Editorial calendars are used by bloggers, publishers, and small businesses to schedule content across different media, such as newspaper, blogs, social media, and email or print newsletters. An effective editorial calendar is much more than just a platform for publishing dates. An effective editorial calendar maps content and schedules resources, offers, and channels.
Editorial Calendar Basics
Now that you have decided to create an editorial calendar, these tips will ensure you are the most successful.
1) Create a list of Content
List all the content you intend to publish. If you are unsure of blog titles but know you want to post 4 blogs per month, you can simply write “Original Blog 1” or “Curated Blog 2” to serve as placeholders. Utilize a blend of both original and curated content (HootSuite recommends a 60/40 split), both of which are very different and require disparate efforts to complete:
Original Content
Original content is content you have created from scratch and publish for potential leads, subscribers, and customers. You can hire a professional writer or marketing team to create this content for you, or perhaps you or someone in your company has a knack for writing and wants to give it a shot. Just make sure that the content you create is true to your brand and showcases your business properly.
Curated Content
Curating content is the process of sorting through existing online content such as articles, publications, blogs, or social media posts and choosing the pieces relevant to your industry or company and sharing them with your subscribers.
2) Establish Creation and Publishing Dates
Gather the team, get the whiteboard out and strategize. What is feasible for your team? How many pieces can you write per month? How up to date and in demand is your content? Are you outsourcing the creation of your content? If so, what does your budget allow? 2, 4, 8 pieces per month? Great, schedule it! Having creation and publication dates allows for a common goal and transparency across your team and outsourced providers.
Each piece of content will need to be broken out into several steps and assigned to the appropriate party. Here are some editorial steps to help you get started:
3) Identify Resources
Make sure to assign or list responsible parties associated with the creation of each piece. For example “Original Blog 1” may not only require a writer, but also an editor, designer, or publisher. Editorial calendars make it easy to divide work but also can illustrate gaps in your resources. If your existing capacity (or skills) are not sufficient to meet the schedule you establish, consider using freelance or outside help. Although they do come with the extra layer of managing, services like Scripted or inbound marketing agencies can provide the writing expertise or bandwidth you lack.
4) Don’t Forget these Important Editorial Steps
It is not as simple as just writing and publishing. An effective editorial calendar should include all of the steps required from inception through measuring the effectiveness.
Additional key steps for each piece of content are:
Outline - Start with an outline of the content piece with the important points, steps, and keywords.
Write - Assign a date and resource for creating the piece.
Edit - Review the content for tone and adherence to your style guide and provide feedback to the writer of any changes.
Publish - Schedule the content to be published See Social Report’s Best Practices for Scheduling Content.
Promote - Most Blogging platforms will automatically promote to your awareness channel. Consider adding content to a newsletter or customer communications as well.
Measure - It is important to know how your content is performing. Track views, shares, time on page, leads and customers for a true ROI calculation.
Update - Content can become stale very quickly. Schedule a task for reviewing and updating the content in the future to keep it fresh.
5) Determine the Best Awareness Channels
An effective calendar will not only display the title of a piece, the parties responsible, and the due dates but will also list which vehicle you would like to use to share your content with your subscribers. Some pieces may be suitable as blog posts, some as direct emails, while others may be more effective as a simple social media post. Use your calendar to decide and share with your team.
6) Publishing Schedule
Now that you are familiar with the basics of what to publish, let’s discuss when to publish. As the old saying goes, “Timing is everything!”
When it comes to creating your publishing schedule, you will want to consider your audience and any upcoming events that may affect or influence their actions, your business, or your content choices.
Here are some questions to ask yourself:
Are there any upcoming events to focus your content on?
Do seasons or holidays impact your product offering?
Is there an industry-specific season coming up? For example, if you are a sporting goods store, you will want to tailor your content to each sport’s particular season.
7) Utilize Productivity Tools
Now that you have learned what an Editorial Calendar is and what to put on it, you might be asking yourself what is the best tool to use to display your calendar. The answer is whatever works best for you and your team. If you want to start with something fairly simple a Google Calendar or Shared Google Document may suffice. If you want to create something a little more robust, you may want to try a tool designed specifically for project management such as Asana which allows you to assign collaborators, create dependent tasks, calendar, and more. Whatever tool you choose, the goal is to get creative, get organized, and get going on your fabulous new Editorial Calendar.
If you follow these steps, what could be a daunting task, can be managed efficiently. A well-thought-out calendar truly helps marketing departments and professionals stay organized and focused--thus increasing traffic and generating customers.