Planning is one of the most important factors in Digital Marketing . When we talk about content production, organization and planning are fundamental .
Strategies for creating relevant content need to be thought out and developed considering several factors that impact your results. In addition to the quality of the materials, creating an editorial calendar is a crucial part of success.
There is no point in transmitting the right message at the wrong time. It is also necessary to get the timing right, carry out seasonal campaigns and respond to audience demands.
To help you with this, we have prepared this article with everything you need to know to set up your company’s editorial calendar. Continue reading!
What is An Editorial Calendar?
The editorial calendar is a document that contains all your content planning.
In it, you must include the following data:
- Publication dates;
- Deadlines for content production;
- Themes and guidelines of the materials;
- Keywords used;
- Social media promotions and email marketing.
Based on this information, you can monitor your content marketing strategy step by step and ensure that it can flow properly.
The calendar also allows you to monitor the stages of the sales funnel that each content meets. This way, it is possible to guarantee a balance between top, middle and bottom materials.
Consequently, planning ensures that your leads are nurtured while continuing to encourage the arrival of new visitors to your channels.
What Advantages Do Editorial Calendars Offer?
The editorial calendar is an essential factor for your content strategy to have the desired success.
By including this tool in your planning, you can scale production without losing quality and organization. But after all, what are the other benefits of this resource?
Increase in your posting frequency
With a calendar to organize your content, you can increase your publishing frequency.
Of course, this shouldn’t be done immediately, as it is necessary to understand the team’s work rhythm to know how to increase the pace of posts.
However, posting consistently is essential so that you can reap the desired results from your content marketing strategy.
Organization And Alignment Of The Marketing Team
With a defined and organized calendar, your marketing team tends to increase organization and alignment.
This is because, with the editorial calendar, everyone knows what they should do – and by when it should be done.
Therefore, professionals are aware of the themes, deadlines and release dates of each production and are able to organize themselves to meet these requirements.
Furthermore, the calendar also reduces the incidence of undue charges and promotes greater harmony between team members.
Greater Variety Of Content
A calendar allows you not only to plan your posts, but also to analyze those that have already been made. Therefore, you can create content with fresh themes and vary the formats used. Among the main ones, we can highlight:
- Blogposts;
- Ebooks;
- Webinars;
- Infographics;
- Spreadsheets;
- Templates;
- Research reports;
- Videos.
By having a diverse content production, you impact a greater number of people and tend to attract more leads.
Your target audience tends to like a wide range of topics and formats, and an editorial calendar helps you impact each of them in different ways.
For users looking to delve deeper into specific subjects, rich materials (such as eBooks and infographics) fulfill this role masterfully.
For those who want more succinct content, blogposts and videos tend to meet their needs. So on!
Less Occurrence of Delays
With a clear view of the deadlines to be met, your team tends to be better organized to complete their respective tasks on time.
Furthermore, the editorial calendar encourages self-management by the professionals involved and allows postings to be anticipated .
Therefore, in the event of emergencies that need to be resolved as soon as possible, your content is not at risk of being delayed.
Variety of Materials For All Personas
As we have already mentioned, the editorial calendar is an excellent tool for balancing productions from different stages of the customer journey.
Therefore, you can avoid approaches confined to just one persona or stage of the funnel. This allows you to work with all of the brand’s personas and produce valuable content for your entire lead and customer base.
However, be careful: no content can speak to your entire target audience. You need to analyze your audience carefully and segment them to transmit messages that can speak to their pains and desires.
Analysis of Previous Results
Every Digital Marketing strategy needs to be measured so that it can be improved, and the editorial calendar is no different.
Based on the information in this document, it is possible to analyze the results and obtain valuable insights, such as:
- Best times to publish on social media;
- Ideal frequency of publications on networks and on the blog;
- Topics most sought after and accessed by your audience;
- More effective sizes and formats for your blog, network and email content;
- More efficient CTAs .
This way, you keep your Content Marketing strategy dynamic and adaptable to what your audience likes and looks for most.
How to Create Your Editorial Calendar?
After all, how can you put the above concepts into practice and create an editorial calendar that makes sense for your company? That’s what we’ll talk about in this topic.
Even if you already have content production established without a calendar , you can implement it quickly to reap the excellent benefits of the strategy.
That said, let’s go step by step that you need to follow to structure and balance your content production.
1 – Determine the ideal tool
As it is a dynamic document that needs to be accessed by your entire marketing team, the calendar needs to be created using the right tool.
The most common way to set it up is using spreadsheets , such as Google Sheets or Excel . It all depends on the access and licenses your company has.
However, it is worth highlighting that spreadsheets stored in the cloud are better suited as they are easier to access and manage.
Another way to set up the editorial calendar is through Google Calendar , which issues alerts so employees don’t delay their tasks.
2 – Plan the entire strategy
With the tool already chosen, you must begin to define a series of elements to build your editorial calendar. Determine the following factors:
- Publication frequency: based on the tips given throughout the content;
- Publication times: determine when your content will air on each channel used;
- Title and keywords used: this helps you monitor what is being said and avoid repetitions;
- Dates: define both content delivery deadlines and the days on which they will be published;
- Content producer: determine who will make each material;
- Professional who will publish: who will make each post;
- Blog category: choose the most appropriate category for each post;
- Format: indicate whether it is a blogpost, eBooks, social media post, etc.;
- Stage of the customer journey : moment in the journey of each content, such as attraction, consideration or decision;
- Persona: which of your personas should the content be made for;
- Status: what stage the content production is at.
3 – Create your content dissemination strategy
Your dissemination strategy must go hand in hand with content production and can also be done in the editorial calendar.
Stipulate the channels that will be used, with special emphasis on social media. Create models and templates to use, making the team’s day-to-day work easier.
Another highly relevant channel is email, using email marketing strategies. Follow the same logic as the blog and social media strategies, paying attention to the main good practices for sending emails.
4 – Track your results
Ultimately, there is no secret. Share the calendar with everyone involved, track the results, observe what works best and continue improving your Content Marketing strategy.
