How To Create A Content Calendar

4. Look for opportunities to repurpose content

Despite the massive demand for “new” content, you don’t have to come up with completely new assets for every channel, every day. There are plenty of ways to slice, dice, and stretch the content you create for one medium for use on another, with very little additional effort. For example, if you write a blog post, you can take a snippet of that and adapt it for a Facebook caption. You can highlight the most important elements of the post and create a text-based video to share on Instagram. You can even turn parts of the blog post into a visually appealing graphic. 

Don’t forget that you can also revisit and update older, high-performing content with a little bit of new information. The more mileage you can get out of one core piece of content, the easier it will be to keep up with your content marketing efforts.

5. Be flexible enough to jump on trending topics

It’s good to have a steady stream of “evergreen” content ideas, but depending on your business type, you might also want to post content covering new industry developments or current events. In these cases, you’ll want to be flexible enough to adapt your strategy and publish “trending” stories in a timely fashion. This will help establish you as a relevant and credible expert in your field.

6. Ask your team for help

Get your team involved in brainstorming. The more people you include in the process, the more insight and ideas you’ll gain. Plus, you’ll have more people to delegate to, which will help you tackle more projects in less time.

7. Schedule cross-channel content

When scheduling content, integrate other types of marketing into your strategy. For instance, pair a blog post with a social media post and schedule them to go live on the same day. Also, find other blogs or influencers in your industry or niche, and make an effort to engage with them on a regular basis, whether through follows, comments, likes, shares, etc.

8. Measure your content performance and adapt

As you publish your content, check your stats and evaluate how well certain posts perform. For instance, maybe your audience prefers short listicles to long blog posts; or maybe they want more videos and less photos. Whatever the results may be, don’t be afraid to make adjustments accordingly and experiment with new ideas.

Content marketing is a great way to engage and connect with your target consumers while establishing yourself as a reliable source in your field. Building and maintaining a content calendar will help you achieve your marketing goals with ease while developing and assessing your strategy as you go. 

What is the difference between a content calendar and an editorial calendar?

While it may seem as though you can use the terms “content calendar” and “editorial calendar” interchangeably, they’re different types of calendars that you can use differently depending on your content’s strategy. Publications utilize editorial calendars to plan content ahead of time. For example, a published magazine may have a Valentine’s Day spread for its February issue. They can use an editorial calendar to map out the pieces with assigned writers, editors, and photographers. As these pieces are planned out far in advance, editorial calendars can be created monthly, quarterly, or even yearly. It’s scope will usually be broad during the planning stage with the details filled out once the publishing date gets closer.

Content calendars, on the other hand, are likely more familiar to content creators and marketers. A content calendar has more specific details than an editorial calendar as it zeroes in on the day-to-day content creation process. A content calendar will outline each piece of content and its publication date.. Content calendars are meant to be agile and provide you with flexibility whether you’re working on a consistent project or have a time-sensitive deadline for a client. This process gives you and your team an organized view of the content creation process while maintaining and publishing timely content. 

How can content and editorial calendars benefit you?

Here are a few ways a content or editorial calendar can benefit you and your team:

• • Reduces stress. Content and editorial calendars keep you from worrying about your posting schedule by give you the ability to plan your content out over time and not guessing taking the what content to post on any given day. You’ll know exactly what your team is publishing each day, as these calendars plan content weekly or monthly.
  • Creates brainstorming opportunities. Whether you’re a small business or an agency, content and editorial calendars give you a chance to convene with your team on future publishing opportunities. Schedule brainstorming sessions, where your team has the opportunity to come up with new, creative ideas for future content. You can even analyze feedback from previous content to apply to your calendar. 
  • Engages your audience.. A content or editorial calendar can help you sort through relevant topics for your content and ensure you’re not recycling topics your audience has deemed uninteresting. It allows you to keep your ideas organized and evaluate what was successful and what was not. 
  • Provides consistency. A content or editorial calendar gives your audience a consistent posting schedule. Whether you’re sharing your content on social media, learning how to create an Instagram content calendar, or crafting a weekly email, consistency is key. A content or editorial calendar can give you the tools to post relevant and steady content.

Best tools for creating content calendars

A content calendar tool is a great way to stay organized and keep track of posting times. Some tools even have the ability to integrate with your content management system. There are a number of tools available to choose from, so it’s important you and your team ask the right questions: Is it important that the tool provides steps on how to create a content calendar? Or do you need a tool that gives you progress reports and collaboration abilities? 

Here are a few tools for creating content calendars to choose from:

• • Gather Content: This tool utilizes a content platform where you and your team can create, manage, and plan your content all in one place. Gather Content also features templates and a robust calendar you can share with your clients. It’s content workflow allows you and your team to see where your content is in each process without relying on complex spreadsheets or a shared document. 
  • WordPress Editorial Calendar Plugin: This WordPress plugin is a perfect tool that details exactly how to create a content calendar for a blog on WordPress. You can use the drag and drop feature to change publishing dates, manage your drafts, and see the status of your posts. Everything is featured on the calendar built right into your WordPress capabilities. While this is a simple editorial calendar, you get a bird’s eye view of your content right where you draft and publish.
  • Google or Excel spreadsheets: To get a completely customized calendar on a tight budget, it may be worth it to create a calendar on Google or Excel spreadsheets. You can create templates like this one from HubSpot. These templates can house everything from the author, target audience, keywords, and publishing date. 
  • CoSchedule: As a WordPress plugin, this tool features either a marketing calendar or a marketing suite depending on your business’s needs. The marketing calendar can be edited in real time, meaning you and your team can collaborate on the calendar remotely while seeing real time changes. With CoSchedule, you can create social media posts and checklists while organizing and publishing posts right in the calendar feature. 
  • Kapost: Kapost is a robust software that focuses on content creation, production, and distribution. It’s a platform that allows you and your team to collaborate, build a strong workflow, and send your message directly your intended audience. You can even connect your content schedule to your sales team. Kapost also keeps track of your content’s performance by providing quantifiable metrics. 
  • ContentCal: This tool helps you and your team manage all parts of your communication paired with the ability to share on social media platforms, email newsletters, your website, and more. Like most other software features, you get an overview of your content schedule on a calendar view you can share with your team and clients. It’s advanced analytics also tracks your content’s ROI. 

How to create an editorial calendar:

While an editorial calendar and a content calendar may seem similar, there are a few differences when it comes to creating an editorial calendar. For one, an editorial calendar is mainly a high level overview of your content over long periods of time. While content calendars are more hands-on and with a day-to-day overview. When building out an editorial calendar think about the needs of your team, including: 

• • How often you’re publishing content
  • The types of content you’re creating
  • The size of your team
  • The different stages you go through before publishing
  • Your preferred calendar format

Here’s how to create an editorial calendar:

1. Choose a format. You can use a number of editorial calendar management platforms or use a simple app such as Google Calendar. You can also use spreadsheets including Excel or Google Spreadsheets. Another option is to use a Kanban board utilized through Trello or Airtable. No matter which format you choose, your editorial calendar should include the month and day, a cohesive platform, and organizational capabilities.

2. Determine the key elements. It’s important to create an editorial calendar that prioritizes elements that help your team work efficiently. Elements of an efficient editorial calendar include:

• • Themes, topics, and subtopics of your content
  • Important dates, events, and holidays
  • How often you’ll be posting — either on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis
  • Your publishing channels (website, blog, email, or social media)

3. Establish how often you’ll use the editorial calendar. The more frequently you use your editorial calendar, the easier it is to publish content. Establish a routine within your team in which your editorial calendar is regularly reviewed. That way everyone is on the same page as far as the progress of content and its deadlines. It also allows them to plan for future pieces of content in the long term.

Need help creating your content calendar? Each of our marketing consulting services includes a comprehensive content calendar template and content recommendations. that we’ll work with you to fill out. Get more details here or contact us with questions.

Sammi Caramela also contributed to this article.