calendar performs and analyze key metrics to discover what you’re doing right and where you need to make changes. Take a look at your reach, conversion rates, engagement, and other analytics for the best possible insights. Use what you learn to refine your future content calendar and optimize the approach you take in your content creation strategy.
Try to remain in touch with what your audience wants to see. By truly knowing them as a group, you can take steps to ensure that you’re constantly releasing content that speaks to them.
When it comes to effective content marketing, a well-crafted content calendar serves as more than just a schedule. It’s a tool that helps ensure consistency and adaptability for brands. Very rarely does anything proceed on the right track without a plan in place, so if you’re a content creator, having a content calendar is essential.
Follow the steps outlined above to create your own content calendar, and if you find that you need help developing compelling content, reach out to Content Cucumber. Our experienced content writers and marketers can help you thrive during each step of your content creation journey. Schedule a demo with us today.
