How to Create a Blog Editorial Calendar

Blog content calendars help you stay organized by outlining a content strategy over an extended period (whether it be several months or one full year).

A blog editorial calendar is an indispensable tool for organizing your content, keeping organized, and working efficiently to meet deadlines.

Start with a blank sheet of paper.

Creating a blog editorial calendar is an effective way to stay organized and on track with your content plan. Additionally, it helps you meet important deadlines and objectives.

Starting an editorial calendar can seem intimidating, but there are plenty of tools and templates to help you get going. For instance, Google Sheets is a straightforward option for creating content calendar spreadsheets.

Project management tools and curated software can help organize and manage your content calendar. Selecting the right tool is a personal decision based on what your blogging team requires.

Some teams prefer to begin with a basic spreadsheet, while others require more sophisticated solutions. It’s essential that you select the appropriate tool for your needs; try out several different ones and see which one works best for you.

Once your editorial calendar is in order, it’s time to craft blog posts. It is critical that all ideas are taken out of your head and stored in an organized system so that each piece can be maximized for maximum impact and efficiency.

Before you begin writing, take into account the following: What topics must be covered and how often?

If your blog specializes in fashion, you might need to plan articles around each season’s trends. On the other hand, business bloggers might want to prepare content for major events like holidays or webinars.

Once your ideas are organized by topic, it’s time to prioritize them. Doing this gives you a better idea of how long each piece will take and ensure there is enough material for your readers.

Write down your blog post ideas.

Establishing a blog editorial calendar is one of the most efficient methods for staying on top of your content marketing strategy. Additionally, it ensures that all members of your team are working together towards producing quality content with potential for wider reach.

Before you begin crafting your editorial calendar, it’s essential to consider the objectives you wish to reach with your blog. Doing this will enable you to identify topics most likely to fulfill those objectives.

Your aim should be to identify blog post topics that provide value for readers and are also search engine friendly, so you can stand out from competitors and appear higher in search results. This will enable you to gain more attention from search engines.

To come up with blog post topics, you can search social media trending topics, analyze your competitors’ posts and conduct keyword research using tools like UberSuggest or Answer the Public. Alternatively, you could crowdsource blog ideas by asking questions on online forums where your target audience frequently participates.

Once you’ve collected your ideas, organize them by topic. This can be done using spreadsheets, traditional calendars, whiteboards with markers or sticky notes and project management tools like Kanban boards or Figma.

Depending on your team, you may opt to utilize multiple tools for a smoother workflow. For instance, Colin Loughran – editor in chief at Unbounce – utilizes CoSchedule as his go-to solution for managing all content within his company.

This tool empowers his small team to strategize big-picture content goals versus smaller tasks, keeping everyone on the same page with color categorization, calendar views and task views. Furthermore, its drag-and-drop capabilities make creating social posts from within the system much simpler.

Organize your ideas by topic.

Bloggers or content marketers know how easy it can be to feel overwhelmed with all of your ideas. That’s why having a blog editorial calendar is essential for staying organized and avoiding writer’s block.

An editorial calendar is a visual tool that assists in organizing content for daily, weekly or monthly publication. It helps keep track of content types, promotional channels, authors and publish dates.

A successful editorial calendar is essential for any business looking to craft high-quality content. Not only will creating one save you time, but it can also reduce writer’s block and guarantee your material remains up to date.

An editorial calendar not only helps plan content, but it can also serve as a vehicle for team communication and organization. It helps everyone stay aligned on shared goals, visualize upcoming material and determine which phases of each project involve the most people.

Hootsuite, a social media scheduling platform, uses Google Sheets to plan and organize their content strategy for the year. This way, they can create content ahead of time so their team can publish posts quickly and efficiently.

Working alone or with a team? An editorial calendar can be invaluable. Not only does it save you hours each month, but it also guarantees your blog posts remain consistent and timeless.

To create a blog editorial calendar that meets your needs and goals, take time to decide what your ultimate objective is for each piece of content you create before organizing them by topic. Furthermore, ensure your calendar includes important dates such as publishing deadlines so you can stay organized while reaching those targets.

Create a weekly schedule.

Scheduling blog posts on a weekly basis is an efficient way to plan them ahead and guarantee they get done on time. Additionally, it helps you avoid forgetfulness or procrastination.

When creating a weekly schedule, the most essential thing to remember is simplicity. A suitable template should include all essential information such as the date, task name, time, and space for notes.

Checkmarks for completed tasks make it easy to verify if all items on your list have been completed. Another useful tip is inserting blank spaces in the schedule for additional tasks, changes of plans, or other notes worth remembering.

When creating a weekly schedule, it’s essential that you communicate it clearly to your team members. An unfamiliar format could make it more challenging for employees to locate relevant information quickly.

One of the best ways to make your schedule easy to read is by coloring-coding variables. Doing this will reduce text on your schedule and enable team members to locate information quickly.

When creating your weekly schedule template, it’s wise to select an easily readable font. You can do this using Microsoft Word or Excel and print the completed template out for distribution amongst your team members.

Finally, it’s wise to create a flexible schedule. This way, you can adjust your plans in case something unexpected occurs during the week – such as a power outage, illness or other issues that could hinder progress.

Track your progress.

A blog editorial calendar is an indispensable tool to organize your content plan. It helps you stay organized and ensure posts are scheduled according to deadlines. Furthermore, it makes it simple for your team to monitor each piece’s status and guarantee everyone is on the same page.

When creating a blog editorial calendar for the first time, it may take some trial and error to get just the right combination of topics, post dates and other essential details. After that, evaluate your progress over time for any adjustments needed.

Create a blog editorial calendar using various options, such as spreadsheets and project management software like Trello or Asana. Alternatively, you could use one of many free online templates or use content workflow management platforms like CoSchedule or HubSpot for this purpose.

Unbounce uses a Google Sheets spreadsheet as its editorial calendar, keeping their small team in sync and allowing them to efficiently track and manage content that goes beyond what’s published on the Unbounce blog.

When selecting an editorial calendar, ask yourself the following questions: how many people will use it? Does each assignment undergo a significant review or approval process?

Once you’ve answered these questions, you can select an editorial calendar format that best reflects your goals and team’s workflows. In general, most teams find success with a forward-looking schedule of 4-6 weeks.

Once you’ve created an editorial calendar, it’s time to start scheduling articles for your blog. By taking some time to come up with ideas for posts and adding them into the calendar, you can write better content, stay organized, and avoid running out of ideas.