Do you already have an editorial calendar for your content marketing strategy?

The creation of content requires planning based on objectives. Therefore it is vital that your business has a document in which you have developed the path that you will follow.

If you still think that you do not need an editorial calendar, or do not know its relevance to your business, I will make you comprehend why you should think otherwise.

The editorial calendar is the skeleton and one of the most relevant steps of the content marketing strategy that you can use for your business.

Why your business should have a publishing calendar

Surely you think that you want more, that this is not enough to convince you. Here are some strong reasons why your company needs to have an editorial calendar.

1. Keeps you informed of what you are publishing

An editorial calendar allows you to know at all times the topics that publish every day.

It will help you maintain balance and quality in all your posts and publications, whether in a blog or on social networks.

If you have a well-organised and defined calendar, you will improve and simplify your resources. All this means that the people in charge of creating the content can work with more foresight and which can result in the higher quality of the content.

2. Avoid publishing at the wrong time

Before making the editorial calendar, you must recognise those important dates and times to publish.

Knowing the time when there is a more significant impact on your business will allow you to avoid posts that receive few interactions and remain in oblivion. You must bear in mind that not every day or the same hours work the same for all businesses.

Once you identify those important dates, place the content in advance in the editorial calendar. Working with margin time will be a great help. Once the vital moment arrives, you will have a resource of great scope and quality.

3. Find the balance

With a publishing calendar, you will know which platform to use the most. The different networks have different policies, and you should adapt to this while making your posts.

Establish the channels for which you are going to publish each content. For example, some platforms prefer text, while others prefer images and videos much better.

4. It facilitates corrections and adjustments

A well-designed editorial calendar will not allow low-quality content to be released. Having a forecast of all your publications includes enough time for review. This leads to an error or unfit element being removed or reformed in time.

5. Proper targeting

If there is one thing that you can achieve with your editorial calendar, it is to order to which each post is directed to specific people. If you do not have a plan for your content marketing strategy, it is easy to end up talking about similar topics and therefore not being able to diversify your content. This may cause part of your audience to end up abandoning you.

Surely, you are now convinced of the importance of having an editorial calendar for your business; a tool that allows you to think in the long term through the organization.

What data should you include in your editorial calendar?

I just told you about the benefits that an editorial calendar can bring to your company. Maybe now you ask yourself: What should I include in it? I do not want you to have any doubts. Therefore I will talk to you about what you should indicate in this document:

Frequency of publication

The best way to structure everything you are going to communicate is to add the contents you are going to publish for weeks. It includes each one of the social networks or blogs, as well as the time and day in which you are going to do it. The pace of publication in social networks is not the same in all, so it is important that you adapt your content to each of them.

Remember that the better you study everything you put on your calendar, the greater the scope and impact it will have. Therefore, before choosing hours or dates at random, you must perform an analysis of the activity of your target audience. This will tell you during which slots you can get the most impact on your audience.

Author

In most cases, different people are responsible for publishing posts or using social networks. Indicates who will do each content and also in what network or blog will be published. It will benefit not only your business but also the publishers themselves and the quality of what is published.

Social networks

Specifies in which social network or blog each content will be published. Remember that not on all platforms will you be able or will it be convenient to make the same post. It may even be convenient to change the format of one network to another.

As a tip, I will tell you that not all social networks work the same for the same business. Do not think that being in all possible social networks is synonymous with success.

Choose and observe well which are better suited to what you want to communicate and, above all, through which you better meet the needs of your audience. If you have a presence on different social networks, some applications can make your life easier when publishing contents.

Titles

The headline of any publication is the most important and what encourages the reader to continue reading. That is why many times, it can be a headache to choose the most appropriate title. Remember that you must put a lot of effort into creating a title that becomes viral and with which you get more visits and visibility.

Keywords

For a content strategy to be successful, a vital factor is knowing the keywords with which your business is identified. In the case of each content you post, it happens the same. Find those words that will serve to position and give greater visibility to any of your publications. Also, this will guide you once the moment of creation arrives.

Call to action

Any text that you include in a blog or social network must have memorable phrases. I’m talking about those “call to action” elements that will cause your followers to interact more easily with your content.

Audiovisual contents

Today the power of images and videos is huge. Include in your document everything you want besides the text: banners, video clips, infographics, ebooks, podcasts, etc.

Now you have enough reasons why your business should have an editorial calendar, and you also know what you should include in it.

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Image Credit: Estée Janssens

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