7 Tips on Setting Realistic Deadlines for Content Marketing

Late nights, rushed work, missed deadlines. Sound familiar?

In the bustling content marketing world, delivering quality and timely content is what lands a sale or secures a customer. But there’s a way to make it happen without rushing to meet deadlines.

Timely Content Builds a Brand

Content marketing is a crucial aspect of building a successful business. B2B blogs with educational content get 52 percent more traffic than those with just promotional content. But not all content is created equally — thought leadership has to be useful and timely, not hectic and rushed.

Setting achievable content marketing deadlines is one of the best ways to set your business up for success. An organized content marketing strategy with realistic deadlines ensures regular content that builds a brand’s credibility and customer trust. It helps the entire team see the big picture of marketing goals and objectives — while also highlighting potential holes and gaps in the strategy.  

How do you build a marketing strategy that delivers quality content without late nights and procrastination? It’s all about deadlines.

These seven tips can help set realistic deadlines for smoother and more effective content marketing.

Set Clear Expectations

Before you start any project, it’s paramount to get everyone involved on the same page, including the marketing team, writers, and content agency creators. Set expectations about the scope of the project and establish a reasonable deadline. Get input from the writer or content creator about how long it will take to write the piece, while also considering their workload and other projects. When you start a project with clear expectations across the board, you set yourself up for success with realistic deadlines that everyone understands.

Create an Editorial Calendar

There’s nothing worse than a short deadline and rushed, sub-par content. In content marketing, your content calendar is your best friend. Look at the upcoming month or quarter to plan content around new product launches, industry events, holidays, and other trends and seasonal happenings. Planning ahead not only helps you create timely content that will resonate with your audience but also lets the entire team know what to expect and how to plan their workloads accordingly. Here are best practices to follow for creating your content calendar.

Do Your Research

Before setting deadlines, know what you’re getting into. Scheduling a long-form marketing piece on a jargon-filled topic to publish in a few days might not be feasible due to the research and technical writing involved. Conversely, you may be able to deliver a shorter blog post more quickly if the content can be recycled from existing posts. Before establishing and committing to deadlines, do some cursory research to get an idea of how involved the topic is, what your company has written about it before, and what type of research will be involved.

Build a Project Map

Quality content marketing doesn’t just appear on the screen the day it’s due. There are numerous steps involved, and each one has the potential to throw off your deadline. Break down a larger project into smaller steps, including research, interviews, and writing. Content can often get caught in the editing stage, so be sure to leave plenty of time for edits and ensure your editor is aware of the timeline. Scheduling each step also allows each person to give input on how long their part will take and allows them to see the entire project instead of just their piece of the puzzle.

Schedule the Unexpected

Projects often take longer than expected. Even with a detailed outline, issues always tend to arise. Instead of being surprised and set back by these issues, build them into your timeline. Giving yourself a time cushion can remove some of the stress of the changes and edits that will undoubtedly occur. With a contingency plan in place, you can focus on delivering quality work on time instead of rushing to hit a deadline when the unexpected happens.

Take Advantage of Time Management Tools

You don’t have to manage your deadlines and project status alone. There are countless time and project management tools that allow for easy collaboration and tracking to keep projects moving forward instead of getting stalled in someone’s inbox. Software like Trello and Asana allows users to see a project’s progress as it moves from the brainstorming to content writing and editing phases. Another option is to create a flowchart or Kanban board to track the progress of your content marketing. No matter the channel, time management tools provide visual cues about upcoming deadlines, where projects are in the pipeline, and what needs to be prioritized for on-time delivery.

Keep Adjusting Your Strategy

Like the needs of your clients, content marketing is continually evolving. Your processes should be adaptable. Take time to analyze your content calendar and creation strategy to look for areas that could be improved. Perhaps you allotted one day for edits that actually required three days, which pushed the deadline. Or maybe the deadline led the article to be posted right before a busy weekend, which cut into the number of views. Don’t be afraid to continually refine and evolve your content creation process. Over time, you’ll be able to finetune the process for smooth and realistic deadline delivery.

Comma Copywriters is proud to always deliver quality content on (or before) deadlines — or it’s on the house! Schedule a free consultation today to discuss how our team of talented writers can make your content ideas a reality.