What is a content calendar?

Introduction:

Many professional marketers know how beneficial it is to have a content calendar in their organizations. Managing content might sometimes turn out to be a daunting task, especially when dealing with large teams and organizations. Strategizing and planning is critical for any productive marketing, and this can be well done with the help of a content calendar. Are you new to editorial management or seeking a manner of keeping all your information organised? This article offers you beneficial information from definitions to uses of content calendars, how to build them, and their benefits that can be used to develop your organization.

What is a content calendar?

A content calendar is a tool that aids in planning out and organizing future content and exists in various forms. For instance, social media content is an area where all content is planned to be placed on social media channels. On the other hand, a content calendar plans out particular marketing assets like blog posts, videos, and infographics. Content calendar ensures that all marketing efforts have a similar goal in mind; therefore, always ensure that every individual in your team can easily access it. A content calendar can be stored in a google sheet because it allows many people to access it and update it when necessary. A perfectly maintained calendar enables the marketers to see all the campaigns to make the required plans and actions to make the marketing successful.

How to create a content calendar?

It might sound a bit complicated when t comes to designing a content calendar from scratch than it is. Mentioned are the steps to follow when creating a content calendar:

Step1: Review your content strategy to identify priorities

What your content calendar carries entirely depends on your content marketing strategy, a plan for consistently generating high-quality content designed to turn guests into customers. Therefore, having a clear outline and understanding how every piece you create fits into it is the most effective way to fill and maintain your content calendar.

Step 2: Set up your calendar

Many tools can generate your calendar, but it is not much important than deciding what information you want to fill in it. A content calendar only requires two fields, that’s is; the title and due date. Other details include platform, time, copy, visual, link to an asset, and publish a post.  Nevertheless, you can add various additional fields that are advanced information that may be helpful at some point. Your calendar is not restricted on what it should have and shouldn’t. Concentrate on the information you and the rest of the team need the most for content production.

Step 3: Add content to the calendar

Immediately you have a structure at hand; the next move is populating the calendar with your planned pieces, ensuring that the cadence is matched with your strategy. As you figure out how your content calendar will look, you will need to map out the information and functionality this tool will offer you.

Step 4: Add relevant subtasks

Every piece you add to your content calendar needs various steps to finish; therefore, breaking down every entry into the specific tasks you will need to complete is crucial. To outline the steps, think of a content piece you have published before, note down everything before publication, and utilise the data to plan every upcoming work.

What are the benefits of a content calendar?

Content calendars are essential tools for any person involved in content production. It is instrumental when it comes to the organization of content marketing efforts. It helps you to:

Plan your work adequately

Having a clear plan in place and documented enables one to track what has been done before keeping you updated on what you should be better off in the future. When your previous work was well planned, you can easily reuse the content you offered way back before. In the content calendar, you will prepare for the next to-do’s clearly and pre-schedule. It ensures whatever you are planning is doable within a particular time and offers resources.

It encourages teamwork within the team

Usually, in a marketing team, you will find more than one member. It is therefore very crucial to have perfect communication and organization for you to achieve good teamwork. A content calendar will thus enable members to comprehend what is going on with a particular campaign. It will also offer you a chance to delegate tasks and oversights for everyone to see what is planned and needs to be worked on.

Test new strategies

When you have pre-planned content, you will get time to test new strategies, generate baselines, and know-how specific content is performing over time. Designing a unique and more effective approach will become more comfortable as time goes by as you continuously test new content and techniques.

Triple check and collaborate

For those who are fortunate to have a whole team, a content calendar can be handy for designing a smooth experience needed for a marketing team. Give a chance to your copywriters to generate their content, the editorial team to edit the information, and the team for designing to make beautiful imagery. When they are done, they can upload it directly to the content calendar. Therefore, this will permit anybody with access to the calendar to view the work being done and transferred between departments.

Manages content in one place

Since it keeps all available content in your pipeline, a calendar functions as a single common truth for your team. Apart from saving people’s time, a content calendar ensures every information can be accessed every time, and it is not only available for few heads but everybody. Additionally, stakeholders and bosses can easily see the calendar and be informed about what you are working towards.

Conclusion

To conclude, a content calendar is one source of truth for a company’s marketing formulae. It offers a perfect tool and resource used to organise both the short and long-term goals. Selecting the correct device and process for your organization can positively impact efficiency and analytics tracking while generating content that goes hand in hand with your business goals.