A man writing in a content calendar

Ultimate Guide to Creating A Content Calendar

Have you ever wondered how your favourite brands always have good content going out? How do they manage to keep pace with the trends? How are their social media pages organised? A number of things go into their almost perfect content marketing strategies. This article will give you a sneak peek into one of the […]

Have you ever wondered how your favourite brands always have good content going out? How do they manage to keep pace with the trends? How are their social media pages organised? 

A number of things go into their almost perfect content marketing strategies. This article will give you a sneak peek into one of the things that help them be at the top of their content game. 

What is a Content Calendar?

A content calendar is an organised schedule of your upcoming content plans on various social media pages. It contains the content you plan to share, the type of content (pictures, videos, infographics, slide), where and when you plan to post them. It could also include relevant links or tags and updates to already published content. 

Six Importances of a Content Calendar

It’s quite easy to think, “I don’t really need a calendar. I can always jot my ideas down and refer to them later.” Or “I’ll just make mental notes of them.”

You might also decide you want spontaneous content. Such reasoning exists but is it really wise? 

Consider these six reasons why creating and using a content calendar is important for your business or brand. 

   1. Efficient time management. 

This is an undeniable advantage to using a content calendar. Planning content ahead of time and identifying resources required to make the content go live and when the content should be uploaded are all put together in the content calendar for easy access when needed. 

Hence, during the workweek, the time you would otherwise spend on extensive research for content and format would be saved, and it yields better efficiency.

   2.  Thorough organisation.

Are you used to scribbling ideas on lone pieces of paper? Or do you just make mental notes of them only to forget a few seconds later? Then it would help if you were using a content calendar. 

A content calendar affords you a thorough organisation of your planned content. You can set out the type of content on the calendar, a catchy headline, and links to important information. Since you might post the content much later, you can also return to the calendar and update any outdated information or include any minor changes. 

When it is organised, it reflects on your social media pages. You can also better seal up any loopholes, and nothing is forgotten or left out. 

   3. Productive brainstorming.

Perhaps your problem could be coming up with great content. A proper content calendar also addresses this issue. An overview of your content plan clearly states what’s in and what’s not. It can remind you of some other ideas you might have had but forgotten. Or it can also serve as an inspiration to birth new ideas. 

These new ideas can be drafted and included as new content or upgrades to existing ones.

   4. Achieve consistency. 

A content calendar is a great tool to be consistent in your content journey. This is important because people patronise brands, products, or services that are constantly in their faces. 

So, constantly sharing valuable content to your target audience will help you connect with them, reach more people, increase sales conversions and overall impact business growth. 

The content you share with your target audience can be more information about your product or service. It can also be promo information. Or how to use your new products. It can even answer frequently asked questions from your audience and some entertainment posts to balance things. 

   5. Improve teamwork.

Collaboration is a whole lot easier with a content calendar. The entire team can get to deliberate on and generate ideas. They can now use the content calendar to screen proposed content and decide what goes and what doesn’t. 

This is also a great way for the content team to work with themselves and include the marketing team. With advice from the marketers, content is tailored to meet the market’s needs.

At the end of the day, all team members are on the same page, quality content is produced, and deadlines are met. 

   6. Monitor progress and isolate mistakes. 

A content calendar can be a very effective tool for measuring progress, isolating poor performance posts and restrategising for better results. 

To move your business or brand forward, you have to be mindful that the content you put out is drawing people and not pushing them away. So, going back to check their engagement with your posts can be very helpful. You can then separate the acquired information into top-performing and low performing. Identify what works and do more of it. 

Ten Steps to Creating a Content Calendar

Now that you know what a content calendar is and you also know how important it is to have one, you’re most likely itching to get one ready for use. To create a very efficient calendar, you have to go through some steps.

So, let’s see below the ten steps to creating a good content calendar. 

   1. Establish your goals.

What goals have you set regarding the entire content for the brand and individual content ideas? Knowing what goals you need the content to meet will influence some aspects of the calendar. 

Do you want the content to invite viewers to purchase your product or service? Do you want the content to provide detailed information about your product? Do you want the content to cause an increase in the number of followers for your social media page? 

Answering those questions will help determine what type of content you should create, where to publish the content, timing for publication, and relevant call to action. 

   2. Set up a template.

Creating a template that guides your content calendar can improve organisation. There are applications available that provide content calendar templates. If you’d like to use a spreadsheet, here are ideas on what your template should consist of. 

  • Date to be published 
  • Content-type. Is it a picture, a video, a carousel or something else?
  • Content topic or relevant headline.
  • Channel to be published.
  • Time for publishing.
  • Important links
  • Purpose of the content

And if you’re working with a team, you can include;

  • Person in charge of publishing.

   3. Decide on social media channels for posting. 

With a couple of social media platforms vying for attention and several others popping up every day, it becomes crucial that you carefully select which of these you would be giving attention to. 

To help you make that decision, carefully consider which of the platforms you’re most likely to find your target audience. When you have selected the channels, familiarise yourself with the best content marketing practices for these platforms because what works for one might not work for another. 

   4. Fill in content ideas.

After defining your goals, creating a template, and deciding what channels to use, you should start filling it up with your content ideas. You can include reviews and testimonials on your products or service, articles or current subjects in your field, videos on how to use a particular product you’re promoting, press releases on new product launches or a partnership with another brand and much more. 

   5. Include previous content. 

Perhaps you already have some content at hand that needs to be published. They shouldn’t be ignored, especially if they’re relevant to your business. Re-visit the store of older posts and carefully sift out which can be improved on and used. 

   6. Create room for flexibility.

We live in a time of ever-changing trends. It is therefore wise to plan for the what-ifs. Make room in your calendar to accommodate new trends when they come up. If you have to delay or replace a post for any reason, indicate it in your calendar so that the post can be rescheduled. 

   7. Set timelines and publishing frequency.

Figure out the number of times content should be posted on your various choice social media platforms. There should be enough content to generate and sustain traffic on your various accounts. But, be careful to set boundaries and not have a calendar too full, that it can’t be managed and the whole purpose is defeated. 

   8. Schedule posting.

Take time to schedule the content you have included in the calendar. Choose a date and time that each content should be published. You can also pair channels to have the same posts uploaded to them. 

   9. Ask for reviews

This is important, especially if you’re working with a team. Discuss any modifications to future posts or posts that need to be taken down and which ones have more priority. Ask for feedback from your team since they all contributed to the calendar. 

   10. Add updates and monitor performance. 

The final step will be to include any changes to your calendar. This will help to ensure you post more recent information that’ll be of benefit to your audience. And you can also monitor the performance of content as you post them. Use the calendar to indicate which reached more people, brought more sales, didn’t do so well and other important metrics. 

In conclusion, a content calendar is just what you need to help you reach your content marketing goals. With the calendar, you can have an organised bank of valuable content ready to be shared on the right channels at convenient times. 

   

 

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