There are many tools out there to help make marketing easier to manage, but it is still a daunting task. Having a marketing plan to guide you is a help, but it is important to also keep a detailed content-calendar on hand at all times.
Why You Need A Content Calendar
Simply put, it will keep you from getting overwhelmed with all the work involved in marketing. Throwing content on to your blog or to your social media sites without a plan is like driving in a foreign city with no map and nor the ability to read the street signs.
Ask yourself:
- Who am I trying to reach?
- What will make the most impact with my audience?
- Who will write this post?
- How will I get my content in front of the people I am trying to reach?
Your marketing plan should define some of these things for you, but the day-today will be kept on track with your content calendar.
The pressure to get your daily social media posts up and your weekly blog posts finalized can be intimidating. Most of the time writer's block wins the battle and you end up posting nothing at all. Planning posts a week or two in advance will help give you enough time to write them and keep you excited about writing them as well. Each calendar will be different depending on you and your company's goals, but here are some things to consider including.
What to Put In Your Content Calendar
- National and Federal Holidays/Anniversaries: When your company was founded, birthday of your CEO, etc.
- Holidays related to your industry-For example, someone in the healthcare industry would want to make note that March is National Nutrition Month.
- Due Dates and Publish Dates-Just as an example, if you are blogging each week you should have your blog posts finalized by Mondays and published by Wednesdays.
- Assets- Next to your due dates, list what type of content you will be posting such as photos, video, or blog posts.
- Keywords being targeted- Since this is your content calendar, the keywords you are trying to target should be kept in a notes section so that you remember to use them in your blogs and social media posts.
- Links to inspirational content-If you see content that would be a good fit for your company's goals, it's okay to share that to your followers.
- Insights and Goals-Include a date each month to measure the effectiveness of your posts.
Just make sure you are keeping on track with what matters to your company, based on the goals in your marketing plan. At times there will be topics in the news or something trending that is related to your business, so you'll need to reschedule your content around that. The calendar is not set in stone but simply acts as a guide for you.
I use a Google Docs spreadsheet as my calendar that way I can sync it to my phone and share it with others if needed. There are plenty of templates out there as well to help get you started.
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