What is a content marketing calendar and why you should use one?
In today’s ever-changing, busy digital world do you struggle with consistency? You’re not alone. When it comes to your content marketing strategy a content marketing calendar can be your perfect solution.
A content marketing calendar is an effective digital marketing tool as it’s been proven that organisations are 60% more likely to succeed in the digital marketing efforts if a content calendar is used regularly. This is reason enough for anyone in the digital world should use a content calendar as a fixed part of their content marketing strategy.
This type of calendar is a great way to plan out and organise your future content marketing strategy. Innovative ideas can be generated by completing a copywriting course which will also help you develop a content marketing strategy.
There are a few content calendars that can be utilised, such as a social media content calendar or an editorial content calendar.
A social media content calendar is a great place to plan all content that you want to post on social media channels.
An editorial content calendar is meant to plan out a specific content marketing strategy, such as blog posts, videos and infographics.
Benefits of having a content calendar
- Keeps you focussed – Don’t stray from your content marketing strategy. A calendar keeps you focussed and keeps your content in line with your overall strategy.
- All elements organised – A successful blog post consists of many elements and it’s important to keep track of all these central elements.
- Stay on schedule – Time is money, so it’s important to stick to your planned content marketing strategy schedule. Using a content calendar helps you create content ahead of schedule by planning content in advance.
- Plan ahead – These are busy times, so by using a content calendar you can get ahead of the race by sticking to your set dates and planning ahead.
What goes into a content calendar?
Content calendars is where all the elements of a digital marketing strategy come together, such as ideas, topics and dates. This information not only keeps you on track with your strategy but also will inspire you to keep adding creative content, at the very least.
A content calendar should include the following:
- Topics (including topic specialist’s details).
- Priority post list (prioritising what should be posted first).
- Writer, editor and scheduler details.
- Social media channels list and links.
Just how much information you want your content marketing calendar to include is entirely you to you. However, make sure you include all of the above list and you’re set to stay on track and focussed.
How to make your life simpler using a calendar
To ensure that your content calendar remains as efficient as your digital marketing strategy there are a few points to bear in mind to make your digital marketing strategy easier, which are:
- Author – If your social media platforms are populated by multiple authors it’s important that a track is kept of the content’s author. Recording the content author is helpful when viewing the order of who is publishing and when.
- Title – To quickly identify a certain piece of content on the calendar it’s important to use a title that best describes that particular post.
- Publish date – To help manage the posting of your digital marketing content it’s key to include the expected publishing date of a particular piece of content.
- Call to action – CTA (call to action) is designed to encourage interaction from your target audience when trying to move readers through the sales funnel.
- Relate similar campaigns – When scheduling multiple content marketing campaigns, it’s a good idea to add the name of a specific campaign when a blog is scheduled to be posted that is relative to the campaign. This way you will not overload your readers with the same type of content over a period of time.
- Easy access – Using a content marketing calendar that is sharable and easy to access is key to clear and concise communication between all partners involved in the digital content strategy.
A content calendar keeps your team on track, strategic and focussed. Follow the tips in this article or complete a copywriting course to enhance your social media posts.
To learn more comprehensive knowledge on digital marketing look no further than the Digital School of Marketing courses which have you covered in the latest and greatest digital marketing skills.
Check out these content marketing calendar tools ranked by Content Mavericks to help you in organizing your content.
