How to Create an Effective Content Calendar

The pan­dem­ic has shown us one thing. A robust inter­net pres­ence is a neces­si­ty to grow and main­tain busi­ness oper­a­tions today. When busi­ness­es closed, the inter­net is where cus­tomers went to stay con­nect­ed to their favorite brands. Bil­lions of active users are using social media plat­forms to con­sume engag­ing con­tent and make e‑commerce pur­chas­es every day and busi­ness own­ers are cap­i­tal­iz­ing on this phe­nom­e­non. We’ll show you the ins and outs of cre­at­ing a con­tent cal­en­dar to pro­duce con­sis­tent brand mes­sag­ing across all inter­net plat­forms that will get you noticed.

What is a Content Calendar? 

You may have heard that con­tent is king. Well, this phrase has become more true than ever before. Invest­ing time and ener­gy into devel­op­ing a month­ly cal­en­dar will pay div­i­dends over the long term. A month­ly con­tent cal­en­dar is an excel­lent way to keep brand mes­sag­ing uni­form and orga­nized. It is a guide that con­sists of a mix of blogs, social media posts, and videos that are sched­uled to go live by date and time. Each one should have an overview of the infor­ma­tion that should be includ­ed in each post. The advan­tages of using a con­tent cal­en­dar are: 

• Direc­tion — A month­ly con­tent cal­en­dar includes which social media chan­nels infor­ma­tion will be post­ed to. Some exam­ples of dis­tri­b­u­tion chan­nels include LinkedIn, email, Youtube, Face­book, and Tiktok. 
• Plan­ning — Time is mon­ey. By using a month­ly con­tent cal­en­dar to orga­nize your mar­ket­ing, you can plan ahead for sea­son­al changes, spe­cial events, and new prod­uct launch­es. While sav­ing time,marketing con­tent plan­ning also gives you the oppor­tu­ni­ty to focus on oth­er aspects of the business. 
• Pro­mo­tion — Take advan­tage of a vari­ety of social media plat­forms to attract new read­ers and cus­tomers to your busi­ness. Present new ideas, tuto­ri­als, and pro­mo­tions to a cap­tive audi­ence look­ing for your prod­ucts and services! 

Here’s How to Create a Content Calendar

When you cre­ate a con­tent cal­en­dar, you can keep every­one on your staff informed about when and where mar­ket­ing mate­ri­als will be dis­trib­uted. By adding as much detail as pos­si­ble, you can avoid any­thing falling through the cracks. Infor­ma­tion that can be added can include top­ics, due dates, links, hol­i­days, spe­cial events, and the names of the peo­ple respon­si­ble for pro­duc­ing the con­tent. Here are the essen­tials to cre­at­ing a suc­cess­ful con­tent calendar: 

1. Estab­lish goals — Before you begin plan­ning a month­ly con­tent cal­en­dar, you should have estab­lished objec­tives of what you want to accom­plish. Regard­less of the type of con­tent you cre­ate, you should have a clear idea of what you want the out­come to be. Exam­ples of goals may include increas­ing your Twit­ter or Face­book fol­low­ers or increas­ing your Youtube views. It may require you to devel­op opti­mized con­tent more fre­quent­ly to bring more read­ers to your web­site content. 
2. Choose a tem­plate — Choose from a vari­ety of tem­plates to orga­nize your con­tent. There are month­ly, week­ly, and year­ly month­ly con­tent cal­en­dars avail­able to suit your spe­cif­ic needs. After assess­ing the con­tent you’ve cre­at­ed, you’ll have a bet­ter pic­ture of the type of month­ly con­tent cal­en­dar you need. 
3. Dis­trib­ute — After cre­at­ing a con­tent cal­en­dar, it’s time to dis­trib­ute your mate­r­i­al! It’s impor­tant to share your mar­ket­ing con­tent where your tar­get audi­ence spends their time. Know­ing the most pop­u­lar social media plat­form for your poten­tial cus­tomer will ensure you make the right connections. 
4. Fol­low trends — Be sure to pay close atten­tion to spe­cial dates like hol­i­days, sea­son­al events, and trend­ing top­ics when cre­at­ing a con­tent cal­en­dar. By tak­ing into account what is hap­pen­ing in your indus­try and rel­e­vant trend­ing top­ics, you can remain com­pet­i­tive and cap­ture the atten­tion of your tar­get audience. 
5. Repur­pose — Cre­at­ing ever­green con­tent means that you can refresh and repur­pose exist­ing blogs and posts annu­al­ly. Recy­cling old con­tent can save you time and mon­ey. Always keep con­tent time­ly and rel­e­vant to keep your brand mes­sag­ing current. 
6. Deter­mine fre­quen­cy — Know­ing how to cre­ate a con­tent cal­en­dar is only the begin­ning. Deter­min­ing pub­lish­ing fre­quen­cy begins with under­stand­ing how your audi­ence con­sumes infor­ma­tion on their favorite inter­net plat­forms. Ana­lyt­ics can be help­ful in reveal­ing the amount of time your vis­i­tors spend read­ing blogs, vis­it­ing your web­site, and where they vis­it. Always remain focused on qual­i­ty over quan­ti­ty rather than push­ing con­tent that does not res­onate well. 
7. Review and Mon­i­tor — A con­tent cal­en­dar should be con­sis­tent­ly reviewed and mon­i­tored for changes, adjust­ments, and updates if nec­es­sary. When a con­tent cal­en­dar is share­able, changes are vis­i­ble to every­one. Uti­lize Google Ana­lyt­ics as well as the ana­lyt­ics avail­able on the plat­form to track engage­ment, likes, views, shares, and impressions. 

We are Experts at Creating Content Calendars

Now that you know how to cre­ate a con­tent cal­en­dar, it’s up to you if you want to devel­op one. Cre­at­ing rel­e­vant con­tent that cap­tures the right viewer’s atten­tion is chal­leng­ing and requires con­sis­ten­cy. That’s why most busy busi­ness own­ers out­source their dig­i­tal mar­ket­ing efforts to focus on oth­er oper­a­tional aspects of the orga­ni­za­tion. That’s where we step in and cre­ate tai­lored strate­gies that reach the right peo­ple. Here’s how we do it: 

• Mul­ti­me­dia — We curate online expe­ri­ences by cre­at­ing a con­tent cal­en­dar that seam­less­ly inte­grates dig­i­tal, mobile, and social media to launch new prod­ucts and con­nect to audi­ences. Our dig­i­tal and social media cam­paigns gen­er­ate brand buzz. 
• SEO — Any online con­tent should be search engine friend­ly and our SEO team knows how to chan­nel leads. We dri­ve traf­fic and encour­age con­ver­sions through a unique blend of cre­ative design and SEO exper­tise. When you want to see a pos­i­tive return on ad spend, social media, email mar­ket­ing, and oth­er mar­ket­ing tools, we can help. 
• Web devel­op­ment — Is your e‑commerce web­site built prop­er­ly and ready for more busi­ness? A web­site should prop­er­ly posi­tion your brand in front of the right peo­ple. Our web devel­op­ment team is ready to help with respon­sive and cus­tom designs to fit your busi­ness needs. We also pro­vide web­site main­te­nance services
• Oth­er ser­vices — Do you need help devel­op­ing the right con­tent? We pro­vide cus­tom mer­chan­dis­ing, video, pho­tog­ra­phy, email cam­paigns, e‑newsletters, and event plan­ning capabilities. 

As an award-win­ning one-stop shop for every­thing dig­i­tal, we look for­ward to part­ner­ing with you. Give us a call today for a free mar­ket­ing audit today!