Despite the plethora of web tools and apps to make my life easier managing content and writing projects, I’ve spent years handwriting projects and notes in a daily planner. I know, I know, “get with the times, Julia.”
A fellow writer recently showed me her online editorial calendar. It’s a Google spreadsheet that she claims is effective for staying on top of content marketing. It improves time management, she said.
I tried her version of editorial calendar a couple of weeks ago. I like it, especially since it can be shared with contributing writers or team members.
In my quest to discover ways to use the calendar more effectively, I came across Spectate CEO Kat Liendgens’ article about editorial calendar best practices. Here are a few tips she suggested that I found most helpful:
- Define marketing personas. You need to define the different personas in your target audience to determine which content they’re interested in and at which stage in the sales cycle. Identify new content pieces. Assign the best person on your team to develop the new content. Add all of this to your editorial calendar.
- Do your research. What topics are relevant and current to your audience? Referral sources, inbound links, and internal search terms will give you valuable insights into your target demographics’ needs. Visit industry discussion forums to find out what customer problems you can help solve with your content.
- Record metrics. The only way for your content to become more effective is to correlate its development with your results. The number of pageviews, likes, clicks, shares, and other key data points should be noted on your editorial calendar.
- Make constant improvements. It’s important to review your calendar process. Should you assign new content pieces to contributors sooner? Can you handle time-sensitive items, like news pieces, more effectively?
Lastly, I came across the IBM Social Business video below that includes a panel of successful brands who have distinguished themselves by understanding what consumers want to read. The representatives discuss what tools they use to research, create content and how they make use of an editorial calendar.