How to Set Up a Content Marketing Calendar

The 21st century has seen a revolution in how we approach and digest information. With entire generations embracing social media and billions of people the world over becoming connected, the role of marketing in business is constantly changing.

With more than 2.19 billion active users, Facebook is leading the charge towards a future of globally accessible information. With a dozen more highly popular social media platforms out there, finding the right target audience has never been as easy - nor as overwhelming and potentially confusing - as it is now.

At the forefront of reaching individuals through media are the various marketing groups working both within companies and as private enterprises.

Chief among them are shifting their marketing strategy top embrace the changing landscape, utilising resources and expenses in such a way as to get the greatest bang for their buck. With a lot of old school practices being thrown out the window and new lessons being learned every quarter, the integration of quality content marketing has never been more important.

One of the greatest challenges facing modern marketing groups is the overlooked act of keeping track of these various marketing campaigns spanning dozens of different media outlets. Challenged by the various social media platforms, requiring an uptick of unique content to a marketing strategy already overly diversified. Ultimately you gotta get good at juggling 20 different balls at once.

What stops any one of these from dropping are content marketing calendars.

Simply put, if you and your company have not already invested in content marketing calendars, then you risk falling behind the times. With that in mind, let’s take a moment to review what content marketing calendars are, why your business requires them, how you can set one up, and the best strategies you should follow as demonstrated by highly successful companies.

What Is A Content Marketing Calendar

Those unfamiliar with a content marketing calendar may think it some kind of magical solution to the complexity of 21st century marketing. In truth, it is a relatively direct strategy that requires everyone be on the same page for a few key things.

Simply put, a content marketing calendar is a sharable calendar available to pretty much everyone on the marketing team.

It acts as a nexus for everyone to plan and coordinate when marketing activities will be taking place. If nothing else, a content marketing calendar aids those who struggle with consistency.

A content marketing calendar typically uses software to function properly and comes with a lot of support and flexibility depending on the marketing company. While some companies will go as far as to hire out the infrastructure necessary to run a content marketing calendar, other companies will go through the process of setting it up themselves. In doing so they keep the costs in house.

Whichever direction you go will depend on a number of factors including: the size of your marketing department, the size of your company, the complexity of your marketing operation, and the overall needs of the company. As a general rule, the larger the marketing group, the more a content marketing calendar is required.

Why Does My Business Require A Content Marketing Calendar?

Visualisation - If nothing else, a content marketing calendar helps you to visualize what is going on. When done correctly, you can have overlapping marketing strategies and list things like development times, postproduction, and implementation. You get a bird’s eye view of everything your company is doing to get your brand out there. If nothing else, you have a single source that people can access and see what should be done and why. Having such information available helps people work as a team towards these larger goals.
Planning - There are a lot of things that you will need to plan around when creating a marketing strategy. A content marketing calendar makes this process simple and straightforward. You can highlight the dates when things happen to ensure that you are not marketing during that time. In a similar vein, you can find key marketing points well in advance and ensure that you have something in place both in and around that period. For example, key events in your industry are points where you can either double down or withdrawal marketing depending on the nature of the event. You will have the best understanding of how the event will affect your marketing strategy when you see it laid out in a content marketing calendar
Helps Close Gaps - A content marketing calendar aids in your companies ability to close marketing gaps that would otherwise be undetectable with traditional strategies. A content marketing calendar will provide you with plenty of time to prepare ahead of time and put contingencies in place. Say goodbye to ineffective spreadsheets and hello to an approach that is far more effective.
Miss Fewer Deadlines - A great benefit of content marketing calendars is that you can see how your marketing strategies combine and overlap with one another. It makes it easier for you to identify possible conflicts and manage your talent in a way that gets the job done. You can miss fewer deadlines as a result as you successfully make your content ready
Quicker Response Time - Having a calendar of events allow you to more quickly respond to sudden changes outside of your control. Orders from on high, issues with competition and their marketing calendars, as well as avoiding and putting out fires will throw hiccups in an otherwise perfect setup. Having a content marketing calendar allows you to pinpoint the time that needs to be avoided, and then reschedule things while looking at all of your marketing from a big picture perspective.
Clear Understanding Of Where You Are Going - As we’ve mentioned several times above, a content marketing calendar allows you to see everything with the broadest understanding of where you and your company are going. It allows you to set things up far in advance, taking the time to carefully consider and craft long-term marketing campaigns over weeks, months, and even years. Previously hazy dates can be worked out with better certainty as you take marketing to the next level.

How Do I Set Up A Content Marketing Calendar?

With all of these benefits, content marketing calendars seem like a really good idea. So, how do you bridge the gap from there to here? How do you go from where you currently are to a system where you are effectively utilizing content marketing calendars to the benefit of your company? Below we provide a brief step-by-step instructional guide that gets to the heart of successfully starting this system. Please note that this guide begins at the very beginning, and you may be able to skip several steps if you already have a working system in place that just needs to be transferred to the new format.

Identify Your Topic As Well As Your Audience - Your company will rarely if ever have only a single target audience. Begin by figuring out who your ideal consumer is. Carefully track where this consumer may go as well as what media they would prefer content in. You will want to do this with every product you see and tailor your marketing likewise. What do you hope to sell, how much time/effort should be spent, and what is the best way to manage the talent you have on hand? By working on weighing the content to address audience size per product, you can get a sense for what each content marketing plan will look like when laid out on a content marketing calendar.
List & Organize Assets Available - Your company ends up creating a lot of content that may serve as marketing if the right changes are made. For example, training sessions are often a great source of information as they are upbeat and have the company’s values clearly displayed. Surveys, financial information, and your CRM system are also great sources of information. The experience and expertise of those you work with can also be used in social media outreach to bring the consumer in and see what is going on behind the scenes. Papers that make their way around the office can even be organize into content for your things like posts and blog segments. If nothing else, updating old marketing campaigns to bring the consumer up to speed. Organizing all of these ideas under a repository of some kind will help keep the ideas flowing.
Schedule - After selecting your ideal calendar software and marketing approach, you can begin scheduling your various marketing objectives one at a time. Along with having information for the planning and development, you can list launch point, duration, and when they end. Selecting dates where you may not to market ahead of time will leave you fully aware of when it is a good idea and bad idea to put your message out there.
Produce, Promote, and Finalise - With information scheduled, there is nothing left to do but to produce, promote, and finalize the content. If this is your first time, then expect there to be delays. If you are established but are trying new marketing techniques, then be aware that the same may occur. Either way, finalize the content, consider promoting it to selected groups through their ideal platform and release.
Track & Tweak - The content marketing calendar does not end with release date. A period of tracking and tweaking is included. As social media tends to be interactive, you will have information on the success and struggles of your marketing approach in real time. Keeping track of it and tweaking as necessary can keep you relevant and out of the line of fire.
Clear Understanding Of Where You Are Going - As we’ve mentioned several times above, a content marketing calendar allows you to see everything with the broadest understanding of where you and your company are going. It allows you to set things up far in advance, taking the time to carefully consider and craft long-term marketing campaigns over weeks, months, and even years. Previously hazy dates can be worked out with better certainty as you take marketing to the next level.

The Best Strategies You Should Consider Following

Be Aware Of Diminishing Returns - Be aware that at some point your posted content length will run up against the law of diminishing returns. This is where the length of the article no longer increases the amount your readers will care. At this point, too much of a good thing is not worth the time or energy your company puts into it.
Co-schedules To Reduce Hassle - Every social media platform will have different times when you should share your content. For example, Twitter, Facebook, and Google+ are all great to share again a month after original publication while other social media platforms can share information sooner without it detracting from your message. When releasing a single marketing scheme over several different social media platforms at once, knowing when to update and share can make a complicated process simple and straightforward.
Consolidate - It is easy when scheduling things to come up with multiple outlines and calendars. The beauty of the content marketing calendar is that you put everything in a single place, consolidating your information to a single calendar. Doing this makes reminding your team easier, stops you from missing deadlines, and deletes redundancy.
Repeat Good Content - Did something work well before? Don’t feel inclined to reinvent the box. If something worked really well, consider using it again for a future marketing strategy. Whether it is the time of implementation, the resources used being minimal, or the reaction from customers being great, having good content should never be ignored after the fact. If nothing else, you can use this information to plan even better content in the future.
Consider Your Resources - Content marketing calendars are only as ever good as the team using them and the design of the calendar itself. Consider having a private contractor or business set up the calendar. Their expertise will allow your team to focus on what is really important, instead of focusing on issues that may result from the underlying tech. During the production process, know that every person brings certain resources and skills to the process. Managing them effectively in a system you can trust will lead to content marketing calendars changing your business for the better.

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ADDITIONAL DETAILS (OPTIONAL)

What Is A Content Marketing Calendar

Why Does My Business Require A Content Marketing Calendar?

How Do I Set Up A Content Marketing Calendar?

The Best Strategies You Should Consider Following

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