Content calendar is your brand’s lifesaver—trust us on this. Essentially, you can save so much time and effort if you’ve got things planned out even just for a month. Although there’s not really a specific calendar that you should follow, you can make your own to adjust to your brand’s needs.
A content calendar is the visual representation of your team’s brainstorming sessions. The only difference is it feels more ironed out because it’s all organized, and scheduled. It’s a staple for every marketing team, but if you want to create a content calendar that actually works, then read on to learn the steps:
Step #1: Set Your Monthly and Quarterly Goals
The first step to creating a content calendar is to plan it out. You need to have a strategy in mind, what are your objectives and goals?
Think of your main goal for the quarter then divide that into monthly goals. It sets realistic expectations and makes it easier to measure your progress as well.
Step #2: Assess Your Current Content
Ask yourself, “Is my brand’s existing content enough?,” “Are they performing well enough?” Examine your calendar closely and fill in the gaps. Like, add more of that specific type of content that you feel is lacking. Check posts that get interactions, check those that don’t, too.
They say the devil is in the details, but you won’t be able to really see how you’re progressing if you don’t get a bird’s eye view of it all. A well-made content calendar gives you that.
Step #3: Plan Content That Fits Your Brand
Content calendars are all about being organized, so it’s a no-brainer that your content buckets are also in order. If it isn’t, now a good time to do it.
Analyze which types of content perform well with your audience and try to make more of them. And don’t forget to add in the events and holidays into your calendar as well!
Now it might sound counterintuitive since you have everything planned out, but it’s important to leave room for flexibility. Current events, updates, and every other happenings present an opportunity that you can’t miss out on.
Step #4: Break Down Your Content to Their Frequency
Now that you have ironed out your content plan for the following months, the next step is to determine their frequency. To avoid inconsistency and to keep your audience engaged, two posts per week is good.
Just remember to factor in the time it takes to create a specific type of content. For example, for long-form articles, realistically, they can take at least a whole day and a half.
Step #5: Choose Your Calendar
We reached the fun part of creating your content calendar, actually making the calendar! Do you love the traditional look or are you more into being a part of the digital age?
Here are tools you can try:
- Google Sheets
- WordPress Editorial Calendar
- SEMrush Marketing Calendar
- Evernote
- Trello
- Asana
- MS Excel
You can also opt for content calendar templates found online!
Step #6: Improve Your Calendar
Seek help from your team to further improve your calendar! Collaborating with your teammates allows everyone to be on the same page. Plus, your content calendar can also improve with their feedback to really make it work for you and your team.
We’d love to know, what’s your team’s process when filling your content calendar?
Collaborate with us! For inquiries, just message us at info@motioncabin.com, and let’s turn your creative ideas into actions.
Motion Cabin is a full-service digital advertising agency that can produce creative high-quality content from stunning animation videos to on-trend graphic designs and articles that effectively engage with your audience.
