A content calendar is an essential tool for any business or content creator who wants to stay organized and on top of content creation efforts. When you have a strategic editorial calendar, it’s going to help you feel at ease, streamlined and organized with all of the content that you’re creating for the week, month or quarter.
Whether you’re creating blog posts, social media updates, email, or other types of content, a well-designed content calendar will help you plan your content in advance, ensure you’re creating content that resonates with your audience and will help you streamline your content creation process.
It may feel easy for you to plug in a bunch of things into a content calendar and before you know it, you have a full calendar populated with content, but how random or strategic is everything on your calendar?
Is the content that you’re creating for your audience creating value for your audience, it is relevant and timely? Is the content you’re producing supporting your business, your personal brand or growth?
To create a comprehensive content calendar, there are several elements that you should include to ensure that your content is relevant, that your team is aligned and that your marketing and business goals are being met. A thoughtfully created content calendar will help support the programs, services or offers that you are providing for your audience.
In this article, we’ll explore key details that your content calendar should include and how to use them to create a successful strategy.
A content calendar should include the following details:
1. Topic or Title:
Your content calendar should include a topic or title area so you can clearly identify the focus or theme of your post.
What is the main idea of the content that you are creating? What is the overall theme or strategic focus you will be talking about? Your content calendar should include a space for you to include the topic or title of your content.
2. Format:
Your content calendar should identify the format of your content. What type of content are you creating?
How will your information be presented? What kind of format or asset are you producing? Is it a blog post, a video, podcast, image, infographic, email, etc. Be sure to include the format or the type of content you are creating because it will help you see what you will be publishing and ways you can repurpose your content.
3. Publishing Date:
Your content calendar should include the day your content will be published or is scheduled to go live.
Dates are important in any content calendar. You should consider working on content a week or two before it goes live to stay ahead of schedule.
Depending on your needs, you could incorporate a “Do” date on your calendar and a “Due” or “Go Live” date on your content calendar. This way you have a clear deadline on when you’re doing the work and when it’s due for publishing.
Depending on what you’re creating, you might also include a column or section for “Upload Date” which could be helpful if you’re working with an editor, virtual assistant or team.
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4. Distribution:
Your content calendar should include the location of where your content is being distributed to. You could label this “Platform” or “Channel” depending on what works best for you. How is your content being distributed?
Identify which platform you’re publishing content on. Create a space on your calendar that lets you see how effective you’re being in maximizing every piece of content you’re creating and how you’re repurposing it across channels.
Create one piece of valuable content per week and aim to create at least six assets or more from that original piece. Many people make the mistake of spending a lot of time creating one post, but never investing enough time in repurposing it and sharing it again.
5. Status:
Your content calendar should include the current stage of completion for the content you’re creating. For example, this might include: planning, in progress, scheduled, completed, etc).
Including the status of your content can help you with your workflow and ensure your content moves from ideation to completion.
6. Target Audience:
Your content calendar should include the specific audience the content is intended for.
You should be very clear on who your content is for and doing so will help ensure alignment and focus with your content marketing efforts.
7. Goal:
Your content calendar should include the goal or strategic intent of your content.
Knowing what your objective will be helpful in making sure you stay aligned with your goal. Is your goal to increase web traffic to your website? Generate leads? When you identify a clear objective, you’re able to stay focused on creating and writing content that supports your goal.
For example, if your goal is to generate email leads, you might include a call-to-action that asks people to register for a workshop or encourage your audience to download a worksheet so that they can sign up to your newsletter.
8. Key Message or Keywords:
Your contetn calendar should include the main points or phrases that your content will be centered around.
This might also include a space for your call to action so that you can guide your reader or viewer to take action after consuming the content.
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9. Content Pillars or Content Buckets:
Your content calendar should include the 3-5 main topics that you talk about.
Maximize your content calendar by designating a space to see which topics you’re curating and creating content for.
Remember, your content pillars help support your business and target audience. Make sure you are strategically curating your content pillars based on the campaign, program, offer or services you may be highlighting that particular week.
10. URL:
Your content calendar should include the link for your final published posts.
Having a space for URLs saves you so much time when you want to repurpose content later.
Other things your content calendar could include:
- Author: The name of the person who will be responsible for creating the content.
- Promotion Plan: The channels or platforms where the content will be promoted (i.e. social media, email, etc.).
- Performance Metrics: The metrics that will be used to measure the success of the content piece (traffic, engagement, leads generated, etc.). What metrics will be used to measure the success of your content?
You can create a successful content calendar by including these key details in your content calendar. You can ensure that you are creating content that is relevant to your audience, aligned with your business goals and delivered consistently over time.
Key takeaways:
- A well-thought-out content calendar is essential to content creation.
- A content calendar should include relevant details such as topics, format, publishing date, audience, goal and key messages.
- Your content calendar should enable you to repurpose your content to make the most of your efforts.
