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Originally Posted On: 7 Tips for Creating a Compelling Content Calendar – TeamRockie

 

Content marketing is one of the most important strategies companies use to market themselves. 70% of consumers prefer consuming content to watching or reading advertisements. Many internet users also use ad blockers to avoid online advertisements.

Data privacy laws may also make it harder for companies to use ad targeting. All this has made creating compelling content the cheapest and most effective digital marketing strategy. But consistently posting interesting blogs and social media posts is hard work.

Even with a full-time marketing team, you still need a solid content strategy to keep your target market engaged. A content calendar can help you coordinate your content creation workload so you achieve your goals without burning out. Keep reading for 7 great tips on how to plan and execute a compelling content calendar.

1. Set Clear Content Creation Goals
   

The first key to creating a great content calendar is to set clear goals for your content creation. Why are you creating content? It may be to get leads, increase sales, or even to educate your clients on how to use your products.

Your intended result will guide the type and frequency of your content. It’ll also help determine the channel you will use to spread the content.

A beauty company may choose to create YouTube tutorials on how to use their makeup if their end goal is to educate existing customers. But celebrity vlogs may work better if the intention is to increase sales. If you don’t know what your end goal is, you’ll waste time and resources creating ineffective content.

2. Know Your Audience
   

Another question to ask yourself when creating a content calendar is who your target audience is. Also, what content do they need from your company? Knowing the answers to these questions will take out the guesswork from your content creation.

Maybe your main audience is women in their 20’s who like short, entertaining video clips. In that case, they might be most receptive to TikTok video clips. But if your audience is older women that like informational articles, your best bet would be to publish blogs on your website.

Content creation takes time. So it’s best to focus your efforts on creating high-quality content for the platform your audience prefers. If you have time and resources to spare, you can post several types of content on various platforms. You should always have informational blog posts on your website and at least two social media accounts to promote your content.

3. Choose the Right Calendar Template or Platform
   

The next tip to create a compelling content calendar is to choose the right calendar template or platform for you and your team. If you have a limited budget, you can create a simple calendar on an excel or google sheet. Share the sheet with your team members so that you can all collaborate and work on the template at the same time.

If you have the marketing budget, you can also buy a content application like CoSchedule or ContentCal. These tools will allow you to do multiple actions with your content including:

• Plan
• Create
• Publish
• Post
• Analyze

The right template or platform will be easy for your team to use. It should also integrate seamlessly with any other productivity tools you use such as Google, Office, or even Slack and Trello. Whichever template you choose, ensure that it allows your team to input significant information about your content.

For instance, you should be able to type in the dates, times, and platforms you will publish the content. You should also input the topic and type of content as well as who’s in charge of content creation. Finally, there should be a way to report if the content was published and how it performed.

4. Follow the Calendar Year
   

A great way to ensure that your content is relevant is to post content according to the seasons. This includes occurrences like major national and global events. Use a regular calendar as the base for your content creation as it will have all the major holidays and events highlighted.

You can then choose the themes and holidays that you want to create content around. Some major days for content creation include the 4th of July, Christmas Day, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, etc.

5. Add Company Events and Themes
   

You should also mark important company dates and events that will influence your content. For instance, you should highlight your company’s anniversary, any sales events, product launches, training dates, trade fairs, etc. Marking these will allow you to prepare for any extra workload. You will also inform clients and the media about important events in good time.

Once you have covered the main events, you can fill in the rest of your calendar with any other content you want to share. This could include expert articles, blogs, instructional videos, event pictures, etc. Create a variety of content to keep your audience’s interest.

6. Use Timeless Content
   

One key tip for your content calendar is to create a cache of high-quality, timeless content. This is information that your audience is always searching for and you can publish at any time of the year. Posting a steady supply of such content can increases chances of always attracting an audience since people are searching for it.

Having a reserve of ready-to-be-posted content will save you when you don’t have time to create content yet need to post something. You can hire an experienced content creation company like Mosaic to help. They’ll assist you with creating a library of viral content that will stand the test of time.

7. Set Posting Frequencies and Deadlines
   

Another key content creation tip is to decide how frequently you will be publishing content. Be realistic when setting your frequencies and deadlines.

If you’re a one-man business, you may only be able to manage one social media post a week and a blog a month. It may seem minimal but commit to this and stick to the schedule. If you have a content creation team you can come up with more frequent deadlines.

Leverage the Power of a Compelling Content Calendar

A content calendar is a must for any company that wants to succeed at content marketing. Use the above 7 tips to create an effective calendar for your team.

Once your content calendar is in place, review it regularly to establish what kind of content works and what doesn’t. For more digital marketing tips read the rest of our blog.