Best Practices for Content Calendars

Does your team have a content calendar? It’s time to get organized so your brand can achieve maximum returns on your content investment.

There are so many reasons why brands should create content. From improving conversations with customers to establishing your brand as an industry expert, good content marketing can make all the difference for your business. That is, if you’re strategic and thoughtful with how and when you share your content.

Content management and organization isn’t just about keeping your writers on deadline — it ensures you get the most out of every content piece. Since 78 percent of consumers prefer to get to know a brand via an article versus an ad, the more organized and strategic you are with the content you are creating, the better you can reach your target consumers.

The simplest way to secure the benefits of content marketing is by creating a content calendar. If your team isn’t planning out your content weeks or months in advance, it’s time to take a step back and create a plan. To maximize the return on your organization’s content practice, follow these content management best practices.

An Opportunity For Brainstorming

One of the simplest, but most rewarding, benefits of creating a content calendar for your brand is that the process serves as a brainstorming session for your team. Regularly building out a plan for your blog, email campaigns, and social posts guarantees that your team dedicates time to coming up with creative content ideas.

Seeing your planned content for the month spelled out in front of you on a calendar is the best way to ensure that the content you’re sharing is diverse and delivers value for every segment of your client base.

Consistency Is Key 

Your customers want to hear from you. Proper content management ensures you are routinely distributing blogs, social posts, and emails to your readers. This will help you stay top-of-mind and retain your clients’ interest.

When you consistently share informative content that your audience finds helpful and interesting, they will keep turning to you as a valued source of industry information. Research shows that brands that share content regularly are worth 20 percent more than those who are inconsistent.

Go Digital 

If you hear the words “content calendar” and think of a large, old school desk calendar, think again. These days there are so many different ways teams can organize their content plan. You can even use something as simple as Google Calendar or even a Google Doc. However, we believe project management software is the way to go if you want to optimize and organize your team’s workflow.

Project management software not only arranges your content plan but can ensure you stay on top of production deadlines. There are a number of project management platforms to choose from, for organizations of any size with any budget. Two paid options we suggest are Asana and Monday. While each has a different design and method for organizing, the features are nearly identical.

Both of these platforms allow you to organize posts on a calendar, assign tasks out to various writers and editors, and manage deadlines. And they both give a holistic view of ongoing and future projects your team is working on. If your team is budget constrained, we recommend ClickUp. This platform works similarly to Asana and Monday at no cost. No matter which platform you choose, your team will reap the benefits of digital project and task management.

Content Meets Strategy 

The more organized you are, the easier it will be to measure your successes. An element of strategic planning for a content calendar is taking the time to look back and reflect on how well your content themes performed. When you can determine why a blog did or didn’t succeed, you can take steps towards recreating your successes or making improvements. 

Creating content that is resonating with your audience is of utmost importance because otherwise you are leaving dollars on the table. Content marketing generates three times as many leads as traditional marketing tactics and costs about 62 percent less, according to DemandMetric. With so much to gain, marketing teams should take the time to measure the performance of their past posts when updating their calendar. The better you understand how your content performed, the better you can plan for the next month or quarter. 

Use What You Have

There’s nothing worse than putting hours of hard work and research into a piece of content only for it to be sent out once and never thought of again. Creating a content calendar is a great way to ensure you are fully utilizing your existing content library.

While you want to be consistently sending out never seen before content, your team should decide on a cadence for resharing previously written content pieces. This is a great way to get the most eyes on a thoughtful piece of content that you’ve already created while making it easier on your team to keep a consistent social presence. Not every follower views every post, so resharing is critical to widening your reach. Additionally, content needs are often cyclical so maintaining a calendar that makes strategic use of your existing content makes it so you aren’t writing the same blog over and over again each year.

Work Smarter, Not Harder

When you combine these best practices for running your brand’s content calendar, your marketing team will work more efficiently. Not only will you no longer be scrambling for last-minute ideas, your team will better manage deadlines, post more consistently, and ensure none of your hard work goes to waste. A well-managed calendar will help you better connect with your audience and stay at the forefront of clients’ minds.

Have great content ideas but don’t have the writers to realize them? Schedule a free consultation with us today to learn more about how Comma Copywriters can take your content practice to the next level.