An editorial calendar is a way to keep track of what content you want to produce, and when you want to produce it. You can use the calendar to plan your content marketing campaigns in advance.
Editorial calendars have been around for quite some time in print media such as newspapers and magazines. The calendars keep printing schedules consistent so publications can make deadlines and plan for the best content for their readers.
Because content marketing is a long-term strategy an editorial calendar is an important part of the process. Content marketing often involves multiple content producers, customers, and outside influencers. It can be difficult to keep track of all the stories you plan to develop and tell and all of the formats you plan to use.
Editorial calendars can be produced from an Excel spreadsheet that can be uploaded to Google for sharing with your team or if your website is built on WordPress, you can use one of several content calendar plugins.
The editorial calendar is much more than just a calendar with content assigned to dates. It should also contain the following:
- name of content producer
- the channel for the content
- creation and publishing dates
- meta tags
- the customer persona the content is aimed at
- metrics
- call to action
Editorial calendars can help with effective communications by cutting down on duplication of work and requests for the same or similar content. It’s all beneficial to see at a glance what assets have already been created for a campaign. This is very useful if you are extending a campaign as you may choose to reuse or adapt previously created assets.
In summary, editorial calendars are a good way to keep the whole team on track and can save time a lot of time in the long term.
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