Tips for Creating an Editorial Calendar 2019
Chris Mulvaney is the CEO of CMDS. I make things... I’m the creative entrepreneur with passion for (re)making brands and inventing solutions to problems no one knows exist.
Many business owners already know the importance of posting frequent, unique content, but they often struggle to take action. While some might feel overwhelmed about brainstorming relevant topics to write about, others struggle with organizing their ideas into a viable content calendar in advance…so they end up doing nothing at all. Use these tips to help you create your editorial calendar 2019 in advance and you’ll end up saving time down the road.
At the same time, you’ll not only support business objectives, but also build stronger relationships with prospects and better serve customers by giving the information they’re actually searching.
What is an Editorial Calendar?
An editorial calendar, also referred to as a content calendar, helps businesses keep track of ongoing digital marketing (and offline) efforts. But, it’s so much more than just a calendar. There’s a lot that goes into the process of creating an editorial calendar including, defining goals, audience and platforms to coming up with ideas, strategizing and refining.
Without an organized calendar, it’s easy to get side tracked and miss the boat on important promotional deadlines.
Why Do I Need a Yearly Editorial Calendar?
A yearly editorial calendar is for anyone who publishes content online including your website, blog, email newsletter, social media, etc. It doesn’t matter whether you’re an entrepreneur, wearing many hats or are part of a small team within a larger organization, creating an editorial calendar should be an annual practice.
But, we’re not going to lie. It’s an investment of time and energy.
Whether you’re a local real estate agent wanting to raise your profile in the community or a nationwide powerhouse enterprise ready to reach a wider audience, an editorial calendar for 2019 is a must. Of course the specifics will vary based on your industry, business and audience, but these tips will help you organize your thoughts, determine relevant topics, structure a solid timeline and take action for 2019.
How To Make an Editorial Calendar for a Business Blog?
Before you can get started on creating your calendar (step 5 below), you must be prepared to complete the other steps in the process. Skip any of the steps below and you’ll decrease your chances for success.
- Define your goals.
- Identify your target audience.
- Know your platforms.
- Brainstorm ideas.
- Organize those ideas into an editorial calendar.
- Research keywords.
- Create content.
- Share it!
- Review the data.
- Revise & reshare.
Editorial Calendar Checklist
1. Define your goals.
Why is your brand creating content? Do you need to build brand awareness? Highlight expertise? Differentiate yourself from the competition? Grow your audience? Drive more traffic to your website? Generate sales?
Why would your audience be interested? Do they need help solving a specific problem? Are they looking for inspiration, motivation, entertainment? Maybe they want a look behind the scenes?
Of course, every business will have a different “why” and different characteristics that make them unique, but every successful editorial calendar will define both sets of “why” questions. Be clear on your own purpose, this will drive motivation to create relevant content on a consistent basis.
2. Know your target audience.
Who will be consuming this content? Whether they’re viewing, reading, watching, listening or commenting, you need to know them. Who they are. What they like. How they live.
In an ideal world, you’ll already know much of your audience personally. However, depending on the nature of your business, personalized relationships may not be practical, especially if your audience is new or very big.
Whether you’re a new business or large organization, one way to help you understand your audience better is to define your buyer persona. Through research you’ll identify all the information of your ideal buyer including demographics, education, career, politics, shopping habits, home environment, wants, needs and even a photograph. A buyer persona will help you make better content marketing decisions and stop wasting time on the guessing game.
Find out more about defining your buyer persona on our blog.
3. Identify your platforms.
Once you know your audience, you will have a better grasp on where they’re spending their time. Which might be in more than one place. Of course, like all marketing strategies, it’s best to evaluate your success along the way. Don’t be afraid to adjust your tactics if they’re not reaching your audience. In that same breath, don’t abandon a location until you’ve given it a fair chance. It takes time (and patience) to find and build your ideal audience.
But, the key is: You must go to them. In most cases, they’re not going to come looking for you. Are they going to respond best through email? Facebook? LinkedIn? Instagram? Twitter? Snapchat? Or a combination of these?
Check out our social media checklist on our blog!
Guess what? With the ever-changing digital world we live in, the social platforms that worked well for you in 2018, may not necessarily work as well for you in 2022. You must be well-prepared to evolve and adjust to consistently reach your audience.
Often, an editorial calendar also includes a blend of formats that suit each platform differently. For example, a post on Twitter will look and sound much different than a post on Instagram. From format and images to copy and call to actions, to share content with maximum results, you need to fine-tune these formats.
4. Brainstorm ideas.
Now comes the fun part of the process.
At this stage, allow yourself to be open to any and all ideas from your team. Start researching topics that resonate with your audience and keep it going to flow with trends, new products/services, seasonal influences, etc.
An editorial calendar is of no use without a lot of ideas to fill in the gaps.
Just make sure those ideas support your “why” (see number 1 above) and are relevant. It’s also important to note that a mix of ideas is important. Some content on your editorial calendar will be promotional, some will be newsworthy, some will be inspiring, entertaining, etc. The more ideas you have to choose from the better…. they just need to be relevant to your purpose.
No idea is too wild or crazy…so if an idea pops in your head while you’re in the shower, make sure to jot it down (after you get out of course).
5. Organize those ideas into an editorial calendar.
As you structure your editorial calendar for 2019, begin with the strongest ideas from your brainstorming session. Keep the others on hand to fill in later.
Organize all those ideas by category (for example: evergreen content, events, product/service features, “one-hit-wonders,” seasonal, announcements, third-party sharing, etc.), publication dates, deadlines and the platform(s) you’ll be sharing it on. A color-coded excel spreadsheet works well, as does a project management software, such as Asana.
During this time you’ll also need to identify who will be responsible for handling this work from A to Z. Because, as you’ve noticed up to this point, an editorial calendar is more than just one step.
It’s important to understand the scope of work that goes into editorial calendars. This includes brainstorming, researching, writing, editing, formatting the image or taking the photo, captioning, sharing, tagging, promoting, testing, engaging, analyzing, revising… and repeating.
If you’re a small business owner already wearing too many hats, content creation often ends up being too much to handle. And, if you’re a larger organization, you might find yourself spread thin with so many other business objectives to focus on, that content ends up getting pushed to the back burner. In both cases, a digital marketing agency, who specializes in content development, can be a great asset to streamline this process.
6. Research keywords.
OK, you have your plan in place. You’re organized and ready to roll. Now you just need to create that content.
Before you begin writing anything, research keywords or key phrases that will help you find what your audience is searching. Keywords are those words or phrases that you want to rank for in search engines. It also helps establish your brand as an authority on those selected keywords. So, when your audience types or speaks that keyword into a search engine, your content will appear higher up in the search results.
Based on your research, you can craft your message to include that keyword with enough frequency for Search Engine Optimization (but, not too much that you get penalized for keyword stuffing).
7. Create the content.
Your content is a direct reflection on your brand. So, ensure it is of the best quality, captures your brand identity and clearly communicates the message you want to convey. Refer back to your persona as needed to keep your audience in mind.
While you’ll want to plan your content out as far ahead as possible, a good place to start is with a couple week’s worth of content. Allow time to review your content piece, make necessary edits, add visuals, links and optimize SEO. Also allocate time to account for seasonal events and other promotions that you know will pop up from time to time.
We’ve written a lot about maximizing your website content strategy. Check it out:
10-Point SEO Checklist: Does Your Website Check All the Boxes?
Proving the ROI on Content Marketing
Build Your Personal Brand By Blogging
8. Share it!
It’s one thing to create the content, but in order for website content to be effective, that content has to be shared. This is your opportunity to spread the word with new readers, offer more value for followers, gain some serious website traction and build your brand.
- Social media.
- Direct customer emails.
- Newsletters.
- Website internal links.
- Networking.
- Print.
- More social!
As a reminder, in addition to sharing, make sure you’re also engaging. It’s not a one-way street. By responding to comments, you’ll be much more likely to build strong community relationships and get results.
9. Review the data.
Stop throwing marketing dollars at tactics that don’t get you anywhere and start being strategic about your methods. You have to know what’s working and what isn’t.
Quantify and evaluate your content’s performance on a regular basis (monthly works well) by looking at metrics such as page views, bounce rates, unique visitors, subscribers, unsubscribes, downloads, opens, clicks, performance, social media followers, likes, comments, interactions, etc.
10. Revise & reshare.
Once you have all this data at your fingertips, look for opportunities to refine and refresh.
Which posts performed the best? Take another look at your editorial calendar and determine where you can fit them in seamlessly to reshare on social or through a newsletter.
Which posts didn’t get much traction? Don’t be afraid to shake things up a bit. Recycle and refresh the content and test it out again. Especially with evergreen content, sharing it again and again should be a key component of your editorial calendar strategy for 2019.
Get Organized with an Editorial Calendar for 2019
Does all of this seem a little overwhelming? As you can see, it’s a lot more than just jotting down some notes on a paper calendar and calling it a day. At CMDS, our content marketing team creates the content (and the calendar) that fuels your brand. We’ll help you increase traffic, visibility and brand awareness.
Give us a shout at 732.706.5555 to get started.