14/07/2020
Creating engaging content is crucial for all businesses. Why? It creates brand awareness, engages customers and increases SEO.
How do you organize all the content so you know what, when and where to post it? A Content Calendar.
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What is a content calendar?
It is a way to plan and organize all future content.
For example: A Social Media Content Calendar is a place to plan all future content on your social media channels. An Editorial Calendar is meant to plan out specific marketing assets such as blog posts, videos or infographics.
Why is it important to have one?
A content calendar is the root of a marketing strategy. It provides a great tool and resource for organizing both short-term and long-term goals.
Why else should a business invest time, money, and resources into the creation and management of a content calendar?
1. Organization: Content calendars are the answer to obtaining an organized content strategy. They are not only a planning tool but also provide the ability to visualize your content strategy over time and across platforms.
2. Remember Key Dates: These calendars should also be used like regular calendars. Content calendars need to include key business dates such as holidays, events, launches, etc. Youâll also want to note local, national, and international dates so topically those key days donât sneak up leaving you scrambling.
3. Time Saver: While this point is pretty self-explanatory, content calendars help marketers plan content ahead of time, indicate what assets are needed for ex*****on, and determine the timing of when that content will go live. This saves a great deal of time during the week as everything is pre-scheduled, thus allowing you to be much more efficient and productive.
4. Deeper Customer Understanding: Freeing up more time, content calendars will allow for increased success and more targeted pieces that your audience wants to see. The structure that content calendars provide is also a means of tracking. Do you notice patterns? Does content that goes live on a Monday do better than any other day? This will help marketers fine-tune their strategy by determining optimal post times, further defining the target audience, and confirming what types of content are more engaging. At the end of the day, this will determine what is working and what isnât so marketers can focus efforts on duplicating those campaigns that are producing results.
5. Effective Planning: Instead of making last-minute decisions about topics and types of campaigns, content calendars allow for proper preparation as well as ample time for research, creation, and ex*****on. This means that a deadline will rarely get missed, and it can even mean that those pieces will stay within budget.
PRO-TIP
đ *I like to pair my content calendars with social media trackers.
What is a social media tracker?
It is a chart I use to keep track of results from all marketing efforts. It ensures that the marketing efforts are matching the business goals.
It helps measure and pin point things like:
*Target Audience
*What works and what doesn't
*How it is impacting SEO
*How and what customers are engaging with
*what type of interactive posts are effective
*how it is impacting sales
