There are many different marketing strategies you can implement to grow your business. But content marketing is one of the most effective ways to engage with your target audience, drive traffic to your website, build a strong brand presence, and increase sales.
Implementing a content marketing strategy is not easy without the right tools. The key to launching and managing a successful content marketing strategy is a blog editorial calendar, which is a tool that makes it easier for your team to plan, assign, track, and schedule content.
Why Is It Important to Use A Blog Editorial Calendar Tool?
Some content creation teams use spreadsheets to plan and organize their content. This may be an effective way to manage content on a small scale, but it will become increasingly difficult to plan and organize content on a spreadsheet once your business grows. Don’t let this outdated content management method hold your business back—invest in the use of a blog editorial calendar tool.
Spreadsheets need to be manually updated, but the data in a blog editorial calendar tool will automatically update as each task moves through the content creation process . This will drastically reduce the amount of time you spend on managing this process.
A blog editorial calendar can benefit everyone involved in the content creation process, including writers, editors, and managers. It serves as a visual workflow that allows writers and editors to see how much work is coming down the pipeline. This makes it easier for these parties to manage their workloads and meet scheduled due dates.
Managers can use a blog editorial calendar to map out their content marketing plans in advance and identify gaps in their strategy. This tool also allows managers to track each content task with ease so nothing falls through the cracks.
Using an editorial calendar ensures that everyone is on the same page regarding the content creation strategy. In other words, a blog editorial calendar tool will take the chaos out of content creation.
What Are the Elements of An Editorial Calendar?
A comprehensive editorial calendar consists of many different elements, including:
- Writer/Editor
- Due Date
- Scheduled to Publish Date
- Client
- Word Count
- Content Type
- Article Description
Editorial Strategy
Frame your editorial calendar based on keywords, themes, personas, or use cases.
For example, the two themes of your editorial strategy might be “productivity” and “project management.” This means every piece of content should be related to either one of these themes. As you add tasks to the editorial calendar, make sure to specify which theme the task falls under. Do the same for keywords, personas, and use cases.
Say the topic is “10 Tips to Increase Productivity.” This might fall under the productivity theme and “entrepreneur/start-up” persona. It may also be designed to target the keywords “tips to increase productivity.”
Adding these elements of your editorial strategy to each task will help you visualize your content strategy so you can see everything come together. It also helps clients understand the purpose of each content task on the calendar.
Writer/Editor
Each task will need to be assigned to a writer and editor on your content creation team. Include this information within each task so you can keep track of who is working on what.
Due Date
Each task should include two due dates: one for the writer and one for the editor. Both writers and editors need to meet their due dates in order to meet the scheduled publication date. There should be enough room between these deadlines for more than one round of edits, if needed.
If someone falls behind, make sure you revise the scheduled publication date instead of letting the content get left behind.
Scheduled to Publish Date
The date on which the content is scheduled to publish should also be included on each task added to the editorial calendar.
It’s best to leave plenty of room between the editor’s due date and the scheduled to publish date. This way, you can easily meet the scheduled publication date even if the writer or editor misses their deadline.
Client/Campaign
The writer will need to know which client or campaign the content is being written for, which is why it’s important to include this information on every task added to the editorial calendar. This way, the writer can research the client’s tone, voice, and products or services.
Word Count
It’s important to include the desired word count within each task on your editorial calendar.
This will give the writer a better idea of how in-depth they should go when writing about the topic. For example, they may not need to conduct extensive research to write a 500-word blog, but they will need to spend more time researching for a 2000-word blog.
Content Type
You will need to specify the content type for each task added to the editorial calendar. Some of the most common types of content include:
- SEO article
- Infographic
- Press release
- Landing page
- E-book
This information is important because it helps the writer understand what is needed from them to complete the assignment.
For example, the type of content that is needed for a landing page is very different from the content that is needed for an SEO article. Without this information, the writer would not be able to produce the right type of content.
Article Description
Each task should also include a brief description of the content. For example, if you want the writer to address certain points or ideas within the content, include that information in this section. You can also include links to certain sources you want the writer to use when conducting their research.
Basically, this is where you can briefly explain what you are looking for so the writer understands how to write about the assigned topic.
Start Creating A Custom Blog Editorial Calendar Today
Content creation does not need to be chaotic. Streamline your content creation process with Gryffin, a project management tool built by digital marketers for digital marketers.
Use Gryffin’s editorial calendar feature to create, track, and optimize your editorial strategy from the planning stage all the way through publication. Everything takes place inside the Gryffin platform, so you won’t need to juggle spreadsheets or open multiple programs to get the job done. Request an invite or schedule a free demo to learn more about Gryffin today.