How to Create an Editorial Calendar
No matter if you’re a solo blogger or leading an experienced team of content marketers, having an editorial calendar is invaluable for planning, scheduling, and publishing your best articles.
Editorial calendars are an effective way to visualize your overall content strategy and ensure you post evergreen content at the right time throughout the year. They also show when key milestones will be reached, helping generate fresh leads.
Identify Your Goals
Content calendars are essential marketing tools that help teams plan and produce content. They can range in complexity from an Excel spreadsheet to more intricate project management programs; however, it’s essential that you select a calendar that works for your team’s requirements and workflows.
When creating your editorial calendar, ensure it ties in with both your goals and content strategy. Doing this will guarantee that the team produces material which resonates with readers and has a beneficial effect on your business.
One of the first steps you’ll need to take is identify your objectives. Do this by brainstorming and focusing on top priorities. These could range from generating more leads to increasing brand awareness.
Once you’ve identified your goals, begin by compiling a list of all content ideas you wish to create. After that, decide on an interval for publishing these items.
Your publishing frequency will depend on your overall strategy, but it’s wise to remain consistent with it. For instance, if your strategy involves more social media presence, aim for at least 3-4 blog posts each month or multiple social media updates per day.
Once you have identified potential content topics, create a timeline that clearly states when different assignments are due. Doing this will prevent any confusion and enable your team to stay on track with their deadlines.
A timeline can also help you decide the optimal time to write and publish content pieces. Doing this helps you avoid rushing and deliver quality work that’s both on-brand and pertinent to your target audience.
Additionally, make sure to include all pertinent details for each piece of content on your calendar. This could include the title/headline, publishing date and key dates/events associated with that particular piece.
An editorial calendar can save your team a considerable amount of time and energy in the long run. Additionally, it encourages better collaboration within the team by ensuring everyone is working towards similar objectives.
Identify Your Audience
Before creating an editorial calendar, it’s essential to identify your target audience and comprehend what type of content they prefer reading. By understanding who this group is, you can plan content that appeals most directly to their needs while increasing the ROI on each dollar spent.
An editorial calendar can help your content team remain organized, create the appropriate type of material for your audience, and stay on track. Furthermore, it saves time by allowing them to focus on marketing objectives instead of juggling multiple platforms.
Additionally, team collaboration and communication can be improved, leading to increased productivity – especially if multiple projects are being handled simultaneously.
Your content calendar should be tailored to match your marketing objectives and distributed to all members of your content team. This way, everyone knows what’s coming up and how they can contribute.
Editorial calendars come in many formats and tools, such as Excel spreadsheets or digital calendar applications like CoSchedule or Asana. Alternatively, there are online templates that you can customize according to your specific needs.
Another option is to construct your own calendar from scratch. Although this requires more effort and can be time-consuming, the results are worth all the effort. Alternatively, you could set up a collaborative calendar where everyone has access to the same information.
The calendar should be accessible to everyone on the team and provide a detailed breakdown of content types that will be created. Furthermore, it should include an organized timeline for each piece of content produced.
An editorial calendar should be updated regularly and labeled with various labels such as “assigned,” “work in progress,” and “complete.” To differentiate content types on your calendar, utilize different colors so you can easily identify what each piece is, where it belongs, and when it will be published.
An editorial calendar will assist your team in staying organized, creating content that meets objectives, and increasing the profitability of your company. Furthermore, it encourages teams to work more efficiently together and foster connections across departments.
Identify Your Content Types
When creating a content calendar to organize your efforts, it is essential to first identify your objectives. Doing this will enable you to prioritize which types of material need work on and ensure that your time is put towards projects which provide the greatest return on marketing investment.
Once your content goals have been identified, it’s essential to start considering which types of content work best for both you and your audience. Make sure the material chosen is pertinent both to your business objectives as well as relevant to the target market. If unsure which methods will help achieve those objectives, experiment with various topics, formats, and marketing channels.
The next step is to decide how often you want to post each type of content. This decision varies by business, so consult your content team for guidance on finding a frequency that works best for your requirements.
In addition to the frequency of posts, you should also consider the topic and tone of your content. For instance, short-form pieces might be more informal and enjoyable while long-form articles tend to be more informative and educational in style.
A great way to organize your content types is by topic, breaking it into buckets specific for your target audience. Doing this makes filtering through all of your pieces of content much simpler and allows for the focus on those most pertinent to them.
By doing this, you can better tailor the tone and style of your content to the target audience. For instance, if you run a health food store and focus on healthy eating, create two buckets: “Healthy Living” and “Miscellaneous.”
Once you’ve identified your content types, it’s wise to begin prepping blog posts for publication. This may involve creating copy briefs, editing posts and adding images. Furthermore, setting deadlines for each post is beneficial.
Identify Your Resources
One of the initial steps in crafting an effective editorial calendar is identifying your resources. This includes team members, content creators and those you want to reach with this content. Keeping these in mind can make planning much smoother and efficient.
Once you’ve identified your resources, it’s time to create an editorial calendar that can help keep track of your objectives and content creation deadlines. An editorial calendar is an effective tool in crafting and executing a comprehensive content strategy that drives traffic, conversions, and sales.
When creating your calendar, it’s essential to take into account the following points:
Content Topics: Once you identify the topics you plan to cover, it’s essential that your content remains pertinent to the target audience and assesses whether or not those topics are in demand. This step helps guarantee your material adheres to relevant industry standards.
This can also assist in organizing content ideas and avoiding “writer’s block”. Additionally, it reduces your workload, allowing for more creative projects.
Color-coding your calendar makes it simpler to monitor progress and assign assignments accordingly. For instance, you could choose a different hue for social media posts than blog articles so you can quickly spot which content assignments need attention, as well as which ones have already been completed.
Maintain an organized list of current assignments and upcoming deadlines so you can prioritize what needs to be done. Doing this helps you avoid falling behind on important projects or missing crucial deadlines.
Record any delays or missed deadlines on your content pieces, so that you can identify potential issues and take necessary steps before they escalate into major ones. This also helps track metrics like how often a particular piece has been shared or how well it performs on search engines.
Editorial calendar templates can be found online, but it’s essential that you select one that best fits your business objectives and goals. Many SEO and content strategy blogs provide reviews of various tools and templates; additionally, reaching out to other teams within your industry can provide helpful advice and strategies.