Having a consistent and well-planned content strategy is essential to building a successful online presence for any business. And one of the best tools in your digital marketing armoury is a content calendar, which allows you to organise and plan your marketing in advance, and maintain a consistent flow of on-brand, on-message content that resonates with your target audience. So, do you have one? If not, here’s how you can create a content calendar that will work best for you in 5 easy steps.
Why Should I Create a Content Calendar?
Not just for bloggers, if you’re planning on creating and publishing content on a regular basis, it makes sense to keep track of what needs to be done when, so that no important deadlines slip through the cracks. A content calendar is simply a tool for scheduling out your blog posts, social media posts, email newsletters, and any other internal and external marketing material you produce. Here are some reasons why it’s so valuable for your business marketing strategy.
Defines Your Goals
Before you begin to create a content calendar, it’s important to define your goals. What are you trying to achieve with your digital marketing material? Do you want to drive more traffic to your website, build your email list, or increase your social media engagement? Once you’ve identified your goals, you can begin to tailor your content strategy to achieve them.
Identifies Your Audience
Knowing your target audience is key to creating content that resonates with them. Determine who your ideal client is, and what their interests and pain points are. Buyer personas will help you do this by filling in the blanks with the right information to help you to create content that speaks directly to them and meets their needs.
Selects Your Platforms
Decide which platforms you’ll be using to distribute your content. Will you be blogging, using social media, or both? Identify the channels your audience uses the most, and focus your efforts on those. For example, I advocate focussing on just two social media channels to start with, to avoid spreading yourself too thinly.
How To Create a Content Calendar
Start by mapping out a schedule of when you want to publish your content. This schedule could be weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly, depending on your goals and available resources. Consider holidays, seasonal events, and any other relevant dates when planning your content ideas.
Start With a Template
Preferably one created by someone else and which offers some flexibility so you can tweak as needed. Google Sheets or Excel are both great options because they’re free and easy to use. You can decide how much detail you need on your calendar, but popular categories include dates, topics, type of content, platforms, and links. Just make sure you take a back up so that if something goes wrong, all your hard work and planning is still accessible.
Here are some useful, free content calendar templates to inspire you and get you started:
Add Any Company-Specific Projects
Once you’ve chosen a template, you can start adding in events such as launches or campaigns, so you know when things are due and what you need to do next. For example, if your company is launching a new product on June 1st, your content calendar could show an event coming up on May 15th where all employees will receive information about how to promote and/or sell it ahead of launch day.
Social Media Awareness Days and Holidays
Take into consideration any holidays or special events that might be relevant to your business. This is your chance to create material to reach not only your intended audience but also get noticed by those looking specifically at those dates each year – which could become a new target audience for you as well.
Here’s an example of a very simple content calendar:
| Date | Topic | Type | Platform |
|---|---|---|---|
| May 1st | What is a Buyer Persona? | Blog post | Website |
| May 8th | King’s Coronation Day (UK) | Social media post | Facebook, Instagram |
| May 15th | Customer success story | Case study | |
| May 22nd | How to create a Content Calendar | Blog post | Website |
| May 29th | Behind the scenes – sneak peak | Video | YouTube |
Create Your Content
Now you have a schedule, it’s time to start creating content that aligns with your goals and speaks to your target audience. This could include writing blog posts, creating graphics, editing videos, writing newsletters, and developing social media posts.
Review and Refine
Test, test, and test some more. Don’t sleep on your digital marketing analytics tools either, you should be measuring the performance of all your content so you can refine your strategy accordingly. By reviewing your content calendar regularly, you can make sure it remains relevant for your overall business marketing strategy, and is still meeting your SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound) goals too.
Do you have a content calendar to help you market your business effectively? If not, and you’d like some help putting one together, or even just throw some ideas around over a coffee, you can get in touch for an initial chat here. I look forward to hearing from you 😊
