theMediaFlow Managing Director Nichola Stott talks about creating an editorial calendar in this edition of CalvinAyre.com’s Content Marketing Tip of the Week.
Getting it done is often the trickiest part for site owners, particularly affiliates who might be more in tune with the bigger picture than getting involved in day to day running, but to be successful in your content marketing you need strategy and direction. That’s why today’s content marketing tip of the week is to create an editorial calendar for the year ahead. Google Docs is a great tool for this kind of thing as you can share it with staff, agencies and freelance writers. Other shared calendar tools like Asana can also work well and be shared with third parties. So here are a couple of tips for creating a good editorial calendar.
- Get all the seasonal holiday, bank holiday and important dates in first – that will help with idea generation and timing. For example you don’t want to release an unusual story around April 1st or it might be overlooked as an April Fools
- Get all the seasonal events for your sector in there. What are the dates of the big sporting events for your year ahead? If it’s poker when are the big tournaments
- Add in your regular features first, so any series dates and campaign themes
- Try to get your features planned and ready to go a month in advance
- Try to get a reserve of content in the bank so that you’ve got something ready to go if ever you’re let down on a deadline or if a planned news post doesn’t go ahead due to a cancelled fixture
Create and stick to an editorial calendar to make your content marketing strategy smarter, efficient and more cohesive. Without this you’re throwing mud at a wall and hoping something sticks – which is always tough to measure.