Editorial Calendar

An editorial calendar is a tool that is used to plan, organize and track the development and promotion of content. It is mainly used by bloggers, publishers, influencers, and brands in creating a strategy for their content marketing. Typically, an editorial calendar includes information about – what content should be published, who is in charge of creating and publishing, when the content needs to be published, and what platforms it needs to be published on. The calendars can be made using spreadsheets or editorial calendar software.

 Creating an Editorial Calendar

1.     Identify Objectives – Before you begin to create content it’s important to have a clearly identified set of objectives and goals. Ask yourself what you are trying to achieve and how your content can help you do so. For example – building brand loyalty, SEO, increasing conversions, or expanding the reach of the brand.

2.     Plan out your content – after establishing your objectives, you can conduct research and pick the type of content and the topics that can best help you reach your goals and are most attractive to your target audience. For example – videos, blog posts, webinars, etc.

3.     Plotting the calendar – once you’ve got all your content ideas confirmed, then you can begin to plan out how the content will be rolled out. Set the dates for when you want things released and then work backward to set the dates for when to assign it to an author, when the draft needs to be completed and when the content needs to be approved.

4.     Track and measure results – based on your objectives you can measure the efficiency and effectiveness of your editorial calendar. Remember, there is always room for improvement, so continuous evaluation and analysis of your calendar’s performance will help you optimize your strategy. 

Why do you need an editorial calendar?

• It helps to develop an efficient process that follows proper deadlines and well-defined objectives.
• It helps to maintain consistency in how the business posts content, and we all know how social media favors people that consistently post.
• It serves as a record of what’s already been done in the past.
•  It is a great way to integrate your content marketing efforts across various platforms.