Content marketing is a key component of any company’s branding strategy. Producing great content is one of the most effective ways to attract potential customers while reaching your target audience.
Having an organized blog editorial calendar is necessary if you want to build an efficient content marketing plan. A cohesive, strategic editorial calendar strategy will help you make sure you are using the right keywords targeting buyers at every stage of the buying cycle. An effective editorial calendar will incorporate keywords for every buying stage, articles focused on building thought leadership, low-hanging fruit keywords, and much more.
Anyone can create an editorial calendar, but creating data-driven strategic editorial calendars for high volume content production is another story altogether. Let’s explore the elements of a powerful blog editorial calendar strategy.
What is an Editorial Calendar?
Creating and distributing content can be time-consuming, especially if you aren’t tracking edits, invoicing, and upcoming deadlines.
An editorial calendar is a schedule that organizes your ongoing marketing and media projects such as:
- Blog posts
- Newsletters
- Email campaigns
- Social media posts
- Infographics
Plus, the numbers don’t lie. According to the Content Marketing Institute, more than half of the surveyed organizations with effective content marketing strategies had an editorial calendar. Among those with the least effective marketing strategies, only 12 percent of participants used a publishing schedule.
Content marketing could help you generate three times the amount of business for half the cost of outbound marketing. But, to take advantage of those savings, staying organized and on task is critical.
What Should Be Included in a Blog Editorial Calendar?
An editorial calendar is primarily used to manage deadlines and keep project details in one centralized location.
At the very least, your editorial calendar should outline:
- Deadlines
- Project details
- Publish dates
- Visual assets
Additionally, you can use a publishing schedule to organize client instructions, edits, comments, and other feedback for future planning.
When it comes to distribution, timing is a major part of the content development lifecycle. Using editorial calendars makes it easier to plan future campaigns, stay on top of deadlines, and ensure all edits or changes are handled in a timely manner.
Engagement is also a key factor to consider since the time and medium you choose can dramatically affect the performance of your content. Tracking your content marketing plan with an editorial calendar makes it easier to keep all of these factors under control.
How Do You Write an Editorial Calendar Plan?
The first step to launching any content marketing strategy is understanding what you want to produce and how that will help your business. Establishing the purpose of your content and your long-term goals is necessary before filling in the smaller details.
When starting a publishing schedule, here are a few things you should keep in mind:
- Date and time of posting
- Production time and turnaround
- Time Zone differences for your target audience
- Calls to action
- Multi-channel accessibility
Understanding your key business objectives, target audience, client expectations will help you build an blog editorial calendar that will make the content management process exponentially easier.
What’s in an Editorial Strategy?
If you’re planning on incorporating content marketing into your business plan, you probably have a specific goal in mind.
An effective editorial strategy can help your business:
- Drive traffic
- Increase audience engagement
- Cultivate brand interest and awareness
- Rank higher online
No matter the size of your business, growth and retention are the two most influential metrics of any content development plan. Creating a content publishing calendar that’s built around your target audience will increase your chances of attracting more clients through engagement and exposure.
Your content strategy should keep your audience in mind every step of the way, from the time of day you post new content to the topics you choose. Providing a targeted offering of engaging and useful content will allow you to gain more readers, who can potentially be converted into paying customers.
Can You Manage an Editorial Calendar With Project Management Software?
Using collaboration software to build your editorial calendar can simplify the process even more. You can track comments and edits, update project statuses, set alerts, assign tasks, and keep all of your marketing materials in one place with centralized, cloud-based storage.
Gryffin’s customizable workflows combined with dynamic reporting and analysis make content planning a breeze, from ideation to execution.
Hone in on your brand’s niche by keeping track of every deadline, edit, and action item. Spend less time on organization and more on innovation by using Gryffin’s Editorial Calendar Tool. Take advantage of our free trial to see how Gryffin can improve your content creation processes.